WQDY 1230 Calais ME goes dark for good

[Scott Fybush <scott@fybush.com>]

WQDY returned its license to the FCC last week and is apparently gone 
forever (though there's no reason someone - presumably with more money than 
common sense - couldn't apply for the frequency again out there).

Why would they do such a thing, you ask? Blame the ownership caps...'QDY 
owner Richard McVicar wanted to buy WCRQ 102.9 Dennysville from Citadel, 
but he already owns WQDY, WQDY-FM and half of WALZ (95.3) down the road in 
Machias.

His application to buy WCRQ (granted last week, by the way) was a little 
misleading...it claimed that the Calais market had
six stations:

WQDY 1230
WQDY-FM 92.7
WALZ 95.3
WCRQ 102.9
CHTD 98.1 (St. Stephen NB, right across from Calais)

and...CHSJ 700 Saint John NB.

Now, the map submitted with the application carries a note "The FCC is 
unsure of the operating status of CHSJ." But we all know,
don't we? CHSJ moved to 94.1 FM way back in 1998 (it was simulcasting on AM 
and FM when Garrett and I went up there in June 1998,
and was gone from 700 by the fall of '98, two years or so before CHTD ever 
signed on), and was hardly in the Calais "market" even
when it was on the air. The FCC truly doesn't know that, though...so chalk 
one up to the poor communication between Industry
Canada and the FCC...

In any case, part of the agreement to allow McVicar to buy WCRQ was that 
he'd put WQDY(AM) on the market, which he apparently
did, without a taker (would YOU want to compete against four big FM signals 
with a graveyard AM?) - but the idea is that McVicar would have still ended 
up with three of the "six" stations serving Calais. Nobody wanted the AM, 
though, so he handed in WQDY's
license and got approval to buy WCRQ anyway - even though this means he has 
three out of "five" Calais stations in a fantasy world that
assumes CHSJ is still on 700, and three out of four in real life.

Now, here's the funny part: if I'm reading what I've heard about the new 
FCC rules right, noncomms will now count toward the total number of 
stations in a "market." That means Calais gets two more signals to count 
against the total: Maine Public Broadcasting's WMED (106.1) Calais and 
Eastport's high school WSHD (91.7). That would have given McVicar three out 
of a more legitimate six...

(And I don't mean to knock WQDY/WALZ; it's a great small-town station. 
Buying WCRQ will replace voicetracking from Citadel's Syracuse NY operation 
with at least some local operation, and the AM was only simulcasting the FM 
anyway, so it's no great loss.)

s