NERW 1/28: Peter Gzowski, 1934-2002

[fybush@gwind.pair.com]

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                             January 28, 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:

*CANADA: Peter Gzowski Dies at 67
*CONNECTICUT: "Best of Everything" Goes Talk at WDRC
*NEW YORK: WBJA Signs On

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

*It may have been "The Best of Everything," but the music format that
aired for the past year or so on WDRC (1360) in Hartford and three
other Buckley Broadcasting AMs in CONNECTICUT has been replaced by
talk, effective today (Jan. 28).

Replacing the adult contemporary format, which ranged in vintage from
big-band standards to more recent tunes, is a talk lineup that
includes current WDRC morning host Brad Davis, followed by Joy Browne
and the Dolans. We hear the stations, which also include WSNG (610
Torrington), WWCO (1240 Waterbury) and WMMW (1470 Meriden), will add
the Bill O'Reilly syndicated afternoon talk show when it launches
later in the spring.

Missing from "Connecticut's World Class Talk and Information Station"
is Jack Carney, who'd made the move from oldies WDRC-FM (102.9) to the
AM side with the understanding that he'd return to FM if the music
ended on AM. Carney is doing nights on WDRC-FM again, which displaces
Glenn O'Brien from his shift.

Meanwhile down the dial, Southington's WNTY (990) has a format again,
after several months with Fox News Channel audio as a filler. "Notty
99" features station manager Charlie Profit in morning drive, with a
talk and leased-time lineup that includes some Fox News content,
Westwood One sports, Business Talk Radio and some USA Radio talk
shows. We hear Charlie's also looking for salespeople as WNTY
relaunches.

On the TV side, WVIT (Channel 30) is losing morning anchor Natalie
Morales, but it's all within the NBC family: she'll join MSNBC as a
reporter beginning March 11.

And we hear WFSB (Channel 3) may be near a deal with the YES Network
to put about 10 Yankees games on the CBS affiliate this season.

*We'll detour next to CANADA to report the sad news of Peter Gzowski's
death last Thursday (Jan. 24), a result of the chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease and emphysema that followed a lifetime of smoking.

Gzowski first came to attention in the late sixties as the youngest
editor ever named at Maclean's magazine, but his broadcast career
began in 1971, when he joined CBC Radio as host of a new nationwide
show called "This Country in the Morning."

He left CBC Radio a few years later for an ill-fated stint on CBC-TV
as the uncomfortable host of "90 Minutes Live," then returned to
writing before rejoining CBC Radio in 1982 to host "Morningside."

It was in that role, from the fall of 1982 until the show ended in
1997, that Gzowski became the unofficial voice of Canada, conducting
tens of thousand of interviews with everyone from prime ministers to
the most average of Canadians. 

A typical "Morningside" show was as likely to include a call for
favorite pie recipes as an interview with a political leader or
literary luminary. Gzowski's commitment to documenting the quirks and
distinctions of Canadian society came through in the contests the show
ran, including one for the best completion of the phrase "As Canadian
as..." (The eventual winner: "As Canadian as possible, under the
circumstances.")

Gzowski never left the world of print, either, compiling several
volumes of "Morningside Papers" and several other Canadian
best-sellers, most recently "A Peter Gzowski Reader," a compilation of
his columns for the Globe and Mail and other recent articles.

Gzowski had also returned to TV after the end of "Morningside,"
hosting occasional specials for CBC television and radio.

He was 67 years old, and was survived by his ex-wife, five children
and his longtime companion, Gillian Howard.

*In other news from around Toronto, Brian Master and CHFI (98.1)
parted ways this month, with Bill Gable replacing Master in the midday
slot at the AC outlet. 

Up in Toronto's northern suburbs, CKDX (88.5 Newmarket) is trying
something new - or should that be "old" - by ditching its rhythmic
oldies format to play standards, still as "Foxy 88.5." The station is
planning a power boost to better compete against CHWO (740), which
just celebrated its first anniversary on the old CBL clear-channel
signal.

