The surprise sale was Mega's announcement that it will sell WLXE (1380 New York) back to Arthur Liu's Multicultural Broadcasting, which sold the station to Mega three years ago for $33 million ($24 million in cash and two Washington, D.C. AM outlets). 1380 was leased-time WKDM then; Mega spent quite a bit of cash relaunching the facility as Spanish all-news WNNY. That didn't last, and most recently 1380's been doing regional Mexican as WLXE, "La X 1380."
With this sale, we expect the regional Mexican to end and leased time to return to 1380, for which Liu is paying $37 million. The deal gives Multicultural four leased-time AM outlets in New York: WPAT (930 Paterson NJ), WNSW (1430 Newark NJ), WZRC (1480 New York) and WLXE, along with religious WNYG (1440 Babylon) out on Long Island.
Liu still doesn't have a monopoly on leased-time AM in New York, though; Sporting News Radio has pulled still more of its own programming off "flagship" WSNR (620 Jersey City NJ), which is now leased to ethnic programmers from 6 AM all the way to 2 AM. (Sporting News Radio's overnight show is the last remnant of the network to be heard weekdays on WSNR.)
On the FM side, it was another strange week in the long bizarre saga that is Viacom's WNEW (102.7), now in its second month of stunting with a short playlist of top 40 tunes. After weeks of leaks about an ambitious entertainment-talk format with plenty of synergy from Viacom's MTV and VH1 divisions, New York's tabloids lit up this week with talk that Viacom suddenly had cold feet about the whole idea. Steve Kingston, program director of Viacom rocker WXRK (92.3 New York) was reportedly seen making the rounds of the (nearly empty) WNEW offices -- but then came word that he won't be the operations manager there after all. What in the world is going on there? Nobody knows -- and those promises of a "spring" relaunch at 102.7 are looking as remote as spring itself here in the frigid Northeast.
Down the street (Seventh Avenue, in this case) from WNEW's studios, things are moving forward in a very definite way up on one of the city's highest rooftops.
We hear a construction derrick went up late last week atop the skyscraper at Broadway and 43rd Street, signaling the start of construction on a new rooftop tower (replacing the existing FM antenna shown here) that will have room for all of New York's FM and TV stations -- analog and digital! Much more on this big project in the weeks to come....
Out in Queens, a Long Island radio station has applied for a synchronous booster to bring its Korean programming to an area that doesn't get much signal right now. WGSM (740 Huntington) wants to run 250 watts day, 40 watts night from a very short (8-meter) antenna near the corner of Sanford Avenue (42nd Avenue) and Union Street in Flushing, just a block or so from the Flushing subway station. The application filed this week calls for the calls WG2XSM for what would be the first "experimental" synchronous operation in New York state.
Moving upstate, "Wakin' Up With the Wolf" added a Hudson Valley affiliate last week, as the Bob Wolf morning show (based at Albany's WPYX) picked up a simulcast on WRKW (92.9 Saugerties), where it replaces Bob and Tom. Wolf is a familiar voice in the valley; he was on WPDH (101.5 Poughkeepsie) until moving north to Albany five years ago.
The Connecticut-based "Broadway's Biggest Hits" show added a Hudson Valley affiliate as well; it's being heard on WBNR (1260 Beacon) and WLNA (1420 Peekskill) beginning next Sunday from 1-3 PM.
Albany's newest TV station will have a familiar address: 1400 Balltown Road, Schenectady. That's the longtime (as in fifty years) home of WRGB (Channel 6); the CBS affiliate has signed a deal to provide services for new WNYA (Channel 51) when the Pittsfield, Mass.-licensed station signs on later this year. WNYA is expected to be a UPN affiliate, which spells the end of "WEDG," the cable-only outlet that was seen on Time Warner's channel 4 in the Capital District.
Bill Keeler, recently ousted from mornings at WRCK (107.3 Utica), is heading over to the TV dial; beginning April 1, he'll host "The Bill Keeler Show," weeknights from 11-11:30, on Fox outlet WFXV (Channel 33) in Utica.
