NERW 7/15: Clear Channel Faces Hearings on Augusta Purchase

[fybush@gwind.pair.com]

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                               July 17, 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:

*MAINE: Clear Channel Faces Hearings On Augusta Cluster
*CANADA: CRTC Considers 13 Toronto Applications; CBZ Wants FM
*MASSACHUSETTS: WWZN Boosts Day Signal

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

*Is the regulatory tide turning against big clusters and
consolidation? A proposed Clear Channel purchase in MAINE is one of
three deals facing a level of scrutiny the FCC hasn't employed in
decades.

Clear Channel has been operating WSKW (1160 Skowhegan) and WHQO (107.9
Skowhegan) under an LMA from Mountain Wireless for several years, ever
since Mountain's proposed sale of the stations to Cumulus fell through
due to financial problems at the Cumulus end.

Last October, Clear Channel filed to convert the LMA to ownership, a
deal that would give Mountain Wireless $1.8 million and add WHQO and
WSKW to the rest of the Clear Channel Augusta-Waterville cluster, a
group that includes WFAU (1280 Gardiner), WCTB (93.5 Fairfield), WKCG
(101.3 Augusta), WABK (104.3 Gardiner) and WTOS (105.1 Skowhegan,
another former Mountain Wireless station).

WHQO has been simulcasting the talk programming from Clear Channel's
WVOM (103.9 Howland) in the Bangor market, while WSKW has been sharing
a sports format with WFAU and WIGY (97.5 Madison, just returned to the
air this week after suffering tower damage). For the last few months,
the Mountain stations have even operated from the same Augusta
facility as the other Clear Channel central Maine stations.

The hitch? If the deal is approved by the FCC (it already has Justice
Department clearance), Clear Channel and Citadel (which has WMME/WEZW
and WEBB/WTVL in the market) would share a whopping 99.5% of the radio
revenues in the market, with just a handful of commercially-licensed
religious stations (WMDR 1340, WWWA 95.3) as "competition" for radio
ad dollars.

So the FCC has designated the WHQO/WSKW sale, along with a Clear
Channel purchase in Youngstown, Ohio (WRTK 1540 Niles OH, WAKZ 95.9
Sharpsville PA, WICT 95.1 Grove City PA, WBBG 106.1 Niles OH) and
another one in Killeen-Temple, Texas, for a hearing on market
concentration. Stay tuned as the Commission sets what promises to be a
new precedent for acceptable levels of station revenue and ratings
share...we'll keep you posted.

*More news from the Pine Tree State: the NFL champion New England
Patriots will make the move to FM in the Portland market this
fall. Previously heard on Saga's WZAN (970 Portland), the Super Bowl
winners will move to Citadel's WBLM (102.9 Portland). Down the coast,
the team moves from WGIR simulcasts WGIN/WGIP (930 Rochester/1540
Exeter) to Citadel's "Shark" WSHK (105.3 Kittery ME)/WSAK (102.1
Hampton NH).

Back up in Bangor, Leo Johnson is the new morning guy on country
"Bear" WBFB (104.7 Belfast). Johnson was formerly heard on Clear
Channel sister news/talker WVOM; his move to mornings sends Dave
Glidden back to afternoons on the Bear.

*Heading into NEW HAMPSHIRE, all the news comes from Cheshire County,
where Saga formally applies for WKVT-FM1 in Keene. The on-channel
booster of WKVT-FM (92.7 Brattleboro VT) would run a 250-watt
directional signal from the studio/transmitter site of sister station
WKNE (1290) in Keene.

Saga is also applying for new calls for the two Keene stations it's
buying from Scott Roberts. Oldies WXOD (98.7 Winchester) becomes WOQL,
matching Saga sister "Cool" WQLL (96.5 Bedford) over in the Manchester
market, while news-talk WKBK (1220 Keene) has applied to become WZBK,
for reasons we still don't know.

*Two MASSACHUSETTS PDs lost their jobs last week, both at Entercom
stations in the Boston market. Jeff Scott, who came to "Star" WQSX
(93.7 Lawrence) just this past April, was out the door last Monday,
followed shortly by Dave Douglas, who'd helmed WAAF (107.3 Worcester)
for several years. Douglas will be replaced by Keith Hastings, inbound
from Saga active rocker WLZR in Milwaukee; no replacement has been
named yet for Scott.

Over on the AM side, Sporting News Radio's WWZN (1510 Boston) made the
tweaks and signed on its new daytime pattern this week from its
four-tower site near the Waltham-Belmont line. The new pattern keeps
day power at 50 kW, but expands the signal a bit to reach some areas
in the western and southern suburbs where 1510 used to protect
now-defunct WNLC (1510 New London CT). No change to WWZN's 50 kW night
signal, which is so deficient in parts of the market that even the
station itself seems to think it runs only 5 or 10 kilowatts after
dark!

