North East RadioWatch: February 18, 2000 (original) (raw)

• Suppose Stephen King is scared yet? His MAINE hometown of Bangor will soon be home to two multi-station groups competing with his own WZON (620) and WKIT (100.3 Brewer). Cumulus came first, assembling a four FM, one AM group (WDEA, WEZQ, WWMJ, WQCB, WBZN) in 1997-98. Now a company called Communications Capital Managers is assembling a five FM group in two separate purchases.
  CCM, which is headed by a former principal in 62nd Street Broadcasting, is buying talker WVOM (103.9 Howland) and adult AC WBYA (101.7 Searsport) from Jerry Evans' Moon Song Broadcasting, and combining them with three stations from Mark Osborne and Natalie Knox: hot AC WKSQ (94.5 Ellsworth), country WLKE (99.1 Bar Harbor), and country WBFB (104.7 Belfast). We hear the price on the Osborne/Knox stations was $8.2 million; no word yet on the Evans properties. The usual "no format changes are planned" applies here; we'll wait and see.
  From way up north in Aroostook County comes word that the long-running simulcast between talkers WEGP (1390 Presque Isle) and WREM (710 Monticello) has ended, effective February 1. That's when Al Weiner broke WREM away with its own rock format, largely automated. Those with long memories will recall WREM was running a rock format, staffed mostly by volunteers, until the WEGP simulcast began in the mid-nineties. Down the road from the WREM tower, we're told a second transmitter is coming on line for Weiner's shortwave outlet, WBCQ.
• A few more changes are on the way to the radio dial in central NEW HAMPSHIRE: After almost four years in the morning seat at WJYY (105.5 Concord), Kevin Hilley is packing for a move to the much bigger Albany market. Hilley's last show at WJYY is next Friday (2/25); the following Monday, he'll start on the morning shift at WCPT (100.9 the Point). Meanwhile, Vox has switched the calls of WRCI (107.7 Hillsboro) to WKXL-FM, completing the move that began when the former WKXL-FM (102.3 Concord) became WOTX, "Outlaw Country," last month.
  And there's a new morning guy coming to classic rock WBHG (101.5 Meredith) up by Lake Winnipesaukee. Trey McKain was working at WKKG in Columbus, Indiana.
• Digital TV is coming to VERMONT, eventually. Vermont Public TV applied for a construction permit this week for WVTA-DT (Channel 24) in Windsor. WVTA-DT will join WVTA (Channel 41) atop Mount Ascutney once it's built. (We hope they'll have more viewers than Maine's public DTV attempt; a newspaper article this week claims there are exactly two DTV sets in private homes in Maine, one of which is out of range of the WCBB-DT Augusta signal).
• Our best wishes go out to MASSACHUSETTS talk-show veteran Jerry Williams; after just a few days on the air at the new WMEX (1060 Natick), he's on indefinite leave as he undergoes treatment for an undisclosed illness. WMEX is filling Williams' noon-2 slot with the syndicated Gene Burns offering, followed by Burns' Boston-only show from 2-4 PM.
  Citadel closed on Worcester's WXLO (104.5 Fitchburg) and WORC-FM (98.9 Webster) this week, and promptly replaced GM Steve Gallagher with Joe Flynn, formerly sales manager at Citadel's WWLI in Providence. WORC-FM PD Pete Falconi adds acting PD for WXLO to his responsibilities.
  Up in Haverhill, Jerry Mason is out as music director and promotions manager at WXRV (92.5); no replacement has been named yet.
• A new construction permit has been granted in CONNECTICUT; in Norfolk, to be exact, where Revival Christian Ministries gets 89.3 with 100 watts, vertical only, at 51 meters AAT.
  In Greenwich, WGCH (1490) wants to move its tower from the current site off West Putnam Avenue to a new stick near the North Street School, and amazingly, the school board is playing along -- sort of. They're trying to craft wording that will prevent WGCH from using its new tower for anything but AM broadcasts.
  Over in Hartford, WRCH/WZMX GM Jodi Long is getting a promotion: she moves up to VP/GM of Infinity's Promotions Group.
  Squ-e-e-e-e-ze!: That translator we were criticizing a few months back, W203BB (88.5 Norfolk), is now on the air, relaying KAWZ Twin Falls, Idaho from an antenna above a dry-cleaning shop in the Strawberry Hill Shopping Center on US 1. The word from our Connecticut spies is that W203BB's signal holds for about a mile in each direction before being squashed by co-channel WVOF (88.5 Fairfield) and WEDW (88.5 Stamford).
• Not much happening -- besides a lot of snow -- in NEW YORK this week: Syracuse's WSTM (Channel 3) marked birthday number 50 Tuesday night (2/15) with an hour-long special and the launch (at long last) of the official staton Web site, leaving Buffalo's WGRZ (Channel 2) as the last major network affiliate in the Empire State without a Web presence.
  While we're in Syracuse, WBXL (90.5 Baldwinsville) had to postpone its anniversary celebration this week. The station was planning a 25-hour radiothon, but the closing of Baldwinsville High School Friday morning put an end to those plans. The new date for the radiothon is March 3.
  Translator clutter: Pensacola's WPCS wants an 89.5 in Macedon, just east of Rochester -- and way too close to WMHN (89.3 Webster), WEOS (89.7 Geneva), and WITR (89.7 Henrietta) for comfort, we're guessing.
  After forty years at 2077 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo's WBEN (930) and WMJQ (102.5) are moving out this weekend. They'll be the first of Sinclair's Buffalo stations to move into the new group HQ off Maple Road in suburban Amherst. The stations, then WBEN AM/FM, moved into the North Buffalo facility with what was then WBEN-TV (now WIVB, Channel 4) in 1960, taking over the space that had been built by NBC for erstwhile O&O WBUF-TV (Channel 17). WIVB remains at Elmwood Avenue.
  Late word from downstate is that some changes are in the works at talker WNEW (102.7 New York): Steve Mason is out of his morning gig, pursuing syndication at night instead; Don and Mike, via syndication, are reportedly being added; and Jeremy Coleman is reportedly on his way up from sister Infinity outlet WJFK (106.7 Manassas VA) in Washington DC to be WNEW's next PD. More, no doubt, next week...
• A quiet week in CANADA, as well: the only big news from up North is a new Web site for CFMO (101.1 Smiths Falls), which became "XFM @ 101" just before the New Year. Little CJNH (1240 Bancroft) will soon get a new simulcast; it's being sold by Quinte Broadcasting to Haliburton Broadcasting, and once the sale closes, CJNH will simulcast CFBG (100.9 Bracebridge) instead of Quinte's CJTN (1270 Trenton). The local morning show on CJNH will continue (which reminds NERW that we need to get to Bancroft once the snow melts...)