NERW 2/24: Tragedy in RI Hits Home for Radio

[fybush@gwind.pair.com]

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                            February 24, 2003

IN THIS ISSUE:

*RHODE ISLAND: Fire Aftermath Hits Radio Hard
*MAINE: WGUY Returns to Oldies
*NEW JERSEY: WMID-FM Flips to WAYV Simulcast

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

(The weekend storm across the East Coast cancelled NERW's travel plans
for the week - so we're publishing today after all...)

*The nightclub fire in West Warwick, RHODE ISLAND that killed nearly
100 people last Thursday night would certainly have been a big enough
story for the area's media outlets on its own - and will continue to
be so for weeks and months to come. But this tragedy turned out to
have an unusual amount of resonance within the media community,
beginning of course with the club's ownership.

Jeff Derderian is a familiar name and face to TV viewers in eastern
New England. Your editor remembers him from his early-nineties days
behind the scenes at WBZ-TV (Channel 4) in Boston (when yours truly
was toiling, equally behind the scenes, across the building at WBZ
radio); later, he would work for WLNE (Channel 6) in the Providence
market and then for five years as a reporter for Boston's WHDH-TV
(Channel 7). 

And, as the whole world knows by now, Jeff had just departed WHDH for
a job closer to his Rhode Island home, starting just weeks ago at WPRI
(Channel 12) in Providence. He's been off the air there since Thursday
night (when, ironically, he was working on a WPRI story about
nightclub safety, using his own club as a source of B-roll video), and
we wonder whether he'll ever be able to work in the region again -
assuming, of course, that he and his brother don't end up facing
criminal charges for the fire. More on this in the next few weeks,
we're sure.

As we go to press Monday afternoon, meanwhile, among the dozens of
people missing and presumed dead is Michael Gonsalves, the WHJY (94.1
Providence) overnight jock known on air as "The Doctor." 

The Clear Channel rocker was promoting the Great White show at
Derderian's Station nightclub. In addition to Gonsalves, who
introduced the band just minutes before the pyrotechnics went off,
several WHJY promotions staffers were inside the building but escaped
safely.

WHJY simulcast sister station WHJJ (920 Providence)'s news coverage of
the tragedy for much of Friday, then resumed its own programming with
live airshifts all weekend to allow listeners to call in and share
their grief and concern. 

Two other concertgoers who were confirmed dead over the weekend had
broadcast ties as well. Dale Latulippe, whose name was among the first
to be announced Saturday, was the son of former WRKO newsman Don
Latulippe. Dale Latulippe was a drummer and a father of a seven year
old; he was 46 years old. Also among the dead was 21 year old James
Gehan of Falmouth, Mass., a DJ at Nichols College campus station WNRC
(95.1 Dudley MA).

TUESDAY UPDATE: WHJY is now reporting that Gonsalves' body has now
been identified as being among the dead; our deepest condolences go
out to his co-workers and family. And we send our best wishes as well
to Don Latulippe, who was hospitalized after suffering an angina
attack early this morning, but hopes to be out of the hospital in time
for his son's funeral on Friday.

*The rest of the week's news: in NEW HAMPSHIRE, WPKQ (103.7 North
Conway) finally made it back on the air last Friday (Feb. 21), nearly
two weeks after the fire atop Mount Washington that destroyed the
power generators and the transmitter of sister station WHOM (94.9
Mount Washington). NERW hears that WPKQ is running at about 80% of
licensed power while awaiting a more powerful replacement generator;
its studio-transmitter link was damaged during the fire, so the signal
from parent station WOKQ (97.5 Dover) is going by ISDN to the North
Conway studios and then by analog microwave to the mountaintop. As for
WHOM, we're told the station's main antenna suffered little damage; a
replacement transmitter and STL could make it to the mountaintop later
this week.

*In MAINE, a surprise move from WGUY (102.1 Dexter); the Bangor
rimshotter dropped its smooth jazz format last week to return to
oldies, a little more than a year after flipping away from oldies the
first time.

*One of the best-known talkers in MASSACHUSETTS will make a
reappearance next weekend. Jerry Williams, a fixture at WRKO (680
Boston) for many years, will pinch-hit next Saturday for Pat Whitley's
talk show. Williams lost his full-time shift at WRKO in early 1997 and
was out of the station for good in 1998; he resurfaced briefly at
talker WMEX (1060 Natick, now WBIX) in early 2000 and more recently at
WROL (950 Boston), where he's been doing one hour of weekday afternoon
talk. We're glad to see any sign of reconciliation between the dean of
Boston talk radio and his former home, and we'll see where this all
leads...

At the other end of the dial, WWZN (1510 Boston) ditched the Mike
Adams morning show after just three months; the station is back to
Sporting News Radio in that daypart (pulling Adams off the air one
hour into his show when the news broke in the Boston Herald last
Tuesday) while negotiating with Mike Andelman (son of Eddie) to take
over wakeups there. As for Adams' planned on-air wedding in April?
We'll keep you posted...