Oops: You won't see home-shopping WWDP (Channel 46) on EchoStar's DISH
Network any time soon. The station accidentally sent its must-carry
request for EchoStar to competitor DirecTV instead, thus missing the
deadline to elect mandatory carriage on the satellite system - and
this week the FCC upheld EchoStar's rejection of WWDP's appeal. WWDP
is running the ACN home shopping network, by the way, reports NERW
research director Garrett Wollman...

You also won't be seeing any Bruins games on broadcast TV next
season. The Boston Herald reports that the team will put all its
non-network schedule next season on New England Sports Network (NESN),
the first time since the beginning of broadcast TV in Boston that the
team won't be available over the air. (WSBK, channel 38, had been the
most recent broadcast rights holder.)

A strange one from Winchendon: in April, we told you that Toccoa Falls
College and Friends of Radio Maria had settled their competing
applications for 91.1 in Winchendon, with Toccoa Falls getting the
CP. Now Toccoa Falls has applied to transfer the CP...to Friends of
Radio Maria.

Over in Springfield, WSPR (1270) really is losing its two-tower site
in West Springfield, so the station has applied to move its 5
kilowatts a mile or so to the northwest, diplexing on the existing
tower of now-co-owned WACM (1490 West Springfield). WSPR would build a
new top-loaded 56-meter tower to fill out its directional array. The
new pattern would be tipped slightly counterclockwise from the
existing figure-eight, but would still have broad nulls to the
northeast and southwest.

Just up the valley, WRNX (100.9 Amherst) picks up flagship status for
UMass sports for the upcoming season. WHMP (1400 Northampton) had been
the longtime UMass flagship.

*A surprise call change in RHODE ISLAND, as Hall flips WWRI (1450 West
Warwick) to WLKW. The change came just a few days after NERW mused
that the WLKW calls would make a good fit to replace the tainted WALE
on the just-sold 990 facility in the market; suppose Hall was
listening?

In any event, there's no change to 1450's satellite-delivered urban
oldies format, still simulcast with WNBH (1340 New Bedford MA).

*A former CONNECTICUT TV reporter is heading back to the Nutmeg
State. Lisa Carberg was at NBC's WVIT (Channel 30) in New Britain from
1995-1999, leaving to join the Fox News Channel. Now she's returning
to WVIT to handle health and feature segments.

*The NEW YORK TV dial continues to return to normalcy as the one-year
anniversary of September 11 approaches. The latest station to return
to full power after losing its World Trade Center transmitter is
Telemundo's WNJU (Channel 47), licensed to Linden, N.J.

WNJU had been using the Armstrong FM tower in Alpine, N.J. as a
temporary site for the last few months, with a weak signal over most
of the city. It signed back on from the Empire State Building July 1,
leaving only Pax's WPXN (Channel 31) operating from another site.

(WPXN appears to be planning to make its permanent home at the First
Mountain site in East Orange, N.J. that's home to WFME 94.7 and was
once home to the old WATV on channel 13.)

On the English side of the NBC family in New York, WNBC (Channel 4) is
saying goodbye to president and GM Dennis Swanson, who's departing
after a long career that included ABC Sports and six years at the helm
of top-rated channel 4. Replacing Swanson is Frank Comerford, VP of
sales and marketing for the NBC stations group. Swanson, meanwhile,
takes on a much tougher task: he's headed to CBS to head up the
network's struggling group of owned-and-operated stations.

Moving upstate, Dennis Jackson's WRIP (97.9 Windham) applies for a
35-watt directional booster. WRIP-1 (97.9 Hunter) will operate from
Colonel's Chair at the Hunter Mountain ski area, a few miles south
from WRIP in an area that's now somewhat shadowed from the main
signal.

TV viewers in Binghamton, Watertown and Utica are again seeing
early-morning newscasts on their ABC affiliates, but without a lot of
the localism they're used to. After more than a month without any
local news in those slots, WIVT (Channel 34) in Binghamton, WWTI
(Channel 50) in Watertown and WUTR (Channel 20) in Utica put
"Daybreak" on the air last Monday to fill the 5-7 AM slot. The show,
produced by parent Clear Channel at WIXT (Channel 9) in Syracuse,
includes brief local news updates twice an hour, but most of the
content is regionalized - a big cost savings, to be sure, but at what
price to localism? (Especially since all three of the former Ackerley
Group UHFs compete against a single strong heritage VHF in their
respective markets...) As for weekends, those slots are still being
filled (at least on WWTI and WUTR) with Conus' All News Channel
national news, and we're told local news has also yet to return at
noon in Watertown.

