NERW 3/25: CHR WINKs Out in Harrisburg

[fybush@gwind.pair.com]

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                              March 25, 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:

*PENNSYLVANIA: WINK Leaves Harrisburg CHR War
*CONNECTICUT: New AM for Waterbury
*CANADA: Johnny Lombardi Dies at 86

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

*Over the last few years, we've seen Clear Channel enter plenty of
markets in NERW-land (and beyond) with "Kiss"-branded CHR stations,
often challenging entrenched CHR competitors. But it's rare to see one
of those competitors change course as quickly as in Harrisburg,
PENNSYLVANIA, where Cumulus pulled the plug on CHR at "Wink 104" (WNNK
104.1) last week after more than a decade and a half in the format.

The move comes less than a year after Clear Channel flipped oldies
WWKL-FM (99.3) to "Kiss" as WHKF; despite a much smaller signal, WHKF
had pulled even with WNNK in the 12+ numbers by the most recent
book. It didn't help, either, that WNNK parted ways with afternoon
host Bruce Bond, one of the market's best-known personalities, last
winter. (We hear Bond just might resurface in the market as an AM
talker once his non-compete expires, by the way...)

WNNK is still "Wink 104," but it's competing in the hot AC arena now,
offering up "The Best Music of the 80s, 90s and Today" and adding
older tracks by Celine Dion and the like to the playlist. 

Moving east, Reading's WEEU (830) is reaching more of southeastern
Pennsylvania these days, with a power boost last week that took the
station's daytime signal from 5 kilowatts all the way to 20. The
increase is giving WEEU a cleaner shot into Philadelphia during
daylight hours; with 6 kW at night, WEEU remains limited to the
immediate Reading and Berks County area after dark, though.

Philadelphia's WMWX (Mix 95.7) shifted some air talent this week,
moving Rick Stacy to mornings and Danny Meyers to Stacy's old
afternoon shift. The station also adjusted its music mix a bit, edging
more towards hot AC.

A bit of radio history died last week with the passing, at age 95, of
the Rev. Dr. Carl McIntire. He was best known, perhaps, as the rabidly
right-wing preacher whose "Reformation Hour" was heard on the radio
from the 1960s until his recent retirement, but in radio circles he'll
be forever known for the license revocation of WXUR and WXUR-FM in
Media, near Philadelphia, in 1973.

The FCC revoked the stations' licenses after finding they had violated
the (now-defunct) Fairness Doctrine by refusing to present the views
of those opposed to McIntire's fiery anti-Communist, anti-modernist
editorials. After the stations were silenced (the AM frequency, 690,
reappeared later in the seventies as WPHE Phoenixville, while the FM
side remained dark until 1983 when it reappeared as WKSZ, now WPLY),
McIntire moved his operation to a ship anchored off the New Jersey
shore, from which he operated on 1160 kHz for a few days until a fire
broke out and destroyed much of the equipment.

McIntire never attempted to return to radio ownership after that, but
his commentaries continued to air (most recently on WTMR in Camden)
until he ceased producing them three years ago. He died Tuesday (March
19) in Voorhees, N.J.

*Moving across to NEW JERSEY, the FCC has approved one of the
longest-delayed transactions on the table: the sale of WNJO (94.5
Trenton) and WCHR (920 Trenton) from Great Scott Broadcasting to
Nassau. The approval came as part of the Commission's attempt to clear
a backlog of transactions that had been flagged for
market-concentration issues; while WNJO-WCHR and four other old
transactions were greenlighted, the FCC told Clear Channel it could
not acquire WUMX in Charlottesville, Virginia, setting up a potential
new round of challenges to the Commission's still-vague concentration
guidelines. As for WNJO and WCHR, Nassau has been operating them under
an LMA for so long that most people in the market probably thought the
deal had long since gone through.

Across town, New Jersey 101.5 (WKXW-FM Trenton and WKXW Atlantic City)
are getting ready to drop the oldies that have long occupied the
overnight hours, replacing them with local talk and leaving oldies to
weekends only.

*Moving into NEW YORK, the FCC gave the green light to another delayed
ownership transfer, approving Cumulus' acquisition of the Aurora
cluster in the New York City suburbs. 

In the city, Joan Rivers exits WOR (710) and the WOR Radio Network
just ahead of the schedule change that would have pushed her show back
into the late-night hours. Could this be the first sign of bigger
changes at the station and the network, under the new leadership of PD
John Mainelli?

While Ed Levine hasn't completed the move of WHTR (93.5 Corinth) into
the Albany market quite yet, his engineers raised some eyebrows last
week when the FCC Daily Digest carried a notice that an application
for the move to 93.7 in Scotia had been dismissed "at the applicant's
request." 

Not to worry; that was simply a proposal to slightly modify the height
on the still-valid CP to move WHTR to an 1150-watt signal from the
Schenectady suburb. Another obstacle to the move has been cleared as
well: Northeast Gospel Broadcasters' application for a change in
frequency to their proposed Scotia translator of WNGN (91.9 Argyle)
has been withdrawn. W288BD was granted on 105.5, with the proposal for
93.7 now off the table.