A well-known voice in central New York radio and TV has died. Gary Kennerknecht began his broadcast career at Utica's WOUR, then spent the seventies as news director at Utica's WRUN and WTLB before moving into TV at Utica's WUTR. Kennerknecht came to Rochester in the eighties as assistant news director of WHEC-TV (Channel 10), then moved to New York City to work at CBS News. He was just 52 when he died on February 24 in the Bronx.
In Syracuse, WCNY-TV (Channel 24) has been granted its long-pending application to move from the WIXT (Channel 9) tower in Pompey to the new WSTM (Channel 3) tower at Sentinel Heights; we've heard that WCNY is already testing the new facility, which is also home to new WCNY-DT (Channel 25).
Digital radio came to Syracuse this week as well; Radio Disney outlet WOLF (1490 Syracuse) is reportedly now running the Ibiquity digital system, the first station upstate (and only the second in the state, after New York's WOR) to do so.
(And those who are passionate about Syracuse radio history will want to check out the WOLF tribute site at www.wolf1490.net, newly commercial-free and always a fun read!)
Rochester's "98PXY" (WPXY-FM 97.9) is losing its night guy to Pittsburgh; "Busta" begins a new gig next week doing afternoon drive at the relaunched "93-7BZZ" (WBZZ 93.7), an Infinity sister station.
Could Family Life Ministries' radio network soon be getting a real Rochester signal? We're hearing a lot of talk about a certain religious FM station in western Monroe County changing hands -- and frequencies -- soon....
Over in Buffalo, that's an AM stereo pilot light we've been seeing illuminated when we've been listening to WWKB (1520) the last few days -- and it sounds like there's even some stereo music being played there now. It's nice to hear....
And down in Binghamton, Citadel's WHWK (98.1) wants to move away from the WBNG-TV (Channel 12) transmitter site on Ingraham Hill that it's called home since it signed on all those decades ago (when it was WNBF-FM and channel 12 was WNBF-TV.) The station has applied to move to a directional antenna on the new tower nearby on Ingraham Hill that will be home to WSKG-TV/DT and WSKG-FM (89.3); from there, it will run 6500 watts at 401 meters above average terrain, with a sharp null to the south.
WBSX currently transmits from a tower about halfway between Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre, but now Citadel wants to move it north about six miles, which would land the station on the tower of WMGS (92.9 Scranton) at "Electronic Heights," aka Penobscot Mountain, the primary TV/FM site for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. WBSX's new facilities would be 6300 watts at 407 meters, with a null to the north protecting WHWK.
(We also hear that crosstown competitor Entercom wants to move its WDMT 103.1 Freeland to a new city of license of Avoca, which would bring that class A signal from the Hazleton area north into the heart of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. We'd expect the "Mountain" simulcast with WAMT 102.3 Pittston to end if that happens, with 103.1 taking on a new format.)
Heading down the road to Allentown, there's a new slogan at WLEV (100.7), which ditched its "My 100.7" image last weekend to become "Soft Rock 100.7". (It'll always be WFMZ in our heart, anyway....)
Philadelphia listeners will soon have Paul Barsky back in the morning. The veteran Philly personality (we still remember him from a seventies-era gig at the old WAXC here in Rochester, even) just signed a five-year deal to do mornings at Beasley's WPTP (96.5 the Point), where he'll also be operations manager.
Jimmy Stewart's home town of Indiana, Pennsylvania has a new radio station. WFSG-LP (103.7) signed on there on February 24, licensed to a group called "Godstock."
That's the good news (or should that be the Good News?) -- the bad news, at least for proponents of localism in LPFM, is that nearly all of the programming on "Fish 103.7 FM" appears to be coming from the Nashville-based Christian Hit Radio, part of the Way-FM network that's been growing by leaps and bounds down south. NERW wonders how this squares with the FCC's apparent intent to ban satellite-fed LPFMs (and isn't "Fish" a Salem trademark, too?)
Up the coast just a bit, WADB (1310 Asbury Park) has switched morning shows; it's now simulcasting Bob Levy's show from sister WOBM (1160 Lakewood Township). Former WADB morning host Larry Brennan moves to afternoons -- and his show will be simulcast on WOBM, too.