Pat Cardinal has a new job. The former Toronto PD is now out in
Vancouver, as GM/PD of "X104.9," CKVX.

We've been remiss in failing to mention a bit of news that came our
way a couple of weeks ago: Toronto jazz station CJRT (91.1) is getting
a new program director, and Toronto's gain is Rochester's loss: the
new hire is Eric Gruner, who's done a stellar job with limited
resources in bringing jazz to the Flower City as operations director
of WGMC (90.1 Greece). 

Eric starts at CJRT next week; his very big shoes have yet to be
filled at WGMC, where he will be deeply missed.

Beyond Toronto, we hear the religious station on 99.5 in Brantford is
now on the air, with Bruce Elving's FMedia! reporting the calls as
CFWC. Bruce also reports the calls for the new university station at
Ste.-Foy QC as CIIM on 96.9.

And up in Bracebridge, CFBG (100.9) gets permission to boost power
from 2900 watts to 12 kW with a frequency change to 99.5.

*Back to the states we'll go, with some morning show developments in
MAINE. The Bangor Daily News reports some folks in town aren't happy
about the change a few weeks ago that ousted local morning hosts
Charles Horne and Lee Jonason from talker WVOM (103.9 Howland) in
favor of "Maine in the Morning" with former WKCG (101.3 Augusta)
morning team Mike Violette and Eric Leimbach. 

The new show comes from Augusta, and is being heard over the "Voice of
Maine" talk network Clear Channel created at WVOM, WHQO (107.9
Skowhegan) and WCME (96.7 Boothbay Harbor). 

(We're more than a little bit puzzled by the Web site at
thevoiceofmaine.com; nowhere to be found are the calls or frequencies
of the stations being promoted!)

Meanwhile at WEBB (98.5 Waterville), morning host Jenny Judge, aka Pat
LaMarche, is suing the Brewer police officer who arrested her in 1999
on charges of drunk driving. That arrest, which LaMarche describes as
"unjustified," came two years after another, successful drunk driving
conviction that cost her her job as morning co-host at Portland's WGAN
(560). In the meantime, LaMarche ran on the Green Party ticket for
governor in 1998; ironically, her lawyer in this suit is Tom Connolly,
her Democratic opponent in that race.

On the TV side, most Mainers will still be able to see the Patriots
win the Super Bowl next weekend (oops, is our bias showing again?)
despite the lack of a broadcast Fox outlet in the Pine Tree
State. Portland's WGME (Channel 13) will pick up the game from Fox,
with its usual CBS lineup diverted to UPN outlet WPME (Channel 35) for
the night. In Bangor, low-power WCKD-LP (Channel 30) will take the
game as part of its Fox Sports contract, and up north and down east
they'll need cable (or perhaps a good antenna aimed at a Canadian
Global affiliate) to see the big game.

Speaking of Maine TV, WLBZ (Channel 2) anchor Donna Gormley is leaving
the Bangor NBC affiliate to work for John Baldacci's gubernatorial
campaign.

*From NEW HAMPSHIRE comes word that the WBNC calls aren't leaving
Conway after all. Thanks to our Canadian correspondent Sam Ward for
bringing us confirmation that the applied-for WXMT calls are not being
used at AM 1050. The station continues to simulcast FM 104.5, which
did change calls from WBNC-FM to WVMJ as AC "Magic 104.5."

And we heard from Al Sprague at the New Hampshire Association of
Broadcasters, clarifying last week's report on New Hampshire Public
Radio's decision to leave the NHAB. He points out that New Hampshire
has had a state lottery since 1963; what he and the association did
was to sign a letter that said "we feel this revenue source (gambling)
should be considered as a portion of the solution" to shortfalls in
the state budget.

"We did this in an attempt to take business taxes off the table,"
Sprague tells NERW, "since our members were hit with increases in both
major business taxes in the last legislative session."

*In MASSACHUSETTS, Jack Lawrence is out of his afternoon drive slot at
WBOS (92.9 Brookline), with no replacement named yet at the Greater
Media modern AC outlet.