Need more evidence that the whole FM allocations procedure is
completely broken? Probably not, but here's some anyway: Sacred Heart
University went back to the FCC asking for a re-examination of the
decision that allocated 102.5A to Rhinebeck, N.Y. instead of the
university's proposal to give the frequency to North Canaan,
Connecticut. SHU's argument runs like this: when the FCC gave
Rhinebeck preference, it did so because Rhinebeck has 7,558 people
while North Canaan has 3,350. But, the university argues, that's the
Town of Rhinebeck with a population of more than 7,558 - and the FCC
should have been considering the Village of Rhinebeck, which has 3,077
people and is thus smaller than North Canaan! 

The FCC didn't buy it, ruling last week that the new allocations will
stand, but the sheer amount of bureaucratic energy being expended on
such nonsense should be an indication that there has to be a better
way to make sense of the FM dial - or at least to account for the very
different definitions of "Town" and "Village" in different parts of
the country.

LPFM news: the FCC granted two new LP-100s this week in the Empire
State. Limestone Community Radio gets 104.7 in Limestone (just north
of the Pennsylvania line near Olean), while Arcade Christian
Broadcasting Corporation will get to put 100.3 on the air in Arcade, a
half-hour or so east of Buffalo in Wyoming County.

Rich Stevens is out as morning co-host at WLLW (99.3 Seneca Falls); no
word on a replacement at "the Wall," and we hear Stevens is looking
for work in the region.

In Binghamton, the transformation of standards WKOP (1360) into oldies
WYOS displaced Hank Sommers' Saturday night standards/jazz show, but
not to fear; it's resurfaced on sister station WNBF (1290), with a
better signal to boot.

The RTNDA handed out this year's regional Edward R. Murrow awards last
week, and nearly all the winners in Region 11 (New York/New
Jersey/Pennsylvania) were from New York. In the large-market radio
category, WINS took home awards for overall excellence and spot news
(for 9/11 coverage); WNYC won the prizes for best newscast, best
feature and best documentary and WCBS won for best use of sound.
Philadelphia was represented for continuing coverage and writing (both
to KYW) and best news series (WHTT).

In the small markets, Schenectady's WGY dominated, winning prizes for
overall excellence, spot news and continuing coverage. Rochester's
WHAM took home the best newscast award, and Albany's WAMC won for best
news series.

*CONNECTICUT is getting a new AM station on an old frequency. It's
been almost exactly ten years since WQQW (1590 Waterbury) went silent;
soon, though, listeners in that area will have a new 1590 facility,
licensed to nearby Oakville.

The just-granted station, owned by Puerto Rico-based "Fair
Communications Community," will run 500 watts day, 220 watts at night
from a two-tower array just west of Route 8 on Frost Bridge Road, a
few miles north of Waterbury. The pattern will aim vaguely northwest
by day; at night, it will be a figure-eight aimed north and south, a
far cry from the huge signal WQQW used to pump out before being bought
by New York's WWRL and taken silent.

*MASSACHUSETTS is also getting a new station, as New Bedford Christian
Radio finally wins its long-sought construction permit for 88.1 in New
Bedford. The 300 watt, vertical-only signal will come from 41 meters
above average terrain from a site near the WJFD (97.3) tower just east
of Sconticut Neck Road in Fairhaven.

WBZ-TV (Channel 4) is pulling the plug on its 7 PM newscast on sister
station WSBK (Channel 38). It'll be replaced next month with a 10 PM
show on WSBK, the second time in a decade that WBZ has produced a 10
o'clock newscast for WSBK. 

Congratulations to Peter Smyth; the former head of Greater Media's
Boston stations was promoted last week from President/COO of the
entire company to President/CEO.

Congratulations as well to perennial award-winner WATD (95.9
Marshfield), which cleaned up in the small-market division of the
Region 10 (New England) regional Murrows. WATD took home six prizes,
including overall excellence and best newscast; down the Cape,
newcomer WCAI/WNAN won two prizes, for best news series and best use
of sound. 

In the large markets, we suspect a dearth of entries, since several
categories had no prize awarded. Boston's WBUR won the only four
categories in which there was a winner: continuing coverage, use of
sound, sports reporting and Web site.

*A pioneer in CANADA's multilingual broadcasting scene has
died. Johnny Lombardi had to fight hard to get the CRTC to approve a
station in a language other than English or French, but he won the
license for CHIN in Toronto in 1966, eventually expanding to two
full-time services on AM and FM, a new construction permit in Ottawa
and a weekend schedule of TV (via CITY-TV Toronto), in a total of more
than 30 languages.

Lombardi, who remained a vibrant presence at CHIN and in Toronto's
Italian community well into his eighties, died Monday (March 18) at
86. His family continues to own the CHIN stations.

Over at jazz CJRT (91.1 Toronto), Ted O'Reilly exits after 37 years,
most recently as the station's afternoon host.