Watertown viewers have a new choice on cable, at least; Time Warner up
there finally added WLOT-LP (Channel 66) to its lineup. WLOT has the
UPN affiliation for Watertown, as well as doing local news at 10 PM
against Fox outlet WNYF-LP (Channel 28), programmed by CBS affiliate
WWNY (Channel 7).

Binghamton has a new choice on the radio, in a few blocks of the
city's Hillcrest area, at least: the Wyoming Conference Children's
Home is running micropower "WBTK" on 102.3, programmed by the kids who
live at the center. Advising the station ("W-By-The-Kids") is former
WNBF morning man John Leslie.

On the noncomm side of the dial, WIFF (90.1 Binghamton, heard better
in most of the city on translator W285DI at 104.9) is being
sold. Station founder (and anti-abortion crusader) Randall Terry
(doing business as Jesus is King Communications) is selling the
Christian rock outlet to CSN International for $67,000; look for it to
become yet another relay on the Calvary Satellite Network as soon as
the deal closes.

A big "thumbs down" to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, for
continuing carelessness in covering the broadcast industry at a level
that rivals our usual bete noir, the Boston Globe. Not only did the
D&C have to correct itself after an item in its inane "Thumbs Up,
Thumbs Down" column praised "WDKX-FM (104.3)" (the urban station is at
103.9 on the dial), but the paper's TV book still hasn't figured out
that LPTV W59BV has moved. After two weeks of correctly listing the
station as "W42CO" (on Sunday, anyway; the daily still read "59"),
yesterday's TV book was right back to "W59BV." (What's more, the
listings shown are for Buffalo's WNYB, channel 26 - but 59/42 now runs
the satellite signal from parent Tri-State Christian TV, with a
somewhat different program lineup!)

And while our friend Dave Hughes down at Washington's DCRTV.com enjoys
busting the Washington Post for its inaccurate radio listings, there's
at least one way in which the D&C is the Post's equal (and only one
way, come to think of it): the radio listings in the Sunday TV book
are so woefully out of date that at least a third of them are now
completely inaccurate. Hmmph!

Heading over toward Buffalo, Family Life Ministries has applied to
boost the power on WCOU (88.3 Warsaw) from 4 kW to 11 kW. It's part of
an agreement with Conestoga College's CJIQ (88.3 Paris ON), which now
has WCOU's blessing to upgrade to a full class B facility if it so
desires.

Buffalo TV viewers are seeing more snow than they're accustomed to. At
NBC affiliate WGRZ (Channel 2)'s site in the town of Wales, NERW found
the analog antenna sitting on the ground, lashed to the base of the
tower, when we stopped by last week. WGRZ is transmitting its analog
signal at about half power from its low six-bay auxiliary antenna
while work continues to install the WGRZ-DT (Channel 33) antenna and
reinstall the analog antenna above it. We're told it will be late this
week before channel 2 returns to full power.

Meanwhile up on Grand Island, we're told WNED (Channel 17) and WNLO
(Channel 23) are also at reduced power while workers install the
WNED-DT (Channel 43) antenna on the tower.

*One NEW JERSEY item this week, and we have to go all the way to
Indiana for it: Auricle Communications, parent of WFMU (91.1 East
Orange), is selling WAJW (89.5 Chesterton IN) to Chicago's public
broadcaster WBEZ (91.5). Auricle put WAJW on the air a few years ago
with the intent of creating a freeform radio voice for Chicago similar
to the service WFMU provides to New York and vicinity - but the
station, on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, was too far from the
Windy City to put in a reliable signal.

WAJW has largely been simulcasting WFMU; its sale to WBEZ (which will
use it to boost its own coverage east of Chicago) puts $550,000 in
Auricle's deserving (and needy) pockets.

*In PENNSYLVANIA, VHF television may finally come to the Lehigh
Valley, almost five decades after the area's first UHF station signed
on. Religious WBPH (Channel 60) has applied to change its DTV
allocation from channel 59 to channel 9; without the change, WBPH's
analog and digital channels would both be "out of core" and the
station would have to seek a brand-new channel assignment when 52-69
are removed from TV service. WBPH also applied for a license to cover
this week for a power increase that takes the station up to nearly 3
megawatts of visual power.

On the radio side, WLEV (100.7 Allentown) takes the "interim" out of
Sam Malone's PD title.

