NERW 9/4: Labor Day Follies

[fybush@gwind.pair.com]

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                            September 4, 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:

*NEW HAMPSHIRE/VERMONT: "Bob" Returns to Upper Valley
*CANADA: Two FMs, AM Swap in Niagara Falls
*NEW YORK: Hot Talk Cools in Albany

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

We're back from a long weekend in greater Boston, where it was great
to see some of you at our NERW dinner last Friday, and to talk to
others of you on WJIB's "Let's Talk About Radio" (stay tuned for part
two of our special edition of LTAR next Sunday at 11 AM on AM 740) and
on what turned out to be a marathon five-hour guest stint with Steve
LeVeille on WBZ Sunday night. Here's what was happening in the world
of radio in the meantime...

*A country music war is brewing in the Upper Valley region of VERMONT
and NEW HAMPSHIRE, where the dial was spinning so fast last week that
even some of the radio folks we know up there had a hard time keeping
it all straight. Here's what we know:

Vox Media returned the "Bob Country" name and format to the dial last
Friday (Aug. 30), replacing "Star" soft AC on WSSH (95.3 White River
Junction) and WZSH (107.1 Bellows Falls). The "Bob" nickname was last
heard on WMXR (93.9 Woodstock) and WCFR-FM (93.5 Springfield, now
WXKK) a couple of summers ago, before being pulled by Clear Channel to
leave its "Kixx" (WXXK 100.5 Lebanon NH) as the only country outlet in
the market.

Vox's version of "Bob" includes original Bob PD Heath Cole, who also
keeps his PD duties at oldies WWOD (104.3 Hartford)/WCFR (96.3 Walpole
NH), with a slate of live and local voices to come.

"The battle is on! Let the fun begin!" says Vox's Ken Barlow of the
format war with Kixx.

Elsewhere in the Green Mountain State, "The Lake", WLKC (103.3
Waterbury), dropped its soft AC sounds over the weekend and began
stunting with quiet nature sounds (mostly birds chirping, which has
made for a relaxing afternoon putting this issue together!) and
occasional IDs proclaiming the station to be "Pure Vermont Radio" and
"environmentally sound."

And heading south, WEQX (102.7 Manchester) and PD Alexa Tobin have
parted ways, with no successor named yet.

Back to New England in a bit - but the other big Labor Day news was
coming out of NEW YORK, where the long weekend brought a new talk
station to Long Island and took a talk station away from Albany.

Long Island first: Tuesday (Sep. 3) marked the debut of WLIE (540
Islip), the new talker that replaces standards WLUX on the
frequency. The lineup begins with David Weiss and Tracy Burgess doing
a morning news block, followed by live, local talk with Ed Tyll, John
Gomez and Mike Siegel. Other voices heard on the new station include
Jim Bohannon, Mike Gallagher and Michael Medved (in late-night tape
delay). Brokered programming continues in the evening on 540 for now.

Elsewhere on the island, Charlie Lombardo is out as PD of 80s pop WMJC
(94.3 Smithtown), as rumors continue to swirl about a possible format
change at the low-rated station.

In New York City, Scott Elberg has resigned as VP/GM of Clear
Channel's WHTZ (100.3 Newark NJ), WAXQ (104.3) and WKTU (103.5 Lake
Success). Market manager Andy Rosen is handling Elberg's duties for
now.

Meanwhile up in Albany, we caught the first day of the new format on
WHTR-FM (93.7 Scotia) and WHTR (1400 Albany), as owner Galaxy pulls
the hot talk and replaces it with modern rock as "K-Rock." The Albany
K-Rock isn't a straight simulcast of its sisters in Utica (WKLL 94.9
Frankfort) and Syracuse (WKRL 100.9 N. Syracuse/WKRH 106.5 Minetto),
but the music mix sounded familiar.

Across town at Regent modern rocker WQBK (103.9 Rensselaer)/WQBJ
(103.5 Cobleskill), there's a new PD on the way, just in time to fend
off the challenge from K-Rock. He's Phil Conn, who arrives in Albany
after just three weeks at KRXE in Lafayette, Louisiana.

And there's more format change action in the Hudson Valley: the
"Oldies 97" moniker disappeared from WCZX (97.7 Hyde Park) and WZAD
(97.3 Wurtsboro) over the weekend, along with the 50s oldies that had
been part of the stations' format. In its place is an increased
emphasis on 60s, 70s and 80s pop and a new nickname of "Mix 97," as
well as a new Web site at www.mix97fm.com.

Syracuse's K-Rock lost its morning man last week with the departure of
"Scorch" from the station; night guy J.J. Herr is doing mornings on
WKRL and WKRH for now. Down the hall, "Sunny 102" (WZUN 102.1 Phoenix)
segued from 80s and 90s AC back to the softer, 60s and 70s-heavy, AC
format it launched with a few years back. Across town at Clear
Channel's "Hot 107.9" (WWHT), Erin Bristol is inbound from WMT-FM
(96.5) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to be the new PD, replacing the
Pittsburgh-bound Jason Kidd. And after a summer of silence, Syracuse
University's "Z89" (WJPZ 89.1) is back on the air stunting, with
sign-on set for September 8.

