NERW 8/5 and 8/12 - CING Goes Country

[fybush@gwind.pair.com]

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                           August 5 & 12, 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:

*CANADA: Corus Dumps "Energy" in Toronto/Hamilton
*PENNSYLVANIA: Sunny Returns to Philly
*NEW YORK: WYUL "Hits" Montreal

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

(A "special mid-summer double issue" this week, as our travel schedule
kept us on the road longer than planned last week...)

*The Energy has run out in CANADA's largest market. Corus is pulling
the plug on the "Energy FM" dance-CHR format that's been running on
CING (95.3 Hamilton) and replacing it with country music on the 100 kW
signal that serves the entire Golden Horseshoe area from Toronto to
Niagara Falls.

Energy moved to 95.3 with high hopes a couple of years ago, after
launching on the weaker 107.9 signal licensed to nearby
Burlington. (That signal became home to classic rock "Y108" CJXY,
which had occupied 95.3 as "Y95.") In the meantime, Energy had
expanded to four other signals: CKGE 94.9 Oshawa, which has since
returned to its old modern AC format; CHAY 93.1 Barrie and CFHK 103.1
St. Thomas-London. CHAY and CFHK will stay with the Energy format, as
far as we know.

Corus launched "Country 95" on the frequency last Friday (August 9),
and the format is running jockless for the moment, with a full launch
scheduled for next Monday (August 19). Energy's airstaff was largely
shown the door, though we hear morning jock "Big D" is headed to
sister station Y108.

Elsewhere in Southern Ontario, Kerry Gray has departed the PD post at
CHTZ (97.7 St. Catherines), en route to a new gig in Colorado. Brian
Dafoe has returned to CJEZ (EZ Rock 97.3) in Toronto as PD.

And we're sorry to report the passing of Sandy Hoyt, whose on-air
stint at CHFI (98.1 Toronto) lasted from 1977 until 1999. Hoyt, who
also broadcast the Hamilton Red Wings games for CHCH-TV in the sixties
and did work for Global TV, died Monday (Aug. 5) in Picton.

Heading east, Camp IAWAH in Westport, Ontario has been granted a
licence for a whopping 0.23 watts on 106.3. The camp station will
operate during July and August only, with about five hours of music
and 15 minutes of religion each day.

Montreal's Sheldon Harvey reports that CJWI (1610 Montreal) is now
being heard with regular Haitian programming, still identifying itself
most of the time as "CPAM Radio Union.com," which is sure to cause
some continuing confusion in the DX community.

Out in the Maritimes, Jack McGaw Consulting has been granted two new
travelers-information stations. One, on 97.9 with 10 watts, will serve
Halifax; the other, with 37 watts on 93.9, will transmit from atop the
Confederation Bridge in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

*Heading across the border, we'll start our U.S. report in
PENNSYLVANIA, where a long-dead call and format returned to life in
Philadelphia last week. WSNI (104.5 Philadelphia) dropped the "Sunny"
nickname and soft AC format in 1990 to go hot AC as WYXR "Star," then
went modern AC in 1999 as "Alice" WLCE.

"Alice" was replaced by a day of non-stop "Here Comes the Sun" last
Friday, followed by the relaunch of the old soft AC format and "Sunny"
nickname, followed a few days later by the WSNI calls.

Sunny challenges market-leader WBEB (101.1 Philadelphia), one of the
last individually-owned major market FM stations in the country; it
promises to be a good fight.

The NERW-mobile passed through the Scranton area on our way to and
from New York City this past week, and we know we'll always find
something different there each time we turn on the dial. This trip was
no exception: on Monday (Aug. 5), Citadel flipped WCWI (94.3
Carbondale) from a simulcast of CHR WBHT (97.1 Mountain Top) to
country as "Cat Country 94."

If that sounds familiar, it certainly should; under the calls WCTP,
94.3 did country as "Cat Country" from 1998 until 2000, when it became
WBHD and began simulcasting WBHT. At the time, "Cat" was simulcast on
WCTD (93.7 Dallas), which later became active rock WBSX. When the WBSX
calls and format moved to the former WAOZ (97.9 Hazleton) in April and
93.7 changed calls to WCWQ, there was speculation that "Cat" would
reappear there as well; for now, though, 93.7 is still simulcasting
97.9.

And what of the third Citadel call change this past spring, in which
WEMR-FM (107.7 Tunkhannock) became WCWY? That frequency is still
simulcasting soft AC WMGS (92.9 Scranton), leaving NERW to wonder what
the long-term plans - if any - might be for this cluster (and to note
that the Scranton-market stations that don't flip calls and format
annually, like country behemoth "Froggy" WGGY 101.3, do much better in
the market than their oft-flipping competitors...)

