NERW 1/6/03: Rumba No More

[fybush@gwind.pair.com]

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                             January 6, 2003

IN THIS ISSUE:

*PENNSYLVANIA: Kalina's In, Barsky's Out at Greater Media
*NEW JERSEY: A Reprieve for WKMB
*NEW YORK: Big City Sale Means End of "Rumba"

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

*Radio listeners in PENNSYLVANIA's largest market can be forgiven if
they're a little confused in the morning this week - and it has
nothing to do with New Year's revelry, just some staffing changes at
two Greater Media FMs.

We'll start with struggling hot AC WMWX (95.7), which brought familiar
Philly voice Glenn Kalina to its morning airwaves this week. Mix also
brought Brian Murphy (a Philly vet most recently heard on Boston's
WODS) to middays, displacing Lauren Valle, and moved former morning
guy Joe Mama to afternoons, replacing Rick Stacy. Just to complete the
shuffle, the station won't be carrying Delilah's syndicated nighttime
show any longer; her replacement on Mix has yet to be announced.

Down the hall at WMMR (93.3), Paul Barsky's latest Philadelphia gig
has come to an end. With Barsky's contract not being renewed, 'MMR is
using sports guy "Vinnie the Crumb" and former WHFS Washington jock
Graeme to handle mornings until a permanent replacement is named.

Meanwhile on TV, say goodbye to the Westinghouse-style "3" logo at
KYW-TV; it's now "CBS 3" with a new on-air look.

Moving north into the Lehigh Valley, it wasn't a very happy New Year
at WYNS (1160 Lehighton). The little AM station north of Allentown
went silent for a day after owner Ragan Henry pulled the plug, saying
the station was losing money and would be put on the block. But while
WYNS' oldies format is history, the signal itself is back on the air,
under LMA to Nassau and running ESPN sports for the moment. (Useless
NERW trivia: Henry made broadcasting history nearly a quarter-century
ago here in Rochester, when his purchase of WHEC-TV from Gannett made
him the first minority owner of a network affiliate anywhere in the
country.)

Over in the Williamsport market, Backyard Broadcasting started the new
year with a new set of call letters on WSFT (107.9), which relaunches
with hotter AC as WRVH, "the River." (NERW notes that Nassau was
slapped with a cease-and-desist from Clear Channel after launching a
"River" in Easton last year; this one is even closer to WRVV in
Harrisburg, as it happens.)

And the FCC approved three new Pennsylvania LPFMs last week: 99.5
Brookville, from the Brookville schools; 100.3 Carlisle, from the Fiat
Educational Radio Association (and you thought they just made little
cars!) and 107.7 Altoona, from the Lay Stewardship Educational
Association.

*While the rumor mill keeps churning in Buffalo (where both UPN
viewers had to switch their dials from WNGS, channel 67, to WNLO,
channel 23 when that affiliation moved January 1), there's some actual
news from elsewhere in NEW YORK.

Syracuse's new "Dog" (WWDG 105.1 DeRuyter) hired its first jock,
bringing "Scorch" over from competitor WKRL (100.9 North
Syracuse)/WKRH (106.5 Minetto). Scorch had been doing mornings at
Galaxy's K-Rock; he'll be doing the 2-7 PM shift for Clear Channel's
new rocker.

South of Syracuse, oldies fans in the Cortland area have a station to
call their own again. A few months after WKRT (920 Cortland) switched
from oldies to talk, locally-owned WXHC (101.5 Homer) has dropped its
AC format to become "Oldies 101.5."

Former WTVH (Channel 5) GM Gary Wordlaw has been in the headlines in
Seattle; he's taking over as GM of Viacom's KSTW (Channel 11) out
there, and this week he announced that he'll restore news to that
station through an alliance with Belo's KIRO-TV (Channel 7). which
will produce a 10 PM newscast for the UPN affiliate. (It's an
interesting pairing; KSTW and KIRO have passed the CBS affiliation
back and forth between them over the decades, most recently in the
late 90s when CBS left KIRO for KSTW, only to return a few years
later.)

An old familiar callsign is back on the airwaves in Albany. WABY was
the call on AM 1400 there for decades, but disappeared last year when
that frequency became WHTR, the AM simulcast of Galaxy's ill-fated FM
talk format. Now the WABY calls are back on the air, this time on
Ernie Anastos' "Moon 1160," the former WMVI in Mechanicville. (NERW
wonders if the AM 1400 tower alongside I-90 in Albany still displays
the WABY calls...)

And up in the Saratoga market, Vox's WNYQ (105.7 Queensbury) has
relaunched for the new year as "Q105.7"; no major changes to its hot
AC format, though.

Down in the New York market, the end appears to be very near for
"Rumba 107," the latest format on the Big City quadcast at 107.1 (WYNY
Briarcliff Manor NY, WWXY Hampton Bays NY, WWYY Belvidere NJ, WWZY
Long Branch NJ). With the stations changing hands to Nassau soon (for
a reported $43 million), the Rumba Web site is already down and we
hear the jocks at the Spanish-English hybrid CHR are out of
work. We'll be spending some time in the New York market later this
month, so stay tuned for the latest on this one.

*One other bit of NEW JERSEY news: fans of the old-time country on
WKMB (1070 Stirling) have won at least a temporary reprieve. While the
station was to have switched to gospel music on New Year's Day,
listeners down there are still hearing the old format at presstime,
and we hear the deal to sell the station may have hit a hitch...

*A MASSACHUSETTS talk star is getting a new syndicator, as WRKO (680
Boston)'s Howie Carr moves from ABC to John Garabedian's Superradio,
which is promising a new push to get more affiliates around the
country for Carr, whose primary distribution at the moment is within
New England.

Fans of "Hillbilly at Harvard" host Brian Sinclair will want to mark
January 24 on their calendars; that's when a memorial service will be
held for the WHRB (95.3 Cambridge) host, who did the weekend bluegrass
show for 36 years, until his death December 30 at age 62. The service
will start at 3 PM at Harvard's Memorial Church.

*From VERMONT comes word of an awfully small-market noncompete battle
way up in the Northeast Kingdom. It concerns Brendon Lynch, the WKXH
(105.5 St. Johnsbury) jock who moved over to WMOO (92.1 Derby Line)
about a year ago. Lynch signed a three-year, 50-mile noncompete
agreement, reports the St. Johnsbury Caledonian-Record, but when he
was dismissed from WMOO last August, he went back to WKXH, well within
that 50-mile radius. A judge will hear WMOO's case against Lynch and
WKXH in March.

*The New Year stunting ended on the NEW HAMPSHIRE seacoast without
much change for WQSO (96.7 Rochester), which went back to playing the
hits of the 60s and 70s with just one difference: instead of calling
itself "Oldies 96.7," it's now "the Wave."

*In MAINE, we hear the classic rock simulcast between WFZX (101.7
Searsport) and WNSX (97.7 Winter Harbor) will soon come to an
end. WFZX keeps the "Fox" identity, while WNSX will be flipping to Fox
Sports.

*And with CANADA's regulators taking two weeks off for the holidays,
there's not much to report from north of the border, with the
exception of two new TV callsigns in Toronto. CJMT-TV is the call on
Rogers' "OMNI.2," channel 44 in Toronto - matching older sibling CFMT
on channel 47. And when Craig turns on its new "Toronto One" service
on channel 52 later this spring, it'll be with the calls CJIS-TV. Now
you know...

-----------------------NorthEast Radio Watch------------------------
                       (c)2003 Scott Fybush
                          www.fybush.com

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