One personnel move to report in Rochester while we were away: WPXY
(97.9) night guy Diesel is moving across the street to do afternoons
for Clear Channel CHR competitor "Kiss" (WKGS 106.7 Irondequoit). His
move means two former 98PXY voices will now be heard on Kiss instead,
since Diesel's shift will be followed by voicetracks from
Chicago-based Java Joel - another former 'PXY night slammer. (It will
be a few weeks before PXY PD Mike Danger can get to work on a
replacement: he got married over Labor Day and is away on his
honeymoon!)

Up in Watertown, we're told the Route 12 towers of the old WOTT (1410,
now WNER) came down last week; the site on Gifford Street Road has
been silent for more than a year since 1410 moved to the towers of
co-owned WTNY (790) south of town.

Binghamton radio fans have a new site to check out: Jon Scaptura has
his Binghamton Radio Archives up and running at
www.scaptura.com/radio, and it's a must-visit for anyone with even a
passing interest in this most interesting small radio market.

And in Buffalo, Mark Leitner is leaving WBEN (930) to become a teacher
at Lockport High School. We hear the station is still looking for
someone to fill his shoes in the newsroom.

*Aside from Mark's departure, all of this week's Buffalo news is
really taking place across the river in CANADA - and what a week it's
been!

The big shuffle in the Niagara Region began over the weekend with the
disappearance of modern AC from CKEY-FM (101.1 Fort Erie), replaced by
a computerized countdown voice which so unnerved some residents that
they asked the Niagara Regional Police to check in and make sure
nothing was wrong at the station.

It turned out to be a stunt leading to a new dance-CHR format at the
former "River," newly reborn as "Wild 101.1." But the start of that
new station was just one of several shifts in the works over in
Niagara Falls, Ontario. Labor Day also brought the end of the AC/full
service format on CJRN (710 Niagara Falls), replaced by modern AC as
"The River 710."

That, however, is only a temporary format: on Friday morning at 6,
"The River" will make its final move, back to FM on CFLZ (105.1
Niagara Falls). The travelers' information programming that had been
heard on CFLZ, including interminable ads for Casino Niagara, will
move to 710 that morning, with a promise of more live talk and tourist
information to come.

It's a new challenge for Buffalo CHR WKSE (98.5 Niagara Falls) and
urban WBLK (93.7 Depew), both of which have had almost no competition
in years; it's bad news for fans of "The River," who will have to try
pretty hard to hear the 105.1 signal from the top of the Skylon Tower
anywhere much beyond Niagara Falls, N.Y. and Canada.

Up in Toronto, the fallout continues from the demise of CHUM's "Team"
sports format. We're told 44 people lost their jobs when the plug was
pulled last week on the national network and its local outlets in
Halifax, Kingston, Toronto, Kitchener/Waterloo and Winnipeg; among the
casualties was the CHUM National News operation based in Toronto.

On the local level, CHUM (1050) itself is back to oldies, with Brian
Henderson in mornings and voicetracks the rest of the day, just as it
was before that format had its plug pulled in May 2001. Voicetracked
oldies are back as well at CKKW (1090 Kitchener), we're
told. Kingston's CKLC (1380) is back to the oldies/AC format it used
before the launch of "The Team," while out in Halifax, CJCH (920) is
back to news-talk, with the "Hotline" local talk show returning to 920
from CFDR (Kixx 780). The Team continues in Ottawa (CFGO 1200) and
Montreal (CKGM 990).

Speaking of Montreal, the long-delayed deal to sell Telemedia's radio
properties to Astral Media is finally set to proceed, now that Astral
has agreed to spin off its Quebec AM holdings to a third party.

The C$12.75 million deal will see television broadcasters TVA and
Radio Nord acquiring most of the news-talk "Radio-Media" network from
Astral. Included in the deal are CJRC (1150 Gatineau), CKRS (590
Jonquiere) and CKSM (1220 Shawinigan), which had been owned by Astral;
CHLT (630 Sherbrooke), CHLN (550 Trois-Rivieres) and CKTS (900
Sherbrooke), which had been owned by Telemedia; and CKAC (730
Montreal) and CHRC (800 Quebec), which were owned by the Radio-Media
partnership between Astral and Tele-Media. TVA and Radio Nord will
also acquire CFOM (102.9 Levis) from Astral.

What's left? Astral will still get the Rock-Detente FM network to go
with its existing Energie FM network, giving it two FM voices in just
about every major Quebec city; it also gets the Telemedia stations in
the Maritimes.