And up in Montreal, Videotron Cable is asking the CRTC for permission
to stop carrying CJOH-TV-8 (Channel 8) from Cornwall, Ontario. The
move was inevitable, since CJOH's Ottawa-based programming is nearly
identical to Montreal's own CFCF (Channel 12), now that both are owned
by CTV. But it ends a very long saga that began back in the early
sixties, when channel 8 was CJSS-TV, a valiant attempt to rimshot
Montreal (and northern New York) with a local TV signal from
Cornwall. CJSS-TV didn't last long, and by the mid-sixties it was
already relaying CJOH, but it's nice to think of what could have
been...

*There's still snow on the ground here at NERW Central, but we can
just about taste the hot dogs as baseball season gets underway in just
a few short days. We've had several requests for major-league network
information, and here's what we can tell you so far for 2002:

The RED SOX continue on WEEI (850 Boston) as their flagship, and we
haven't heard about any major changes to the Sox network. WTIC (1080
Hartford) remains the key link between the Sox and fans to the west,
beyond the reach of the WEEI signal. The only change we notice since
the start of last season is WSMN (1590 Nashua), which joined the Sox
network at the All-Star break last season. 

Spanish Sox broadcasts do shift this year, moving to WKOX (1200
Framingham), WMSX (1410 Brockton), WHAV (1490 Haverhill), WLYN (1360
Lynn), WSPR (1270 Springfield) and WORC (1310 Worcester), not one of
which has a decent signal at Fenway. Also on the Spanish network are
WRIB (1220 Providence) and WPRX (1120 Bristol CT) - and something on
the Sox site shown as "WBKG 1110 Bridgeport," which corresponds to
nothing we've ever heard of. A pirate on the network?

Sox TV coverage continues on WFXT (channel 25) and NESN, with a
handful of regional TV stations (WCTX in Connecticut, WPME, WABI and
WBGR-CA in Maine and WVBX-LP in upstate New York) picking up some
games.

What - there are other teams to follow besides the Sox? We won't be
rooting for anyone else, but if you're a Mets fan, you'll find them in
the final year of their contract with WFAN (660 New York). WADO (1280)
handles the Spanish broadcasts this year, with TV coverage on WPIX,
Fox Sports New York and MSG. No word yet on the network beyond New
York...

The Yankees move this year, gone from WABC (770) in favor of WCBS
(880), in a new deal with the Yankees' own YES network. We're still
waiting to see who else is on the radio network this year; we'll
provide a list as soon as the Yankees come through with one. On the TV
side, it's the YES network, now available on cable in most of New York
State (except Long Island's Cablevision system) and the metro
area. WCBS-TV (Channel 2) takes a few games this year, as well.

The Phillies also have a new home, losing the 50 kW blowtorch WPHT
(1210) in favor of the 5 kW WPEN (950) signal. Filling some of the
gaps in the suburbs (and beyond) where WPEN doesn't reach are a few
new affiliates, including WCOJ (1420 Coatesville), WBCB (1490
Levittown-Fairless Hills), WKAP (1470 Allentown), WHLM (930
Bloomsburg) and the strong new WEEU (830 Reading) signal.

TV shows up on WPSG (Channel 57) and Comcast Sports Network, with WSWB
in Scranton and WLYH in Lebanon also picking up some games.

The Pirates enter their 83rd season on KDKA (1020). No word on any
network changes here yet, either; TV this year is mostly Fox Sports
Pittsburgh, with a few games on WCWB (Channel 22).

Across the border, the Blue Jays move from CHUM (1050) to CJCL (Fan
590), which is now co-owned with the team. No network list has been
released yet, but we suspect the team won't be on CHML (900), which
has long been the reliable Jays source for fans outside greater
Toronto. The TV schedule is spread out among Rogers Sportsnet, TSN and
the CBC.

And the Expos are still playing baseball in Montreal, with games in
French on CKAC (730) and the Radiomedia Quebec network and in English
on CKGM (Team 990). We'd expect at least some TV games on Reseau de
Sports and Radio-Canada, but the team isn't saying so just yet.

We still have a few weeks until the minors start playing, so stay
tuned for those stations as we nail them down...and Play Ball!

*Finally, we received several answers to last week's trivia musing,
which had to do with Binghamton radio. We had noted that until this
month, all four Binghamton AMs (WINR, WNBF, WKOP and WENE) were using
the same calls they'd had in the fifties, and asked if there were any
other markets that could claim the same sort of persistence.

Several of you mentioned Springfield, which offers WHYN, WSPR and
WMAS, as well as WHMP in nearby Northampton, and that's not bad
(although that market has a few stations with changed calls, including
WNNZ 640, ex-WDEW 1570; WACM 1490, ex-WTXL; WHNP 1600, ex-WTYM and, of
course, the now defunct WBZA 1030!)

The other "almost" entry is Hartford, where WTIC, WDRC and WPOP are
still using the same old calls. WCCC (1290) almost made a fourth
before changing its calls to WTMI last month, and there are the
suburban entries (WRYM 840, ex-WKNB; WLAT-910, ex-WHAY; et al) to
consider. 

Thanks for playing - and we'll see you again next Monday!

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

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