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------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                             February 3, 2003

IN THIS ISSUE:

*CONNECTICUT: Smith & Barber Show Ends After 18 Years
*MASSACHUSETTS: WARE Returns to Oldies
*NEW JERSEY: NJ101.5 Simulcast Back on FM in Atlantic City

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

*CONNECTICUT's longest-running morning team hung up their headphones
last week after nearly two decades on the air - and not completely
willingly. It's been no secret for the last year or so that Bruce
Barber was looking to leave the "Smith & Barber" morning show on WPLR
(99.1 New Haven), but it still came as a surprise to listeners when
the show was nowhere to be found last Friday morning.

Station officials say Barber had mentioned several times that he was
getting bored with the show; they considered keeping co-host Brian
Smith as a solo act, but decided instead to buy out the rest of the
duo's contracts. The decision came as a surprise to Smith, who tells
Connecticut media outlets he wasn't expecting the show to end when it
did.

The show's sidekicks, Megan Doll and Billy Winn, will stay on board
when WPLR's new morning show launches later this month. Chaz and AJ
come to the Cox rocker from Barnstable's WRCN (103.9 Riverhead) on
Long Island; Chaz is a former night jock at WPLR.

Barber tells the New Haven Register that he's planning to start an
Internet site to give parents advice on raising children; Smith says
he has some possibilities but nothing definite. And while Cox offered
the pair a chance to do a farewell show on Friday, they declined,
saying it's hard to wrap up 18 years in four hours.

One other bit of Nutmeg State news: WHCT-LP (Channel 69) in Hartford
has been granted a license to cover for its move down to channel
38. We'd love to hear from readers in the area who can tell us what
this one is programming lately!

 *MASSACHUSETTS is home to one of the two stations in America whose
call letters are the same as its city of license (WACO in Waco, Texas
being the other) - and listeners to WARE (1250) in Ware have something
new to enjoy this week.

New owner Success Signal Broadcasting (helmed by Marshall Sanft,
former owner of WESO in Southbridge) launched an oldies format on WARE
Saturday, featuring veteran central Massachusetts jock Fred King in
morning drive, a daily "Polka Hour" from 11 to noon (and all morning
on Sunday), and an interesting lineup of local talk shows on
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Dennis Jackson (of WQQQ/WMEX/WRIP
fame) has a hand in this one too; he and programmer Jay "Biggie" Fink
are behind the deep, deep oldies format on the 5000-watter, which
blankets the territory between Springfield and Worcester.

More deep oldies are being heard at 1520 on the dial: we hear that
WGAM (1520 Greenfield) has finally changed calls to WIZZ and is
running commercial-free for the moment.

The local cable newscasts that served Lowell and Cape Cod for more
than a decade are history; cost-cutting at AT&T Broadband pulled the
shows off the "AT&T 3" channel, their most recent homes - and left a
number of talented small-market newspeople out of work.

The FCC granted a CP this week for the new channel 51 in Pittsfield;
as expected, the Albany-market station will be on Berry Mountain,
northwest of Pittsfield, running 1580 kW visual.

Think the noncommercial FM dial is crowded enough in eastern
Massachusetts? California-based Calvary Satellite Network doesn't; its
two-year-old application for a new station on 90.5 in Scituate was
accepted for filing this week. It proposes 5 watts vertical, 21.6 kW
horizontal at 88 meters above average terrain, from a site nowhere
near Scituate on route 3A near Manomet, southeast of Plymouth - with a
directional antenna, yet, nulled towards Cape Cod (and adjacents WCCT
90.3 and WKKL 90.7). All that, and do you think there will be even a
minute of local programming aimed at Scituate? Insert the usual rant
here...

Down in the New Bedford market, WFHN (107.1 Fairhaven) was granted a
license this week for its transmitter site at UMass Dartmouth - even
though the station wants to move back to its old site at Popes Island,
closer to downtown New Bedford. WFHN had been operating from Fairhaven
under a construction permit for the last couple of years; if it hadn't
filed for a license, the CP would have expired.

