NERW 7/29: Vox Buys WBEC - Really

[fybush@gwind.pair.com]

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                               July 29, 2002 

IN THIS ISSUE:

*MASSACHUSETTS: Vox Buys WBEC
*MASSACHUSETTS: Bye, Tai
*NEW HAMPSHIRE: WOTW Returns

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

LATE UPDATE: The long-rumored sale of WBEC (1420) and WBEC-FM (105.5)
in Pittsfield from Tele-Media to Vox is finally becoming a reality -
and it includes WZEC (97.5 Hoosick Falls NY) as well. The move puts
Vox in a new market not far from its existing strongholds in southern
Vermont, the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts and New York's Glens
Falls market, and leaves Tele-Media with only WKBE (100.3 Warrensburg
NY) remaining from its former Albany-centered cluster. Much more next
week in NERW...

*What started out as a quiet summer is heating up - literally and
figuratively - in MASSACHUSETTS, with a new program director and a new
morning show vacancy in Boston.

We'll start with the vacancy, created when WZLX (100.7 Boston) sent
morning guy Tai (Thomas A. Irwin) packing last week. Tai and comedian
Steve Sweeny had held down mornings at the Infinity classic rocker for
two years, following Charles Laquidara's decamping to Hawaii in
2000. Sweeny remains on WZLX's morning shift, with a new co-host not
expected for a few weeks, at least.

(One reason for the delay: WZLX's new program director, Beau Raines,
is just settling into the job, officially. Raines was picked for the
post back in April [NERW 4/17], but contractual issues with his old
employer, Greater Media's WROR, kept the move from becoming official
until just last week. And speaking of Greater Media and Infinity, we
have it on good authority that the possibility of Loren and Wally
making the jump from Greater's WROR to Infinity's WODS was more than
just a rumor - it came close to happening before Greater came through
with the contract Loren and Wally wanted!)

Tai will likely surface elsewhere on the Boston radio scene; in
addition to his best-known gig as "Morning Guy Tai" on WFNX, he spent
some time doing talk at WRKO as well.

Speaking of "The Talk Station," WRKO (680) named a new director of
programming and operations to replace the gone-to-Sirius Jay
Clark. Mike Elder, who's been PD at Chicago talker WLS (890), moves to
the Entercom Boston station to run the show in a few weeks.

WFNX (101.7 Lynn) is without an audio stream; one of the many stations
caught by Yahoo's decision to end its broadcast streaming, the modern
rocker is now looking for a new streaming partner.

Some more information about the new WNCK (89.5 Nantucket): it's not
religious - in fact, it's running a commercial-free adult contemporary
format, thanks to Jeff Shapiro, the owner of the Vox Radio
Group. Seems he's running WNCK as a hobby, more or less, from his
island home. To say NERW is jealous would be an understatement...

Where are they now? Former WXLO (104.5 Fitchburg-Worcester) PD Chase
Murphy has surfaced out in Modesto, California, where he's stunting
KHOP (95.1) as it transitions from 80s to a new format.

And we're very sorry to report the death of Ned Martin. The longtime
Red Sox announcer (he retired in 1991) had come to Boston for the Ted
Williams memorial service at Fenway last Monday; he died the next day
(July 23) while waiting for a connecting flight back home to
Florida. Martin was 78.

*A NEW HAMPSHIRE surprise: WMVU (900) in Nashua quietly changed calls
to WOTW, effective July 23. WOTW was, of course, the original callsign
for the first occupant of AM 900 in Nashua, which signed on in the
late forties and went dark in the eighties (its FM counterpart on
106.3 is survived by today's WHOB); the 900 frequency was revived as
WMVU in 1992.

*Up in VERMONT, former WDOT (1390/1400 Burlington) PD Rod Hill is
putting together a tribute website to the one-time top 40
giant. Worked there? Have airchecks or memorabilia? Drop Rod a line
(he's now PD of oldies WKOL in the market) at rod@aol.com.

Down in the Connecticut River Valley, Bruce Lyndes is leaving NBC
affiliate WNNE (Channel 31) in White River Junction after more than a
decade as a news anchor, and more recently news director. Lyndes is
joining the Army - as a public relations officer for the Cold Regions
Research and Engineering Lab in Hanover, N.H.