One more Radio Nord item: the company has been granted 97.1 as the
frequency for its new classical station in Ottawa/Hull. Radio Nord had
originally applied for, but was denied, 97.9 MHz for the station.

Back in Ontario, the CBC is buying six TV stations from commercial
competitor CTV, putting an end to decades of "twin-stick" operation in
the northern part of the province. CKNC (Channel 9) in Sudbury, CFCL
(Channel 6) in Timmins, CJIC (Channel 5) in Sault Ste. Marie and CHNB
(Channel 4) in North Bay, along with CFCL repeaters in Kapuskasing and
Kearns, had been operated as CBC outlets run jointly with CTV
affiliates in each city ever since the days of the old "Mid Canada TV"
ownership up there. In recent years, after CTV acquired Mid-Canada,
the CBC side of the operation ran the network schedule and a few
syndicated shows, but all the local programming was seen on the CTV
side of the twin-sticks.

Now the CBC affiliates, along with former "twin-stick" CBC affiliates
in Saskatchewan, will become CBC owned-and-operated stations, relaying
(in the case of the Ontario stations, anyway) CBLT from Toronto to
northern Ontario. NERW notes that the move leaves only Corus' CKWS in
Kingston and CHEX in Peterborough as privately-owned CBC affiliates in
eastern Canada. No word on how much the CBC is paying for the
stations...

And speaking of CBC Television, Friday marks its 50th anniversary, not
to mention the 50th anniversary of television in Canada. The network
(and its French counterpart, Radio-Canada) have plenty of specials
planned to mark the occasion, including a big one Sunday night
September 8 (the anniversary of the debut of CBLT in Toronto); check
out the whole schedule at cbc.ca/tv50th. (And check out Tower Site of
the Week on Thursday for our look back at the CBC's old tower in
Toronto, its current CN Tower site and Montreal's massive Mount Royal
stick.)

A few more notes from around eastern Canada: Montreal's CJAD (800) has
dropped Laura Schlessinger's show from its overnight exile slot,
replacing it with more "best-of" hours of daytime repeats. We're sorry
to report the death, at age 74, of Bill Roberts, who was CJAD's
morning man in the 50s and 60s. Roberts died last weekend at his home
in Alexandria, Ontario. And in Hamilton, Jay Farr joins "Big D"
(Darrin Laidman) to make up the new morning team at "Y108" CJXY
(107.9).

*We'll go back to the states by way of MASSACHUSETTS, where we heard
WARL (1320 Attleboro) stunting over the weekend. It seems that the
"Web Access Radio Live" format we panned here last year lived down to
our expectations; now the station just north of Providence has brought
in Charlie Profit (from sister station WNTY 990 Southington CT) as its
GM, with all signs leaning towards an urban music format under the
"Power" nickname. For now, it's nonstop music on 1320 (though we'd
have liked to have heard at least one legal ID in several hours of
listening...)

Up in Boston, Nik Carter makes the move from middays back to afternoon
drive at WBCN (104.1), replacing Opie and Anthony and kicking off a
search for a new middayer at the reinvigorated rock outlet. Across
town at WFNX (101.7 Lynn), PD Cruze says he's the permanent morning
guy at the modern rocker, amidst some noisy business in the trades
from jocks "Dick and Justice," who quit their jobs at KCXX in San
Bernardino on what they say was a promise of mornings at WFNX, only to
find that their old station had already filled their gigs when the
'FNX deal failed to materialize.

And WGBH (89.7 Boston) is apparently staying put on its namesake Great
Blue Hill in Milton; the station's application to move to the WBZ-TV
tower in Needham was dismissed by the FCC this week.

*Just one NEW JERSEY note this week: as predicted, WCHR (920 Trenton)
dropped religion over the weekend to become "ESPN Radio 920," thus
finishing off the format swap that saw the religion move up the dial
to WJHR (1040 Flemington), the former home of ESPN in the area.

*In PENNSYLVANIA, Renda Broadcasting added to its Keystone State
holdings by picking up WCCS (1160 Homer City) from Raymark
Broadcasting for a reported $650,000. The station, just south of Jimmy
Stewart's hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania, is Renda's first in the
market; it's best known in that part of the world for its holdings in
Pittsburgh, which include WPTT (1360 McKeesport), WJAS (1320) and WSHH
(99.7).

And just across the state line in Maryland, Dame completes its
cross-border format swap by flipping WQCM (96.7 Halfway MD) to urban
CHR as "Wild 96.7," WDLD. The WQCM calls and rock format moved last
month to the former country "I-94.3," WIHR (94.3 Greencastle PA), near
Chambersburg.

*And that's it for another week! Please note that the next two issues
will appear on fybush.com Tuesday, September 10 and 17; we'll get back
to regular Monday publication the following week, Sept. 23. The
September 10 issue will feature a special report, "9/11 + 1," with
some never-before-published details about how New York's broadcasters
coped with the loss of the World Trade Center transmission facilities;
don't miss it!

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

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