*Across the line in RHODE ISLAND, the FCC has flagged the proposed
sale of WWKX (106.3 Woonsocket) and WAKX (102.7 Narragansett Pier) to
Citadel; that's no great surprise, given Citadel's market share in the
Providence market - but we don't expect much delay in the sale as a
result.

The proposed sale of WALE (990 Greenville) to Jerry Evans' Moon Song
Broadcasting never went through last year - and now owner Francis
Battaglia has an additional headache in addition to his Chapter 11
bankruptcy proceedings: the FCC has fined him $4,000 for not reducing
the power at his KFNX (1100 Cave Creek-Phoenix AZ) at sunset. (NERW
hears this has been a problem at WALE, as well...)

*A format change in NEW HAMPSHIRE: WLTN (1400 Littleton) flips from
news-talk to oldies; the station (and sister WLTN-FM 96.7 Lisbon) is
being run by veteran New England broadcaster Barry Lunderville (who
owns nearby WXXS 102.3) under an LMA, with an option to buy.

Down in Keene, the FCC has cancelled the license of W288AM (105.5);
last we heard, the translator had been relaying WRSY (101.5 Marlboro
VT).

*MAINE Public Broadcasting announced budget cuts last week, including
cutting back six jobs. The statewide broadcaster says it's $385,000
short, thanks to dropoffs in viewer donations and cuts in state
funding. It will add pledge drives and eliminate weekly production of
its "Speaking in Maine" radio show to help make ends meet.

Winslow's WWWA (95.3) has applied to boost power and move its
transmitter. The religious station wants to become a class C3, running
5800 watts at 205 meters from a new site just east of Norridgewock.

*Down to NEW JERSEY we'll go, next, to find another change of
simulcast at Millennium's cluster in the Atlantic City market.

WKXW (101.5 Trenton)'s talk programming moved last year from WBSS
(97.3 Millville, now hot AC "Mix" WIXM) to WKXW (1450 Atlantic City,
the former WFPG) - and at the same time, the hot AC moved from "Shore"
WKOE (106.3 Ocean City) to WIXM.

WKOE became CHR "Hot 106.3," but it didn't last; as of Saturday, "Hot"
is gone and WKOE now carries the simulcast from "New Jersey 101.5."
What of WKXW(AM), then? It's now doing ESPN radio, still with Harry
Hurley's local morning show.

Over in Brigantine, Calvary Satellite Network has been granted a new
signal on 90.5. The new station will run 1.31 kw, vertical only, at 33
meters - with a directional antenna from a site just east of
Smithville, New Jersey.

*Still no new format at NEW YORK's WNEW (102.7), though Allan
Sniffen's New York Radio Message Board has been carrying some very
detailed descriptions of a female-leaning, entertainment-heavy pop
format to be programmed by John Sykes and Andy Schuon (of MTV and VH1
fame). With the stunting now promoting a new station coming "this
spring," it sounds as though it may be a few months before we see
whether this one pans out or not...

South of Albany, WCKL (560 Catskill) is changing hands from Concord
Media to "Black United Fund of New York"; no word yet on what changes
might come to the station, which is now doing standards.

Albany talk host J.R. Gach has a new home: the former WGY (810
Schenectady) afternoon host, whose career there ended when he was
diagnosed with mental illness last year, is now doing mornings on
Galaxy rocker WKRD (93.7 Scotia).

In Kingston, WBPM (94.3) is now being run by Cumulus from its Pendell
Road studios in Poughkeepsie; "Cool 94.3" has added a local morning
show with Nick Robbins (from sister station WCZX 97.7.)

Up in the Glens Falls market, Vox has parted ways with WNYQ (105.7
Queensbury) program director Jackie Donovan; Justin Clapp adds WNYQ
programming duties to his operations manager title at the cluster
there, while Chad Herron (late of WLZW in Utica) comes on board as
afternoon jock/production director.

Rochester jazz station WGMC (90.1 Greece) had its application for a
power increase returned this week by the FCC; we'll keep you posted as
this one progresses.