Down on the Cape, Pax is applying to build a new tower next to its
existing one north of Hyannis for WDPX (Channel 58) and the
yet-unbuilt WDPX-DT (Channel 40). They'll share a directional panel
antenna when the stick is completed.

At WBUR-FM (90.9 Boston), the "Special Coverage" nightly news program
that launched in the wake of September 11 has a new name. Tom Ashbrook
continues to host the renamed "On Point," heard weeknights from 7
until 9 on WBUR and several other stations around the country.

And we're sorry to report the passing of John Willis, the first host
of WCVB's "Good Day" in the seventies and the father of John "J.W."
Willis, current morning host at WKLB-FM (99.5 Lowell). Willis died
last Wednesday (Jan. 23) in Baltimore, we're told.

*We'll start our NEW YORK news with a new station on the air in the
Rochester area. WBJA (102.1 Albion) signed on sometime last week (it
was first reported to us on Tuesday), carrying Calvary Satellite
Network programming with a signal that's far better than we'd expected
from a low stick class A some 35 miles west of Rochester, co-channel
with a high-power signal from Toronto's CN Tower.

Yet WBJA is coming in just fine here at NERW Central, complete with
legal IDs claiming service to "Niagara," which does seem a bit
unlikely to us, especially with a null in their directional antenna
out that way. We'll check the signal out in more detail when next we
head to Toronto next month...

Other Rochester-area FM news: WMJQ (105.5 Brockport) held a public
hearing in the town of Hamlin last week on its proposal to build a new
tower on Brick Schoolhouse Road to replace its existing inadequate
site on the towers of WASB (1590 Brockport). 

Since you read NERW, you knew about this proposal last October; it was
news, apparently, to the local daily, which reported the story as
though WMJQ were a brand new station that has yet to sign on, somehow
omitting any mention of the station's frequency in the process. (Full
disclosure: Mrs. NERW is a copy editor at said daily, and your editor
is appropriately indebted to her for things like a roof and food. That
said, the radio coverage there is still the weakest of any major paper
in the region, especially compared to bright lights such as Mark
McGuire in Albany and Alan Pergament in Buffalo.)

We'll let you know what happens as that application progresses; for
now, let the record show that 105.5 is on the air as a simulcast of
WASB and WRSB (1310 Canandaigua), which it's been doing since it first
signed on back in December 1998. Hey, we're here to serve...

One more Rochester FM note: Clear Channel afterthought WLCL (107.3
South Bristol) filed for a license to cover this week for its
transmitter move, from the Bloomfield site it's long called home (with
6000 watts at 93 meters AAT, about 20 miles south of Rochester) to the
Bristol Mountain site recently abandoned by sister WNVE (95.1 Honeoye
Falls), where it will use 650 watts at 303 meters above average
terrain.

The move is likely to weaken WLCL's signal in Rochester even further,
but it's a sacrifice that was needed in order to move WNVE closer into
town. (WNVE was licensed to South Bristol, but it needed to trade for
WLCL's Honeoye Falls city of license to make that tower move possible,
blanketing Rochester with a full-market class B signal.)

Informal monitoring here at NERW Central suggests WLCL is still using
the Bloomfield site as we write this (which is to say, we can still
hear the station here!); we'll keep an ear on the channel to see what
happens next.

On the AM side, several weekend radio fixtures in Rochester are
shifting. We'd been remiss in not mentioning the move made last
December by "Sound Bytes," the Saturday-afternoon computer talk show
that ran on public radio WXXI (1370) for almost 12 years. 

Hosts Nick Francesco, Dave Enright and Steve Rea moved the show to
WHAM (1180) to take advantage of a longer timeslot (12:25 to 2 PM) and
syndication opportunities through Clear Channel; WXXI says it plans to
launch a new tech show later this year in the old "Sound Bytes" slot,
now occupied by "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." (That sounds like a job
we'd be very interested in, come to think about it...)

