NERW 12/30/02: WAWZ Wakes Up

[fybush@gwind.pair.com]

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                             December 30, 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:

*NEW JERSEY: WAWZ Gets Contemporary
*PENNSYLVANIA: "Buzz" Goes to "the Mountain"
*NEW YORK: Syracuse Goes to "the Dog" 

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

(In addition to this report, don't forget NERW's 2002 Year in Review,
now available at www.fybush.com!)

LATE UPDATE: The last big radio story of 2002 turns out to be the sale
of Big City's four 107.1 signals covering most of the New York
suburbs. The buyer, announced early on the morning of New Year's Eve,
is Nassau - already a big player in those suburban areas. Nassau will
pay $43 million for WYNY (107.1 Briarcliff Manor) in Westchester
County (where Nassau tried to buy many of the stations that are now in
the Cumulus cluster about two years ago), WWXY (107.1 Hampton Bays) at
the tip of Long Island (where Nassau owns nothing), WWYY (107.1
Belvidere NJ) serving the Poconos (where Nassau already has a base
with WSBG/WVPO/WILT) and WWZY (107.1 Long Branch NJ) on the Jersey
Shore. NERW expects a couple of the stations to be spun...stay tuned
in 2003!

*Connoisseurs of the FM dial have long looked upon WAWZ (99.1) in
Zarephath, NEW JERSEY as one of the biggest sleeping giants on the
band. Its 50,000 watts blanket an area that stretches from just
outside New York City to just north of Philadelphia, serving millions
of listeners in one of the richest suburban markets in America.

Yet for decades, WAWZ has changed its sound almost not at all, running
a blend of preachers and religious music that would have sounded right
at home in the mid-1960s.

But now change is coming to this sleepy corner of the metropolitan FM
dial, and quickly: WAWZ's owner, Pillar of Fire, has pulled the plug
on most of the preaching (and most of WAWZ's local news programming,
too), flipping the station to full-time contemporary Christian
music. By the end of February, WAWZ will begin accepting advertising
and cease soliciting listener donations.

A play to keep Salem from launching its very successful "Fish" format
in the market? Just a recognition that it's not 1965 anymore? We'll
keep you posted as the changes at WAWZ play out in the new year.

Down on the AM dial, the jocks on WKMB (1070 Stirling) are saying
their goodbyes this week; the station's wonderfully diverse country
format disappears New Year's Day, to be replaced by gospel under its
new ownership. We understand WKMB's airstaff will stay in place for
the new format, at least for now.

*The post-Christmas format changes came hot and heavy last week, and
nowhere more dramatically than in PENNSYLVANIA, where Entercom pulled
the plug on its "Buzz" 80s simulcast on WBZJ (102.3 Pittston) and WBZH
(103.1 Freeland) after a month of holiday-music stunting. In their
place is "The Mountain," WAMT (102.3) and WDMT (103.1), playing
classic hits with liners tweaking other stations in the market for too
much talk and too many commercials. (Entercom has the trademark for
"The Mountain," which explains why WKAB 103.5 over in Berwick stopped
using that moniker rather suddenly last month, becoming "Classic Hits
103.5" instead...)

Down in Reading, WRAW (1340) flipped from satellite standards to
satellite oldies, while over in the Pittsburgh market, the talk format
launched on WURP (1550 Braddock) with a lineup that includes Don Imus,
G. Gordon Liddy and Don & Mike. (And while the Radiowerks folks from
WBZV 1400 in Loretto are running WURP, we understand their planned
purchase of WNCC 950/WHPA 93.5 in Barnesboro and WRDD 1580 in
Ebensburg, north of Johnstown, has hit some snags; WHPA has dropped
the modern rock "Point" format it was running under an LMA, returning
to AC as "The Heart.")

And one TV note: Pittsburgh's WQED will announce sometime next month
who's won the bidding for WQEX (Channel 16), the old secondary PBS
station that's being sold off as a commercial outlet. Will this sale
finally go through? Stay tuned...

*Into NEW YORK we go, with plenty of post-Christmas format changes to
report, starting here in Rochester, where Clear Channel stopped
spinning holiday tunes on "Rudolph Radio" WLCL (107.3 South Bristol)
at 5:00 Christmas evening, after several hours of promos in which
"Santa" answered a letter from "Mikey D. of Rochester" asking for a
country music station.

Suppose Mike Doyle, general manager of Entercom's ratings behemoth
WBEE-FM (92.5) was listening? He needn't have worried too much; after
just two days of "Country 107.3," with a 10-song playlist and one
choppily-cut jingle, the real new format on Clear Channel's rimshotter
debuted last Friday at 5: classic rock "107.3 the Fox."