And there's more: the "Word FM" contemporary Christian network
headquartered at WBYO (88.9 Sellersburg) has signed on its entry into
the Scranton dial. WBYH (89.1 Hawley) debuted last week, serving an
area east of Scranton and reaching into the city as well with its 200
watts.

Family Life Ministries is ready to enter the market as well; the
upstate New York-based religious broadcaster modified its application
for 90.9 Carbondale to take it out of a mutually-exclusive pool and
speed it towards approval; the 300-watt signal will emanate from a
spot about halfway between Carbondale and the New York state line if
it's approved.

Over in Pittsburgh, WEAE (1250) has a new program director; the ESPN
Radio station has hired John Lund from KFXX (910 Vancouver WA) in the
Portland, Oregon market to run the show.

Down near the Maryland line, WIHR (94.3 Greencastle) dropped its
country format and "I-94" moniker to take on a simulcast of rocker
WQCM (96.7 Halfway MD); the WQCM calls and format will apparently make
94.3 their new home in the Hagerstown-Chambersburg market, with a new
format arriving soon on 96.7.

And an old Philadelphia callsign has resurfaced just across the state
line in DELAWARE: WKEN (1600 Dover) has changed calls to WIBF, the old
multi-ethnic callsign that was on 103.9 Jenkintown and, for a time, on
TV channel 29 before the days of WTAF/WTXF. (That, in turn, means the
new religious station on 88.7 in Port Republic NJ will be WIBF-FM,
instead of just WIBF, when it signs on...)

*While we're thinking of NEW JERSEY: "The Hawk" in Trenton has new
calls that match its format better than the old WNJO. Mark down "WTHK"
as the new calls on 94.5, with extra points if you remember that those
calls surfaced some years ago in Hudson, N.Y. on 93.5, now WZCR.

Some more details on the sale of WBHX (99.7 Tuckerton) to Press: while
the price still hasn't been announced, we hear that Press will flip
the station to a simulcast of modern AC WHTG-FM (106.3 Eatontown) once
the purchase from Richard Lee Harvey closes.

*It's been a quiet week in NEW YORK, except for one big change way up
north. Our North Country bureau chief Mike Roach checked in last week
to report that WYUL (94.7 Chateauguay) had dropped its simulcast of
the CHR "Yes FM" format from WYSX (98.7 Ogdensburg) and WYSI (96.7
Canton) and had started stunting.

The station relaunched as "94.7 Hits FM," with Rick Dees in the
morning and a CHR format targeting the Montreal market to the north
(complete with a new request line of 1-866-NIX-THE-MIX, a dig at
Montreal competitor CJFM "Mix 96.")

Can the cross-border signal make an impact in the market, and will the
lack of a Canadian content requirement make it more competitive? Stay
tuned...

There will be two new signals in the region soon, as well: Mars Hill
(the religious broadcasters who run WMHR Syracuse, WMHI Cape Vincent
and WMHN Webster) has been granted a new station at 90.1 in Malone,
while "American Educational Broadcasting" gets 89.7 in Dannemora, from
which they're likely to target Montreal with religion.

Radio People on the Move: K.J. "Still Not Norm" Bryant is sleeping a
little later in Binghamton these days; the WWYL (104.1 Chenango
Bridge) PD has handed off his morning shift on "Wild 104" to Jerry
Kidd, who'd been doing nights. K.J. takes afternoons, displacing
Christine Fox to middays there. And over in Utica, "Hopalong" (aka
John Raspante) is leaving WFRG (104.3) after nine years behind the mic
at the "Froggy" country station.

On the translator front, Syracuse Community Radio files to transfer
W201CD (88.1 Lansing) to Ithaca Community Radio; the translator is
relaying WEOS from Geneva for now. Down in Elmira, we heard the new
W205BR (88.9) relaying WPCS from Pensacola, too; it just won a license
to cover.

Rochester's WBBF (950) continues its "Swifty 950" stunt as we go to
press Sunday night; meanwhile, we're noticing that the "Best of the
80s and More" liners on sister WBZA (98.9 Rochester) are giving way to
"Best of the 70s and 80s," so list this one as "classic hits" these
days...

No surprise here, but WNSA (107.7 Wethersfield) is now under "debtor
in possession" status, the result of the collapse of parent
Adelphia. The fate of the Buffalo sports station is probably linked,
at this point, to that of Empire Sports Network and the rest of the
Adelphia cable operation.

And returning to the New York City market for a minute, we're kind of
sorry to report the imminent cancellation of the Sunday night "Doo-Wop
Shop" on WCBS-FM (101.1); it will have its last run August 25 as the
station continues its move towards more contemporary (read 70s and
80s) oldies.