Pax has changed the calls on its LPTV in East Orange, turning W34CP (Channel 34) into WPXO-LP. Those calls were on Pax's channel 14 in the Virgin Islands, which was recently sold.
And we're very sorry to report the death of Ed Bold, the longtime owner of WSNJ (1240/107.7) in Bridgeton and one of the last of the dying breed of engineer-owners.
Bold had been involved in South Jersey radio since just after World War II, and had owned WSNJ since 1971.
He retired to Florida last year, but had returned north to run the station for a while while its impending sale goes through (it has a pending application to move the FM side to Pennsauken, just outside Philadelphia, as a class A outlet on 107.9). Bold died Tuesday (March 4) at South Jersey Hospital in Bridgeton; he was 82.
Stonington's 102.3 has been through many calls and formats in its quarter-century or so of life -- WFAN, oldies WVVE, rocker WAXK and classic rock WUXL. As of last Monday, it's on to yet another phase, as the classic rock and Bob & Tom morning show give way to AC as "Mix 102" WXLM(FM). Can "Mix" compete against the bigger signal and established presence of WBMW on 106.5? We'll see....
In Bridgeport, Fred Ebert is out as afternoon host at WICC (600), apparently unable to come to terms on a contract renewal with the station.
Inbound to replace him in a week or two is "Citizen Smith," and in the meantime WICC listeners are hearing Kathy Taylor (of the morning show on sister station WEBE 107.9) handling the 4-7 PM shift.
The revolving door of talent has claimed WQSX (93.7 Lawrence) night guy Joe Rosati; the New York veteran has been replaced at the Boston-market urban AC by former Hartford star Mike McGowan, who had been doing weekend and swing at "Star 93.7."
Down the hall at the Entercom cluster, the engineering folks at WAAF (107.3 Worcester) have applied again to move their transmitter from Mount Asnebumskit in Paxton, on the far side of that city of license they'd like to forget, to the WUNI (Channel 27) tower on Stiles Hill in Boylston, 10 miles or so closer to their target audience in Boston and 'burbs. WAAF was granted a CP to make that move, with 9600 watts at 335 meters and a directional antenna, back on March 3, 2000 -- but Entercom asked the FCC to dismiss that CP on February 28, just shy of its three-year expiration date, thus clearing the way for a new application to be filed the same day to restart the clock on that proposed move. (WAAF also has a pending application to change city of license to Westborough.)
One station that doesn't mind being associated with Worcester is WORC (1310 Worcester) -- and it'll be the home of the New York Yankees this summer, thanks to a bet that GM Brian Jakusik lost to weekend sports guy Nick Manzello. WORC (which is also holding an open call for a liberal talk show host) will carry more than 100 Yankees games this season; another 28 games will air on sister station WGFP (940 Webster).
And out on Cape Cod, the WMPX calls that disappeared from MAINE when Waterville's channel 23 was sold and became WFPO are being warehoused on the former W67BA in Dennis, newly renamed WMPX-LP.
And Nicole Sandler starts next month as director of programming for Steve Silberberg's Northeast Broadcasting, which owns the "Point" AAA network based at Montpelier's WNCS (104.7), Middlebury's "Alice" (WXAL 93.7 Addison/WLKC 103.3 Waterbury), WXRV (92.5 Haverhill) north of Boston and a few AM stations in New England as well. While Sandler may not be familiar to New Englanders, she's well known out west, where she programmed AAA stations in Los Angeles and New Mexico.
In Kitchener/Waterloo, they're mourning Valerie Corcoran, who did promotions for nearly three decades there, first at CHYM and for the last eight years at CKKW (Oldies 1090) and CFCA (Kool 105.3); she died March 7, just a few days short of her 49th birthday. Corcoran was married to Paul Cugliari, general manager of CKKW/CFCA.
The Université de Sherbrooke will soon have its own FM station; its student association was granted 490 watts on 88.3.
And out in Moncton, N.B., religious station CKOE wants to move from 100.9, where it runs just 50 watts, to 107.3 with 2800 watts.