WHAM is also saying goodbye to Kelly Badger, who moves from that
newsroom to the assignment desk at Fox affiliate WUHF (Channel
31). (More full disclosure: Kelly was an intern under your editor at
another local TV station a few years back...)

And there's still more weekend shuffling: Michael Warren Thomas, who's
leased the weekend morning hours on WHTK (1280) for a batch of
hour-long shows that cover cooking, gardening, wine, travel and
antiques, moved his lineup down the dial to WYSL (1040 Avon) this past
weekend. His shows run from 9 until noon on Saturdays, 10 till noon on
Sundays.

There's more LPFM news from around the state, in addition to the
Hudson grant last week that we erroneously reported as New York's
first. WKUY-LP (105.9 Newport) and two without calls (94.3 in
Jefferson and 93.5 in Central Islip) also hold construction permits,
and now the Finger Lakes Regional Arts Council in Geneva joins them,
as the FCC approves its application for 100 watts on 105.7 there.

Up north, it's a big upgrade for WLPW (105.5 Lake Placid), as the FCC
grants a construction permit for the station to jump from a 3 kW class
A facility to a 25 kW class C3 facility. The transmitter stays in the
Nardiello family's back yard in Lake Placid, on a tower shared with
WIRD (920), but height above average terrain jumps a bit, from -72
meters to -59 meters. (OK, make that height below average terrain!)

If you can't hear it now, a DX test probably won't help you much, but
just in case WGY (810 Schenectady) has somehow escaped your DX log,
the Clear Channel clear channel station will conduct a test on Sunday
morning, February 24, from 2-4 AM under the auspices of the National
Radio Club. DX tests normally involve a station using its daytime
facilities and power, but since WGY is 50 kW non-directional all the
time, we'll have to settle for special IDs at :03, :32 and :58 past
the hour, possibly in Morse Code. Reports should go to Greg Foster,
program director, at One Washington Square, Albany NY 12205 - and be
sure to thank him for his support of the DX hobby!

Downstate, WRNN (Channel 62) in Kingston won permission to change its
digital TV allocation, moving from channel 21 to channel 48. The move
is good news for Long Island public broadcaster WLIW, which gets to
avoid interference to its analog signal on 21. It's good news for WRNN
as well, which will be able to move its transmitter further south in
the Hudson Valley to better serve its true target market of New York
City and suburbs. But it's very bad news for WKOB-LP in New York,
which recently paid more than a million dollars at auction to move
from channel 53, where it's being displaced by New York DTV already,
to channel 48. Since WKOB was recently denied "Class A" status, it has
no protection from further DTV moves, and it appears WRNN's move will
knock WKOB-LP off the air completely.

*Not much NEW JERSEY news this week; we have late word that WGYM (1580
Hammonton) is dropping its short-lived ESPN sports format to return to
a simulcast of WOND (1400 Pleasantville) and news-talk. 

Over at the Millennium group, Andy Santoro adds GM duties at WKXW and
WBUD in Trenton to his executive responsibilities; he replaces WKXW GM
John Dziuba.

*PENNSYLVANIA was quiet this week, too; in fact, the only news we
could find in the Keystone State was an application from Altoona
country station WFGY (98.1) to add a 50-watt booster in downtown
Johnstown. 

If it's granted, WFGY-1 will operate from the roof of the Promistar
Bank building, right next to sister Forever station WUZI (105.7
Portage)'s booster, WUZI-1. 

*One more thing before we leave you this week: if you have a good
local newsstand, you just might want to head over and check out the
February issue of Monitoring Times magazine. 

It's always worth reading anyway, but we're particularly proud of the
cover photo. Yes, that's the WHO (1040) tower in Des Moines,
photographed at sunset last June by your editor as part of the Big
Trip that we chronicled on Tower Site of the Week. 

Those of you who ordered the Tower Site Calendar 2002 may also
recognize this image from the inside back cover. Next up...the poster?
the coffee mug? Stay tuned...and we'll see you next week.

-----------------------NorthEast Radio Watch------------------------
                       (c)2002 Scott Fybush
                          www.fybush.com

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