NERW 12/24 - WHTR Makes Its Move

[fybush@gwind.pair.com]

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                            December 24, 2001

IN THIS ISSUE:

*NEW YORK: WHTR Approved for Scotia Move
*PENNSYLVANIA: WURP Goes Dark
*NEW HAMPSHIRE: Jaxon Lands at Shark

-----------------------------by Scott Fybush-----------------------------
-------------------------<http://www.fybush.com>-------------------------

*A short issue this week, as we all settle in for the holidays (and
get ready for all those all-Christmas stations to go back to their
regular formats!)...

*We start this week in NEW YORK's Capital District, where Ed Levine's
Galaxy Communications was cleared to put its newest signal on the air
this week. 

The FCC finally granted the application to move WHTR from 93.5 in
Corinth, in the Glens Falls market, south to Scotia (near Schenectady)
on 93.7. Why the delay? According to WHTR's FCC filing, the FAA has
been so busy with other matters since September 11 that it's been
unable to process a request to raise the existing tower where WHTR
hopes to put its 93.7 signal.

Rather than wait, WHTR modified its application slightly, specifying a
new antenna height of 218 meters (down from the original proposal for
224 meters above average terrain), but maintaining the proposed 1.15
kW power. The new height will allow WHTR to proceed immediately with
the application, since the tower in question, just southeast of the
Thruway near Rotterdam Junction, won't need to be raised.

NERW suspects the new WHTR signal will be on the air just as soon as
the new 2-bay antenna can be mounted and a studio-transmitter link
established; we strongly suspect this one will be a relay of the
hard rock format that's been running for the last few months on WKLI
(94.5 Ravena), on the south side of the Albany market.

WHTR's move is accompanied by a change in city of license for WFFG-FM
(107.1); it swaps Hudson Falls for Corinth, though without changing
its technical facilities, thus preserving the idea that Corinth is
somehow being provided with "local" radio service.

One more Albany note before we head on: over at Clear Channel's WRVE
(99.5 Schenectady), Kevin Rush moves from overnights to afternoon
drive, while PD Randy McCarten moves from afternoons to
middays.

*Up north - way up north - Paul Smith's College, deep in the
Adirondacks, has its radio station back. WPSA (98.3 Paul Smiths) was
deleted a couple of years ago after apparently neglecting to file an
application for license renewal; the FCC finally bowed to repeated
petitions this week and reinstated the little Class D license, thus
restoring a signal to a very radio-poor area.

Down in the Finger Lakes, the latest application to put channel 52 on
the air in Ithaca calls for 5 megawatts from 405 meters above average
terrain, from a new tower near Bear Swamp Road, east of route 41A on
the west shore of Skaneateles Lake. This long-unbuilt CP belongs to
Bill Smith, half of the couple that owns WNGS (Channel 67) over in
Springville, south of Buffalo. 

Up in Orleans County, on the shore of Lake Ontario between Rochester
and Niagara Falls, the Calvary folks applied for a license to cover
this week for WBJA (102.1 Albion); we've yet to hear from anyone who's
received this signal, and here in Rochester we're still getting
Toronto's CFNY on the same frequency, which blankets Orleans County
with a city-grade signal from the CN Tower.