NERW 6/10: WICC Drops Music, WPXT Drops News

[fybush@gwind.pair.com]

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                               June 10, 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:

*MAINE: WPXT Cancels 10PM News
*CONNECTICUT: The Music Stops at WICC
*NEW YORK: A Resolution to WFUV's Tower Dilemma?

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

LATE UPDATE! There's about to be one fewer local TV news operation in
MAINE. Sinclair announced Tuesday that it will pull the plug on local
news at WB affiliate WPXT (Channel 51) and UPN affiliate WPME (Channel
35) in the Portland market. "Our Maine News," which aired at 10 PM on
both stations, will broadcast its last newscast this Friday.

The Pegasus-owned duopoly dropped its Fox affiliation (on WPXT) last
year, and has been struggling with the region's poor economy since
then. A 7 PM newscast launched last fall on WPXT was soon cancelled
due to poor ratings, and the ratings for the 10 PM show have suffered
as well.

WPXT had been doing news for nearly a decade.

(NERW would, of course, love to hear from anyone up Maine way who
could tape the last WPXT news for us...drop us a line!)

*For years, we've pointed to WICC (600) in Bridgeport, CONNECTICUT as
an example of full-service radio at its best - music, news and talk
all combined to create a top-rated, locally-responsive AM radio
station. As of this morning (Monday), that's history.

WICC eliminated its weekday music as part of a station overhaul that
includes new sounders and the station's first jingles in nearly a
decade. John LaBarca stays in mornings with Tim Quinn, but now it's
purely a news/talk block, followed by an hour of talk with Quinn at 9
and two hours of the syndicated Neal Boortz show from 10 until noon,
replacing the Terry Michaels midday show (Michaels has left the
station, we're told, but will do fill-in work at other Cumulus
stations in the region)

Chris Conley will still do an hour of news at noon, but now that's
followed by the syndicated Clark Howard show from 1 until 4. Fred
Ebert remains on the schedule from 4-7 PM, followed by Yankees
baseball or Laura Ingraham's syndicated show. We'll be sorry to see
WICC turn into a more typical 21st century medium-market AM station;
we still think there's room for a full-service format in this day and
age.

*Sliding over to NEW YORK, it looks as though there may finally be a
resolution to the long-running fight between WFUV (90.7 New York) and
the New York Botanical Garden, which has been battling WFUV's attempts
to build a new self-supporting tower next door.

With the FCC as mediator, WFUV and the Botanical Garden are holding
two public hearings on Thursday, June 27, to hear comments on a plan
to reduce the height of the WFUV antenna from the planned 480 feet to
380 feet.

Will WFUV finally get to finish building the tower that's been sitting
half-finished for years now? Will wealthy Garden supporters come
forward with money to build WFUV a new tower elsewhere, as several
well-founded rumors are suggesting? Stay tuned...

Over in Manhattan, WNEW (102.7 New York) has another headache on top
of the still-smoldering feud between Opie and Anthony and Don and Mike
- a $21,000 notice of apparent liability from the FCC for several
over-the-top O'n'A bits aired before the duo went into syndication. Of
particular note: one of the citations stems from a listener's
allegation that's not backed up with a tape, marking the first time
the FCC has utilized its new policy putting the onus on broadcasters
to prove they didn't air offensive material.

The Rev. Dr. Philius Nicholas got an FCC letter this week, too; the
Brooklyn man was cited for operating a pirate on 88.1. (NERW says: one
more down, 998 to go...)

Heading upstate, those who remember the days of local Rockland County
radio on WRKL (910 New City) now have a place to congregate: a "Keep
it on the R" tribute site is now up at
http://users.bestweb.net/~kiotr/, complete with pictures and sound
clips that range from WRKL's first broadcast to its last in English.

Over in Orange County, WTBQ (1110 Warwick) replaces the
regionally-networked Adrian Flannelly Irish show on Saturdays with a
local show called "Drop of the Irish," airing from 11 until 12:10 on
Saturday mornings.

There's a new morning show at Clear Channel's "Kiss" in Poughkeepsie
(WPKF 96.1 Poughkeepsie and WFKP 99.3 Ellenville); the station is
taking Premiere's syndicated "T-Man" offering.