On the TV side, the FCC granted a license to cover this week for
WHDN-LP (Channel 26), a new Boston LPTV licensed to one Guenter
Marksteiner of Florida. WHDN-LP was formerly W26CM and before that
W23AM, licensed to Laconia NH. It looks as though WHDN-LP will be
transmitting from a building near the Fleet Center in the old West End
- possibly the roof of the Tip O'Neill Federal Building - with 8200
watts into a directional antenna.

*One little bit of CONNECTICUT news: WESU (88.1 Middletown) is
changing hands, transferring ownership from the Wesleyan Broadcasting
Association to Wesleyan University itself.

*NEW YORK City has never been good territory for syndicated morning
shows - just ask Tom Joyner. His show disappeared from Emmis' WRKS
(98.7 New York) this morning, replaced by a revived "Wakeup Club" with
Jeff Foxx and Shaila, about a year after Joyner was brought in to
replace the Isaac Hayes morning show. 

NERW was in New York over the weekend, and we noticed one station
missing from the dial at our usual Rockland County listening post:
W232AL (94.3 Pomona), the Rockland link in the now-defunct "Jukebox
Radio" chain, appears to have gone silent for now. W276AQ (103.1 Fort
Lee NJ) is still simulcasting Cox oldies outlet WKHL (96.7 Stamford),
just as it was doing the last time we were down that way a month or so
ago.

Up in Westchester, Radio and Records is reporting that Nassau is
spinning newly-acquired WYNY (107.1 Briarcliff Manor) to Pamal, which
will use it as a simulcast to extend the reach of Poughkeepsie CHR
WSPK (104.7) to the south. More on this next week...

Way out on Long Island, one Isabel Sepulveda has asked the FCC to
allocate 103.3 to Water Mill as a class A channel. NERW notes that
this would knock out WSHU translator W277AB in Noyock; we also note
that there are still two unbuilt class A channels on the East End -
92.9 Southampton, for which AAA has a CP as WCSO, and 94.9 Montauk,
for which the old CP as WVZC expired a few years back.

Heading upstate, we can put a price on Concord's sale of WBPM (94.3
Kingston) to Cumulus: $3.5 million was the pricetag for the oldies
outlet.

Rochester's WHAM (1180) shifted its schedule last week, extending the
syndicated Michael Savage show to 11 PM and wiping out Curt Smith's
hour of local talk from 10-11.

Niagara Falls' WJJL (1440) is having a bad week; the station's parent
company, M.J. Phillips Communications, filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy, citing debts of over $180,000 and assets of just $67,000. 

One other bit of western New York news (we're too buried in snow here
to generate much more!) comes from the Buffalo TV scene, where little
WNGS (Channel 67) in Springville, having already lost its UPN
affiliation, has now had its latest application for a power boost
dismissed. The station held a CP to go from its present flea power
(just enough to get to a receiver south of Buffalo that feeds area
cable systems by fiber) to a full 5 megawatts; that CP expired at the
end of 2002. The latest application would have put WNGS on a
directional antenna mounted on the Colden tower of WKBW-TV (Channel
7).

And we're sorry to report the passing last Monday (Feb. 17) of Jim
Gordon, one of the best-known news voices in New York City for
decades. Gordon was the news director at WINS (1010) when it switched
to an all-news format in 1965 (and the first voice heard on WINS as an
all-news station) and was later the news director at WNEW (1130) for
many years. From 1977 until 1994, Gordon was the radio voice of the
New York Giants, just one of many sports for which he did play-by-play
over the years. Gordon was 76.

*From NEW JERSEY, a new simulcast to report: WMID-FM (102.3 Cape May)
pulled the plug on its simulcast of standards WMID (1340 Atlantic
City) after about a year and a half. Under new calls of WAIV, 102.3 is
now simulcasting the CHR sounds of sister WAYV (95.1 Atlantic City),
which never seemed to have much trouble covering Cape May County on
its own, at least in NERW's experience...

*In PENNSYLVANIA, we can put a price on Nassau's purchase of Ragan
Henry's WYNS (1160 Lehighton); $375,000 was enough to give Nassau the
signal, which will be a relay of ESPN affiliate WEEX (1230 Easton) to
the south.

The FCC approved four new LPFMs in the Keystone State: 102.9
Chambersburg, to "Dack Inc.," 103.5 La Plume, to Keystone College;
103.7 Indiana, to "Godstock" and 104.9 Shawnee-on-Delaware, to Shawnee
Presbyterian Church.

In Pittsburgh, John Cline is back on the air, but not at WBZZ (93.7);
instead, the longtime B94 morning jock moves down the hall to do
mornings at Infinity hot AC WZPT (100.7 New Kensington). 

Right on the Ohio state line, WPAO (1470 Farrell) has changed calls to
WLOA, the old call on 1550 in Braddock (today's WURP); we don't know
what other changes might accompany the call shift at the
Youngstown-market outlet.

Speaking of Youngstown, WHKW (1440 Warren) has dropped its simulcast
of sister WHK (1220 Cleveland), switching instead to a simulcast of
another Salem outlet, WCCD (1000 Parma), which has just flipped to a
secular talk format as "the Voice."

*And just one bit of news from CANADA: CIQB (101.1 Barrie) has been
granted a power increase, moving up from 795 watts to 2600 watts.

That's it for this week; back in seven days with more!

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

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