And the word from Goddard College's WGDR (91.1 Plainfield) is that the
embattled college station will stay on the air without a station
manager at least until early October, while the financially-troubled
college tries to figure out if it can keep the station running any
longer.

*A long-disputed FM channel has been granted in MAINE. Robert Scott
Hogg (former owner of WMDI in Bar Harbor) and Lyle Robert Evans both
wanted 93.7A in Millbridge, way down East between Bangor and Calais,
and now a settlement has put the CP in the hands of Evans.

Over in Blue Hill, community WERU (89.9) has returned to the airwaves
at full power after lightning struck its tower; meanwhile, we hear
lightning also disrupted things at WQDY (1230/92.7 Calais) around
Independence Day, though things are better there now.

The Patriots have a new FM home in Central Maine; Citadel's WEBB (98.5
Waterville) will pick up the team's broadcasts from the WBCN network
this fall, with WTVL (1490) simulcasting.

And WRED (95.9 Saco) will be moving closer to Portland; it's been
granted a move to a tower near that of WCYY (94.3 Biddeford) near Old
Orchard Beach, boosting power from 3 kilowatts to 4.1 kW and height
from 91 to 121 meters.

*One bit of CONNECTICUT news this week: Miles Muzio is leaving his
position as chief meteorologist at WFSB-TV (Channel 3) in Hartford at
the beginning of September. Muzio has been at the station for four
years.

*We'll start our NEW YORK report in New York, where WNNY (1380) has
flipped to a regional Mexican format, using the ID "La X." The PD at
the Mega station is Martin Munoz, who programmed WXLX (620 Newark) in
the mid-nineties when it was doing Mexican (that station is now sports
WSNR). In heavily Puerto Rican and Dominican New York City, will
Mexican music fly this time around? Stay tuned...

WGNY (1220 Newburgh) is adding more local programming to its AP
all-news format. Under the new nickname "NewsTalk 1220," the station
launched a mornng show with program director Chris Cordani on Monday;
it's also running Oliver North's talk show in the afternoon, with more
local talk slated to arrive soon in midday.

Heading upstate, it appears that Bob Mulrooney's stint with Galaxy hot
talker WHTR (93.7 Scotia/1400 Albany) is already over. The former
WPYX/WXCR morning man left the station last week, and it's been
simulcasting Bill Keeler's morning show from sister WRCK (107.3 Utica)
since then. Will Mulrooney be back? Stay tuned...

Speaking of the Utica market, Bible Broadcasting's WYFY (1450 Rome)
wants to replace its current tower with a slightly taller model,
probably to give the LPTV that uses it a bit of a boost. Syracuse's
WSYR (570) is the latest to push Laura Schlessinger's show towards the
exit door. She's not gone from the Clear Channel talker - yet - but
moving from the 9-noon slot to 10-1 AM can't be good news. Replacing
her at 9 AM is WSYR talker Kathy Denman, for one hour, followed by
ABC's new Sam Donaldson offering from 10 until noon.

The channel 52 in "Ithaca" is showing its true colors. The
long-running construction permit expires this December, and now the
owners (Bill Smith and Caroline Powley, of WNGS Springville-Buffalo
fame) are filing to move the CP to a different tower, saying they'll
have an easier time building the signal if they use a tower that's
already standing. The candidate? The tower that sits next to WSYT
(Channel 68) and WNYS (Channel 43) on Mann's Hill in Otisco, built for
a wireless-cable outfit that never went into operation. Channel 52
would run 5 megawatts into a directional antenna up there, nulling the
new channel 52 in Toronto, just barely throwing a decent signal over
its city of license some 35 miles away - and, oh yeah, blasting into
the much larger city of Syracuse! "UPN52," anyone? Yup - stay tuned...

Speaking of Ithaca, Syracuse Community Radio has refiled its
application to boost the signal of translator W201CD (88.1
Lansing). The new plan will give 88.1 a 245-watt signal aimed into
Ithaca from a tower just south of route 79 near Westhaven Road in
Lansing. (W201CD is relaying WEOS 89.7 from Geneva.)