And over in Buffalo, WWKB (1520) finished off its first week of oldies
with plenty of publicity and message-board chatter - and spent most of
the week as the only station on the radio here at NERW Central. So
far, we're enjoying most of what we're hearing, especially when it
comes to Jackson Armstrong's screaming 6-10 PM shift, which just may
be the best voicetracking we've ever heard. We're still a little
disconcerted by hearing the early 60s "Futuresonic" jingles mixed in
with 70s rock, but it's still early in the game over there, and we're
sure some of those kinks will be worked out as 'KB gets back on its
feet after all these years.

On the DTV front, Clear Channel won extensions this week for WIXT-DT
(Channel 17) in Syracuse and WETM-DT (Channel 2) in Elmira. Up in
Watertown, expect WWNY-DT (Channel 35) on the air within a few months,
we're told; on the analog side, WWNY-TV (Channel 7) morning host Mark
Mason has accepted a buyout offer and will soon be leaving the CBS
affiliate.

We're very sorry to have to report the death of Stan Martin, whose
career in New York City radio included stops at WPIX-FM, WHN, WKTU,
WNEW and WFAN. Martin was best known, though, for his 1992-1998 run as
program director of WQEW (1560), the last attempt at programming pop
standards on the New York City dial. Since WQEW's flip to Radio
Disney, Martin had been doing standards shows in syndication and
on-line. He suffered a stroke recently, and died Tuesday (January 28)
at Lenox Hill Hospital. Martin was 64.

We also remember Stan Hayes, who was the very first voice heard on
WINR-TV (Channel 40, now WICZ) in Binghamton when it signed on in
1957. Hayes, who later went on to be the news director/anchor on WBJA
(Channel 34, now WIVT) in the seventies, died Friday (Jan. 31).

And one late bit of news for the DXers out there: just as this issue
of NERW was going to press, we heard from WBBR (1130) chief engineer
Bob Janney, who tells us there will be a silent period on WBBR and
WEVD (1050) next weekend. Listen for something else on both channels
between 1:00 and 4:00 AM on Saturday morning (Feb. 8) and Sunday
morning (Feb. 9); WWDJ (970 Hackensack NJ) will also be off, at least
briefly, during those times.

*From PENNSYLVANIA comes word that oldies station WPAM (1450
Pottsville) went dark on Friday. The station had been under a
five-year LMA to crosstown WPPA (1360) and WAVT (101.9), but when that
expired, there was nobody around to run 1450. We hear it'll be back
under new management, eventually.

Philadelphia's WURD (900) is being sold as part of the gradual spinoff
of Mega Communications' non-core properties; the kilowatt daytimer
(now with 42 watts at night) goes to Levan Communications, which we
hear is associated with the former owners of crosstown WHAT
(1340). Expect the black-oriented talk that's been running on a
leased-time basis to continue under WURD's new ownership.

WQBR (99.9 Avis) has been granted its power increase; the country
station will move its tower slightly to the northeast and go up in
height, to 570 watts at 321 meters. Now if we could just hear a legal
ID there...

Bible Broadcasting was granted a license to cover last week for WYFU
(88.5 Masontown), so we'd expect that religious station is now on the
air.

And just over the state line, the three-way power increase was granted
last week for WAKZ (95.9 Sharpsville PA/Youngstown OH), WAKS (96.5
Akron OH) and WNPQ (95.9 New Philadelphia OH).

*And we'll finish things up in CANADA, where NewCap's new CIHT (89.9
Ottawa) is getting ready for a launch Friday afternoon as dance/CHR
"Planet." It could soon have company on the AM dial; "Fondation Radio
Enfant" has applied to revive the 1250 frequency (last used by
Radio-Canada's CBOF, which moved to 90.7 a decade ago) for a
French-language children's format, with 1000 watts day, 100 watts
night.

Montreal's CJAD (800) is shuffling its hosts; Andrew Carter moves from
"The World Today" in the afternoons to the morning show, while Ric
Peterson takes over afternoons.

An LPTV in Quebec City? That's what "Tele-Mag Inc." wants; it's
applying for 50 watts (!) on channel 9 for a community station there.

And out in Truro, Nova Scotia, Barry Reid's "Hope FM Ministries" wants
50 watts on 98.5 for a Christian contemporary station.

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

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