LATE UPDATE: It's a good thing we airchecked the regional Mexican
format on "La X 1380" in New York last week, because we caught a
collector's item - the station changed calls from WNNY to WLXE today!

*Over in CONNECTICUT, WWYZ (92.5 Waterbury) PD Jay McCarthy gets a bit
of a promotion: as "director of country programming" for Clear Channel
in Hartford and Springfield, he's now also overseeing
Springfield-market "Kix" country WPKX (97.9 Enfield CT).

A few new LPFMs that were granted by the FCC last week include one in
the Nutmeg State: 100.1 in Ledyard, to the Ledyard Christian
Fellowship.

*Crossing the line to RHODE ISLAND, Hall flipped format on WLKW (1450
West Warwick) last week - and on simulcaster WNBH (1340 New Bedford
MA) - dropping ABC's urban oldies format in favor of satellite
standards. We hear "WLKW" is the single ID of choice most of the hour
for these stations lately, with New Bedford getting mentioned only at
top-hour time.

And we note that Francis Battaglia's North American Broadcasting,
which is selling WALE (990 Greenville), has filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy. We'll (reluctantly) hold our tongues on this one...

*In MASSACHUSETTS, we can put a price tag on the Vox purchase of WBEC
(1420) and WBEC-FM (105.5 Pittsfield): the company will pay $4.3
million for that pair and for WZEC (97.5 Hoosick Falls NY). No word on
what, if any, changes might be in store for the stations.

(Two minor corrections from last week: Vox's Jeff Shapiro is the
group's managing partner - and WKBE in Warrensburg NY was transferred
from Tele-Media to Pamal as part of last year's T-M spinoffs.)

WGAM (1520 Greenfield) changes calls to WIZZ, and presumably we'll
find out why by month's end, when we'll be within listening range of
the quirky daytimer.

Up in the Merrimack Valley, Costa-Eagle is getting ready for some big
changes at its cluster in the Lawrence area, aimed largely at putting
Spanish programming on its Lawrence-licensed 800 signal. Come
September 8, that signal will take the WNNW calls and tropical
programming now being heard on 1110 in nearby Salem, N.H. The
English-language news, talk and sports now on 800 will move, along
with the WCCM calls, to 1490 in Haverhill (now WHAV). And WHAV's
Spanish talk programming will move to 1110 Salem under the calls
WCEC. What becomes of the Lowell Spinners' baseball now heard on WCCM?
More on that next week, we hope...

It's hard to believe, but it's been a decade since Bob Bittner
returned the WJIB calls to Boston on his AM 740 in Cambridge.

Bob marked the anniversary last week by taking listener calls, and he
tells NERW he put 110 callers on WJIB's airwaves between noon and 6
PM.

We didn't get a chance to call, but we're happy to wish many more
successful years to one of the nation's most unusual standalone
broadcasters - and we look forward to wishing Bob a happy anniversary
in person next month when we join him on "Let's Talk About Radio"
again.

On the TV side, Viacom balanced the books at WSBK (Channel 38) in
Boston by wiping out all daytime programming at the UPN affiliate for
the last few days of July and replacing it with infomercials. The
station says it's a one-time thing, and we certainly hope they mean
it. Meanwhile, Nielsen's attempt to launch its "people-meter" TV
ratings system in Boston has been met with cold shoulders from most of
the local stations - except public broadcaster WGBH, which says it'll
buy the data from the test.

*Our NEW HAMPSHIRE ears report hearing the new WOTW calls on Nashua's
AM 900 (ex-WMVU) beginning late last week; it took more than a week
for the calls to move from FCC posting to on-air reality at the
station, which is the successor to the original WOTW that lived from
1947 until the late eighties.

*The big news from VERMONT is a whole slew (well, OK, nine) of LPFM
grants to the Vermont Department of Transportation. The nine are: 93.3
Rutland, 94.9 Middlebury, 95.9 Fairlee, 96.5 Thetford, 96.9 Middlesex,
98.5 Boltonville, 98.9 Manchester, 99.1 West Dover and 99.5 Putney.

And a very happy anniversary to our friends at Vermont Public Radio;
they signed on WVPR (89.5 Windsor) 25 years ago Tuesday (August 13),
and have been growing ever since. VPR marks the anniversary day with a
special call-in show and some neat historic features at the
www.vpr.org Web site, as well. Congratulations!

*And with that, we're back on schedule. Stay tuned for a new Tower
Site of the Week on Wednesday, as we visit the highest spot in Vermont
- and we'll be back here with more NERW news next Monday. Stay tuned!

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

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