Over in Reading, it's the end of an era as the FCC wraps up its very
last comparative renewal hearing. When WTVE (Channel 51) was up for
renewal in the mid-nineties, licensee Reading Broadcasters Inc. was
challenged by a competing application filed by a group called Adams
Communications Corp. Adams was looking to challenge the license of a
home-shopping station, and originally planned to make WHSH (Channel
66) near Boston its target.

When a proposed transmitter site for Adams' application fell through,
the company turned its attention to Reading, looking for evidence that
the home shopping format didn't meet the community's needs. After some
missteps (the Reading resident hired by Adams to tape WTVE mistakenly
taped several days of a cable home shopping channel instead), Adams
produced evidence that suggested Reading Broadcasters' principals (the
same folks behind Two if by Sea, the onetime licensee of channel 18 in
Hartford and channel 46 in Norwell, Mass.) had been dishonest on at
least one FCC application.

In April 2001, an FCC examiner granted Adams' competing application,
but Reading Broadcasters appealed - and last week, the FCC closed the
matter by finding Reading Broadcasters to be qualified as a licensee,
rejecting Adams' application and allowing WTVE to remain in its
current hands.

In the meantime, Congress changed the rules of the game, so today
there's virtually nothing a licensee can do that would cause its
license not to be renewed (and almost nothing a member of the public
can do should a local station fail to serve the "public interest,
convenience and necessity," a concept that now seems to be forgotten
at the FCC.) The WTVE hearing was the very last to be resolved under
the old rules.

Up in Wellsboro, WNBQ (92.3 Mansfield) is applying for a booster with
a whopping 0.0002 kilowatts of power. That's two-tenths of a watt,
folks - just twice the threshold for license-free broadcasting - but
the station believes the signal (on the tower of co-owned WNBT 1490)
would help it fill a little hole in the Mansfield signal over downtown
Wellsboro.

NERW wonders if this is a prelude to the end of the simulcast between
WNBQ and WNBT-FM (104.5 Wellsboro), which always did seem to have a
lot of overlap; the WNBQ signal (when the processing is working,
anyway) reaches north almost to Corning, N.Y.

In Johnstown, WQEJ (89.7), the relayer of Pittsburgh's WQED (89.3),
has resubmitted its application to move from the current tower of
WJAC-TV (Channel 6) to the nearby tower WJAC is building for
DTV. WQEJ's first application was thrown out because the specified
power (8.5 kW) slightly exceeded the class maximum for the station;
it's resubmitted the application with 8.4 kW instead.

Sorry to report the passing of another Pittsburgh newscaster: Paul
Long died Friday (July 12) at age 86. Long's Pittsburgh career began
at KDKA radio in 1946 and expanded to KDKA-TV in 1956; he moved to
WTAE-TV (Channel 4) in 1969 and remained there until 1994, when he
retired at age 78.

*The big news from CANADA comes from Toronto, where the CRTC released
the applications it's received for new ethnic stations to serve the
nation's largest city.

Most of the applications are for 101.3 on the FM dial, a frequency
that ethnic broadcaster CHIN has been using as a low-power relay to
help its AM station (on 1540 kHz) reach areas outside its directional
pattern. (Powerful CHIN-FM, on 100.7, runs separate programming from
the 1540/101.3 simulcast.)

CHIN filed no fewer than three applications as part of the latest
round, trying to maintain its dual spot on the FM dial. The station's
preferred solution involves being granted a new license for 101.3
(with 90 watts), keeping the existing 1540 and 100.7 as separate
stations and moving the 1540 relay from 101.3 (with 22 watts) to 91.9
(with 35 watts). If that's not granted, CHIN has a backup plan: it's
also applying to shut down the 1540 signal, replacing its directional
50 kilowatts with a 90-watt FM signal on 101.3.

But CHIN has plenty of competition: other applicants for 101.3 include
Ark Broadcasting (178 watts), Canadian Multicultural Radio (440
watts), Canadian Thamil Broadcasting Corp. (440 watts), Catholic Youth
Services-KSM Inc. (1140 watts), CKMW Radio Inc. (446 watts; the
company also owns CIAO 530 and CIDC 103.5) and Infinity Broadcasting
Inc. (no relation to the US company by the same name, applying for 310
watts).

Additional applications include Humber College, for 60 watts on 91.9;
Cooperative Radiophonique de Toronto, for 1200 watts on 91.7;
Caribbean and African Radio Network, for 78 watts on 105.1 and an AM
signal on 790, with 250 watts day and 50 watts night; Geetha Vanni,
for 1 kW on 1650; San Lorenzo Latin American Community Centre, for 1
kW on 1610 and Magic 1610 Markham, for a new English-language station
to serve suburban Markham with 10 kW day and 5 kW night on 1610.