(NERW notes that this is the second time Clear Channel has toyed with
country as a stunt on 107.3; before the station took on the rhythmic
oldies "Cool 107" identity that just disappeared around Thanksgiving,
it spent two hours as "Big Cow 107.3," playing country and baiting
WBEE.)

Down the Thruway in Syracuse, Clear Channel rimshotter WXBB (105.1
DeRuyter) had flipped to holiday tunes a few weeks back; on Christmas
it went to an all-Barking Dogs format as "Canine 105" before
relaunching as "New Rock 105, the Dog."

This one's a head-on challenge to Galaxy's "K-Rock" WKRL (100.9 North
Syracuse), albeit on a signal that doesn't do well in the city itself,
or even in the close-in suburbs. Look for new calls on this one
sometime next week: WWDG.

Steve Medicis (of CNYMedia.com fame) tipped us off to another
post-Christmas change: Utica-market WRFM (93.5 Remsen) flipped out of
holiday music and away from soft AC "Warm," heading to the other end
of the thermometer as "Cool 93.5." WRFM - make that WUCL now, Steve
says - is now playing songs from the 60s and 70s, but don't call it
"oldies" - at least, that's not what they're calling it on the air,
especially against competitor "Oldiez 96," WODZ (96.1 Rome).

Down in New York City, "Dandy" Dan Daniel does his last weekday shift
on WCBS-FM (101.1) Tuesday, capping a run of more than three decades
on the Big Apple's airwaves, beginning back in the "Good Guy" days at
WMCA (570). Dan Taylor will take over the 9-noon shift, while ol'
Triple D takes a few months off, returning to CBS-FM's weekend
schedule in the spring.

(And speaking of classic jocks and classic stations, the rumors of a
WKBW revival continue in Buffalo; Hank Nevins has departed Citadel's
WHTT and is reportedly headed over to Entercom after the New Year...)

*In MASSACHUSETTS, there's a new programming staff at oldies WORC-FM
(98.9 Webster), as Jay Beau Jones comes on board as PD, accompanied by
Rick Cabral in the APD chair. Jones brings big-market experience to
Citadel's Worcester stations; he put "Jammin' Oldies" on the air in
Chicago a few years back at the old WUBT (103.5). Jones will also be
doing the 2-7 PM shift on sister hot AC WXLO (104.5 Fitchburg) for
Citadel.

And we're sorry to report the death of the original "Hillbilly at
Harvard," Brian Sinclair, who's hosted that Saturday-morning mountain
music fixture on WHRB (95.3 Cambridge) for 36 years. Sinclair was
suffering from leukemia; he died Saturday (Dec. 28) at the age of
62. His cohost, "Cousin" Lynn Joiner, will continue the show.

*From VERMONT comes word of some management changes for the New Year
at the Vox stations. In Rutland, Dale Brooks replaces Jay Gadon as GM
of WEXP (101.5 Brandon)/WVAY (100.7 Wilmington), while Kris Bjorkman
is named general sales manager of WEXP-WVAY as well as WORK/WSNO/WWFY
in Barre and WZEC down in Bennington. Across the line in
Massachusetts, Laura Freed returns to new Vox purchase WBEC AM-FM as
general manager, while in NEW HAMPSHIRE, Bob Frisch becomes GM of
Vox's WOTX/WTPL in Concord, with Brit Johnson staying on board as GM
of sister stations WJYY/WNHI. 

Speaking of the Granite State, there's something new coming to Clear
Channel's WQSO (96.7 Rochester), which dumped oldies for holiday music
a few weeks ago.

You can't keep stunting with all-Christmas after December 25, of
course - so WQSO is now playing "All New Year's, All The Time," which
means lots of Auld Lang Syne for the Seacoast; expect a new format any
day now, though.

*The end of Christmas music brought a new slogan to RHODE ISLAND, as
WSNE (93.3 Taunton MA) returned to its AC format with a new nickname,
"Star 93.3." Expect a slightly hotter AC mix in the new year on this
one, we're told...

*And we have one obituary to report from CANADA: Carl Redhead, the
vice president and general manager of urban CFXJ (Flow 93.5), died
December 22.

Redhead came to CFXJ, where he was a partner in owner Milestone
Communications, from a career that included a long stint as vice
president and assistant general manager at "Radio 1540 Ltd.," the
parent company of ethnic broadcaster CHIN (100.7/1540). Redhead, a
native of Trinidad, is survived by his wife, Lenore, as well as two
sons and four grandchildren.

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

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