And speaking of Geneva, Family Life Ministries (which reaches the city
just fine now that it owns WCOV-FM 93.7 in Clyde) has sold its CP for
translator W216BR (91.1) to Calvary Satellite Network.

Up here in Rochester, WBBF (950) continues to stunt as "Swifty 950,"
still playing a music-test tape of 70s and 80s pop and classic rock -
but we now know at least one of the local personalities who'll be
heard on the station when it relaunches as a news-talker. Allan Harris
left WHAM (1180) last week, ending a long career at the Clear Channel
news-talk outlet, where he'd been a traffic reporter, fill-in news guy
and late-night/weekend talk host. We hear he'll show up on WBBF
whenever the new format launches; in the meantime, the Michael Savage
show has appeared in his old late-night slot on WHAM.

(And we're hoping Allan can find a new home for the WHAM historical
information and pictures that he used to host on his own Web site,
which was taken down last week. We'd be happy to provide server space,
Allan...it shouldn't go to waste!)

Over at WBBF's sister oldies FM, WBBF-FM (93.3 Fairport), the Jeff
Moulton Saturday night request show is history; he's been replaced by
the syndicated "Hall of Fame Saturday Night" out of Cleveland.

*Down in NEW JERSEY, Pat Collins has been named VP/GM of WCHR-FM
(105.7 Manahawkin); down the shore a bit in Tuckerton, we're hearing
word that WBHX (99.7) is being sold to Press, though there's been no
filing at the FCC at press time.

Atlantic City's WMGM (Channel 40) has a new news director, and he's a
familiar face to viewers in Rochester and Hartford. Ted Greenberg,
late of WTIC-TV (Channel 61) in Hartford, and before that of
Rochester's WROC-TV (Channel 8), is getting his first management gig
at the small-market NBC affiliate where his career started a decade
ago - best of luck!

*The eyes of the world were on western PENNSYLVANIA last weekend, and
we hear the local media did a superb job of covering the incredible
story of those trapped miners near Somerset.

There was other news in the Keystone State too, of course, including a
format change up in Berwick, southwest of Wilkes-Barre. That's where
WKAB (103.5) quietly flipped from oldies to classic rock last week,
picking up the "Mountain" nickname that used to be heard on 97.9 in
Hazleton in its WZMT days (that station is now modern rock WBSX) and
aiming for a bigger audience in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton.

Philadelphia's WMGK (102.9) has a new program director; Rick Strauss
comes north from Baltimore rocker WIYY (97.9) to run the Greater Media
classic rocker.

South of Pittsburgh, WNJR (92.1 Washington) at Washington and
Jefferson College wants to return to the air with much more power. The
college station, known until recently as WXJX, is now dark - but it's
applied to go from a little class D with 13 watts to a 950-watt class
A facility, still on 92.1. NERW thinks such an application on the
commercial part of the dial will require an allocations proceeding,
but then we've never seen a move quite like this before, either.

And just across the state line in Ohio, Clear Channel is paying
$525,000 for the unbuilt 98.3 construction permit in Ashtabula. It
will join WFUN (970), WREO (97.1), WZOO (102.5 Edgewood) and WFXJ-FM
(107.5 North Kingsville) in the cluster, which pretty much includes
everything in the Ashtabula market, just west of Erie.

*The pope probably wasn't listening to CFXJ (Flow 93.5) in Toronto
during his visit to CANADA, but if he were, he might have heard that
David Marsden is no longer consulting the station's programming. Carl
Redhead has been named interim PD of the urban station after the
departure of veteran Canadian programmer Marsden. (NERW wonders
whether the Popemobile even has a radio...)

The CBC has named a host for the new 8:30-10 AM morning show debuting
this fall as part of the overhaul of Radio 1: it's Anna Marie
Tremonti, who's been hosting "The Fifth Estate" on CBC-TV.

And the CRTC has approved the sale of CJOJ (95.5 Belleville) and CHCQ
(100.1 Belleville) to former CHUM executive John Sherratt. He's paying
Anthony Zwigg C$1.456 million for "OJ 95.5" and C$541,000 for newer
"Quinte Country Q100," which signed on last year.

*That's it for another week. We're on the road until August 6, so the
next big issue of NERW will come your way mid-week; stay tuned to
fybush.com for the latest!

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

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