WENT (1340 Gloversville) made it back on the air, using the remaining
stub of its tornado-downed tower to serve Gloversville and Johnstown
all last week. A replacement tower is on its way, and WENT hopes to be
back at full strength soon.

As Ackerley's TV stations head into Clear Channel ownership (or
eventual resale), there's some shuffling taking place at several of
the smaller stations in the upstate New York cluster. WIVT (Channel
34) in Binghamton and WWTI (Channel 50) in Watertown abruptly
cancelled their early-morning and midday newscasts last week,
replacing them with network and syndicated offerings (WWTI cancelled
its weekend shows as well) and laying off several staff members.

WIVT says it will be the hub for a new regional morning news show to
begin airing July 8 (presumably over sister stations WUTR in Utica and
WETM in Elmira as well), but we have to wonder whether anyone in
Watertown cares about Binghamton news, or vice versa...

Binghamton polka legend Bill Mack (Surmik) died last Saturday (June 1)
at Wilson Memorial Regional Medical Center in Binghamton. Mack, whose
program began on WKOP in 1962 and ended on WNBF in 1999 (though his
daughter Barb now fills the shift), was 85.

Up here in Rochester, "Big Dog Country" now has appropriate calls: the
former WNNR (103.5 Sodus) became WUUF last week. (Freckles the NERW
Wonder Dog says "Woof!" to that...)

Country competitor WBEE-FM (92.5 Rochester), and Entercom sister
stations WBBF (950 Rochester/93.3 Fairport) and WBZA (98.9 Rochester),
will soon be doing its thing from a new home. After decades at Midtown
Plaza, most recently on the fifth and sixth floors of the B. Forman
Building, Entercom is moving its cluster to the High Falls
entertainment district. The new storefront studios at 192 Mill Street
will be right behind the offices of public broadcaster WXXI. (and
WBZA's even got actual on-air personalities to fill its studio window,
after more than a year of automation, with former WMAX-FM/WVOR jock
Michael Gately handling middays and an afternoon jock on the way!)

On the TV side, LPTV W59BV in Rochester, which carries the TCT
religious network, is running a crawl announcing its impending move to
channel 42, clearing the way for the eventual WOKR-DT on channel
59. Perhaps W59BV will fix its transmitter when it moves; right now,
the video level is set so high that the picture is mostly white!

More LPTV news: "Big TV" (WBGT-CA Channel 40 and W26BZ) is picking up
the "Students First" show from the Rochester City School
District. Previously seen only in the city on cable, the show will air
Sunday mornings at 6 on WBGT, which now has full cable carriage
throughout Time Warner's Rochester system.

And there are new calls for Family Life Network's 89.5 CP in Arcade,
east of Buffalo: mark down WCOF(FM) for that one when it makes its
debut.

*Heading down to PENNSYLVANIA, say goodbye to religious WPGP (88.3
Tafton); after just four months on the air, the Sound of Life outlet
rimshotting Scranton has lost its tower site and gone dark. We hear
the site-lease problem is also forcing oldies WQFM (92.1 Nanticoke) to
find a new transmitter home.

(While we're in Scranton, we hear that Fox affiliate WOLF-TV, channel
56, has a new translator: W52CE, just recently licensed to Sayre, has
moved into Clarks Summit, just northwest of Scranton, where it's now
operating on channel 24.)

John DiBella isn't the only Philadelphia morning host returning to the
city's airwaves; over at WPTP (96.5 Philadelphia), "The Point" has
hired former WYXR (104.5, now "Alice" WLCE) morning man Mike Rossi to
do wakeups, beginning today.

Out west, Forever has been granted booster WFGY-1 (98.1 Johnstown),
which will relay Altoona's Froggy with a 50-watt signal from the roof
of the Promistar Bank building in downtown Johnstown.

(And way out west, beyond the state line, Akron's WHLO 640 relaunches
this morning as a Clear Channel-owned talker after weeks of simulcasts
with CHR WKDD 98.1. After spending the weekend running a repeating
loop of highlights of WHLO's top-40 days, the station launches with
Bill Hall doing morning talk, Helen McKelvey handling morning news,
and Cleveland's WTAM providing the rest of the day's news.)