And three applicants want new digital radio signals in Toronto: Korean
Community Radio, Sur Sagar Radio and CHWO (AM 740).

Meanwhile, the folks at the CHUM Group have quietly pulled the plug on
1050chum.com. When CHUM (1050) flipped from oldies to sports in May
2001, the company said the Webcast would continue with the oldies
format indefinitely; today, the company says site traffic didn't live
up to expectations and "it no longer makes sense to continue."

Over in Windsor, the CBC has applied to add CBE (1550) and CBE-FM
(89.9) to the digital radio dial, where the CHUM Group's four stations
already have a construction permit.

London's Energy 103.1 (CFHK) dropped the last of its simulcast with
its Corus sister station (CING 95.3 Hamilton) to go live and local
24/7 last week. Milkman Unlimited reports the lineup includes Andy and
Marianne in mornings, Sarah Bartok middays and Oz in
afternoons. Sister station "The Hawk" (CKDK 103.9) moves Kyle "the
Sarge" McCone from afternoons to mornings with Derek "Rock" Botten
next week. Dan Walker comes over from middays at CFPL-FM (95.9,
"FM96") to do afternoons at the Hawk.

Up north in Orillia, the sale of CICX (EZ Rock 105.9) to Rogers didn't
include Telemedia's "EZ Rock" trademark, so the station changed
identities on Friday to "105.9 Lite FM."

Way up north, country music returned to the dial in Timmins on Friday
morning, when CHMT (93.1) flipped from AC "Mix 93" to country "Moose
FM." The area has been country-less since last year, when CKGB (99.3)
dropped country for "EZ Rock."

There's a new station in Cobourg: the new 93.3 signal there began
testing last week, and we hear it's already causing havoc to the
recently-upgraded signal of WBBF-FM (93.3 Fairport) just across Lake
Ontario (and vice versa, no doubt!)

Outside Ottawa, Algonquin College's CKDJ (96.9 Nepean) applies to
change frequency to 107.9 and boost power from 8 watts to 100 watts.

The big news from Quebec was the death on Friday of Gord Sinclair, one
of the most distinctive voices in Canadian radio.

Sinclair's career began at the old CHVC (1600) in Niagara Falls 55
years ago; he spent most of his career in Montreal, first at CFCF
(600), then as owner and founder of CFOX (1470 Pointe Claire), then
back to CFCF from 1975 until 1982, when he joined CJAD (800) as a news
director, commentator and host of the daily noon news and a Saturday
noon show.

Sinclair, the son of legendary Toronto broadcaster Gordon ("The
Americans") Sinclair, was 74; he would have preferred that we say he
was 39.

Elsewhere in the province, CHAA (103.3 Longueuil) was granted a move
from its current transmitter site to a new one 8 kilometers to the
west; the station will drop power from 104 watts to 53 watts.

In Quebec City, Radio-Canada's CBVT (Channel 11) was granted its move
from its Ile d'Orleans tower, east of the old city, to the Mont Belair
community antenna site west of town. CBVT will reduce power from 252
kilowatts down to 132 kW, moving up in height as it makes the move.

Yves Sauve's construction permit for CJRP St.-Nicolas (serving Quebec
City) has a new frequency; he was granted a move from 1060 (the
frequency of the long-dark original CJRP) to 980 (the frequency more
recently abandoned by Radio-Canada's CBV, which moved to FM on 106.3
in 1998).

And we'll end in the Maritimes, with the biggest surprise of the week:
the CBC is applying to move CBZ (970 Fredericton) from the AM dial to
FM.

CBZ would run 3200 watts on 99.5 MHz if the move is granted.

Fredericton already hears CBC Radio One on FM, thanks to CBD (91.3
Saint John), which covers the city from its Mount Champlain
transmitter site - but CBD runs local Saint John programming in
drivetime, while CBZ runs programming targeted to the provincial
capital. (The move would also force a call change for CBZ-FM, the CBC
Radio Two outlet on 101.5 that serves Fredericton and Saint John from
Mount Champlain.)

*Finally this week, we're happy to announce that our good friends at M
Street have released the 11th edition of the M Street Radio
Directory. With the disappearance of the old Vane Jones log and the
declining accuracy of the Broadcasting Yearbook, the M Street
directory is widely regarded as the most accurate, most comprehensive
source of information on the US and Canadian radio scene - and we're
thrilled to be able to offer it to you at a substantial discount!
Visit www.fybush.com for all the information on how to place your
order...

*That's it for another week; we'll see you again next Monday on
fybush.com!

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

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