*Moving back towards NEW JERSEY, the Millennium stations at the Jersey
Shore saw a big blowout of staff as the new owners took over from
Nassau late last week. Among those out of work: WJLK (94.3 Asbury
Park) PD Jeff Rafter and morning team Kevin Hilley (formerly of New
England) and Suzanne Lewis (you can reach Kevin at
kevin@kevinhilley.com) and WOBM (92.7 Toms River) PD Steve Gallagher.

*From MASSACHUSETTS comes word of the death of former WJDA (1300
Quincy) station manager John Nicolson, who died June 1 at age
59. Nicolson worked at WJDA and sister station WESX (1230 Salem) for
26 years.

Out in Greenfield, WGAM (1520) slides into a "classic oldies" format,
with PD Brian Eagan at the helm.

And we hear that WBZ just might break the rules and offer a
rebroadcast of Larry Glick's fun guest stint on the Steve LeVeille
broadcast a few weeks back. Stay tuned; we'll let you know as soon as
we know...

*RHODE ISLAND LPFM WXHQ-LP (105.9 Newport) has filed for a license to
cover; no word on whether the classical-music station has actually
made it to air yet.

*Up in VERMONT, Bob Vinikoor checked in from WNBX (1480 Springfield)
to show off the station's brand-new Harris DX10 transmitter. It
replaces an aging Gates 5 up there - and Bob even sent along pictures
of engineers Russ McAllister and Ira Wilner with the new unit.

WNBX/WNTK (99.7 New London NH) talk host (and former NEW HAMPSHIRE
gubernatorial candidate) Arnie Arnesen is reaching out to a much
bigger market; she'll soon begin doing mornings, via ISDN, on new
Hubbard talker KFMP in the Minneapolis market!

*Up in CANADA, the big news was in Nova Scotia, where CJFX (580) in
Antigonish applied to leave AM, turning its current 98.9 FM relay from
a 2,750-watt operation into a 75,000-watt main transmitter.

Over in Truro, CKTO (100.9) drops AC to go rock as "Big Dog FM," which
matches sister station CKTY (99.5)'s "Cat Country" moniker. CKTO puts
a solid signal into Halifax, where the format provides competition for
established rocker CFRQ (104.3).

In Ottawa/Hull, Radio Nord has found a frequency. The TV station owner
was granted a licence for a French-language classical station last
fall, but its proposed 97.9 frequency was rejected; now Radio Nord
wants to operate on 97.1 with 12.6 kW. Radio Nord just changed the
channel of one of its two Hull TV stations, too: TQS affiliate CFGS
has made the move from channel 49 to channel 34, boosting power from
17.6 kW visual to 117 kW (with a signal that's now been seen down here
in Rochester!)

Craig Communications will get its new Toronto TV station after all.

The Canadian Cabinet rejected appeals of the CRTC ruling awarding the
Western broadcaster channel 52 for a new service to be called "Toronto
One," and that means Craig can move forward with its plans, which
include a nightly live variety show called "The Toronto Show."

Across town, the CHUM/City folks are focusing their energies out West,
where new acquisition CKVU (Channel 10) in Vancouver is being
relaunched as "Citytv," with all the hallmarks ("Citypulse News,"
"Breakfast Television," "Speakers Corner") of the Toronto original.

*Finally, some news from the home front: we'll be keeping a closer eye
on TV and FM developments in places like Buffalo, Syracuse, Watertown
and Kingston, thanks to the new array of Channel Master antennas (an
1110 for VHF and a 4248 for UHF) now perched on the roof of NERW
Central.

A big huge NERW thank you (and happy birthday!) to Rick Lucas (shown
at right for scale), the fellow local DX'er who did all the rooftop
work to make TV and FM DX a reality hereabouts. Now we just need a
better TV to handle the incredible amounts of RF coming from Pinnacle
Hill, just 4300 feet from the NERW offices! Any suggestions? Drop me a
line...

*And that's it for another week; we'll see you again next Monday!

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

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