New England RadioWatch: March 3, 1996

by Scott Fybush

• Veteran WBZ newsman Darrell Gould died of colon cancer on Friday, March 1. Darrell was 57, and had been ill for quite a while with various ailments. I worked with Darrell at the end of his WBZ career, and I've rarely met anyone friendlier or more fun to work with. Darrell was always ready with an impromptu song or a bad pun, and he and another 'BZ reporter were famous around the building for their doo-wop duets. Professionally, Darrell was BZ's statehouse reporter for much of the '70s and '80s, and then the evening anchor until his retirement last year. Before coming to WBZ in 1966, Darrell had worked at WHYN in Springfield, WICE in Providence, WPOP in Hartford, and WHOU in Houlton, Maine, to name a few. Funeral services will be held Tuesday morning. Darrell leaves his wife and three daughters...and a saddened group of friends and colleagues.
• Elsewhere: WCMX(AM) 1000 in Leominster MA is back on the air after being dark for more than three years. The 1kw daytimer is now owned by a local church and programming religion. The old WCMX tower and ground systems, near the intersection of Mass. Route 2 and I-190, were torn out and replaced by a new tower and ground system at the same location last summer. I'm not sure where the new WCMX studios are. The signal is adequate but far from strong at my Waltham MA listening post, some 25 miles southeast of Leominster. WCMX is now the third religious outlet in the Leominster-Fitchburg market, along with WFGL 960 Fitchburg and the "Greenville NH" 94.3 translator for WGLV Hartford VT. The only other stations in the market are WEIM 1280 Fitchburg, with a local AC/news format; WXLO 104.5 Fitchburg, which functions as a Worcester station (the much larger city of Worcester is about 20 miles south of Fitchburg); and college station WXPL 91.3, with a very erratic broadcast schedule.
• By the time you read this, Douglas Broadcasting's WBPS (890 Dedham- Boston) will have inaugurated its new daytime format of leased-time sports talk. WBPS has been off the air at night occasionally for the last week, allowing me to hear WLS every once in a while. WBPS is again making noises about an "improved signal," although when they called the Boston Herald's Jim Baker on Friday to tell him about it, he tuned in and heard only dead air.
• Tough times for the nation's only commercial folk-music radio station. WADN(AM) 1120 Concord, MA has reportedly moved out of its Concord studios and into a trailer at the transmitter site in Acton. In addition, "Walden 1120" has ditched the BBC simulcast that used to occupy evenings and overnights, replacing it with automated folk. (Personally, I'd just as soon see them shut down around 10pm and let us hear KMOX all night.) It will be interesting to see if the local folkie community rushes to WADN's defense the same way they saved the venerable Passim coffeehouse in Cambridge from extinction (in that case, by taking it nonprofit.)
• Also west of Boston, there's word that currently-dark WBIV 1060 Natick MA has found a new transmitter site. WBIV was ousted from its old site in Ashland MA when WBPS (then WBMA) took over the equipment last year. Now the station wants to return as a 50kw daytimer from a site on US20 on the Wayland/Sudbury town line, near the towns' waste-transfer station. WBIV's new owner is one Alexander Langer of Florida; I'd be interested to know if anyone has ever heard of him.
• WDIS (1170AM) in Norfolk, some 20 miles southwest of Boston, has been dark for a few days now. No word yet on exactly what's happening at this little Talk America outlet, once known as WJCC and WJMQ.
• WPMZ (1110) in East Providence, RI has cut back to the 5kw daytime-only specified on its license, after a protest to the FCC by engineers for co-channel 50kw WBT Charlotte NC. Under previous calls WHIM and WWRX, 1110 had been using 250 watts nondirectional at night for years, claiming verbal authority from the FCC. I suspect this fight isn't over yet, especially since former owner Philip Urso sold WPMZ to its new owners as a full-timer, taking in exchange full-time 1kw WKRI West Warwick RI. The WHIM calls and format moved to WKRI's 1450 facility, although the WHIM studios apparently remain at the 49 Pavilion Ave., Providence address where they last operated as 1110, and the request line is still 401-224-1110, a Providence number. And WHIM-1450 continues to ID at the top of each hour as "WHIM in Providence." The whole thing sounds a bit fishy to me. Meantime, WBT's next target appears to be CKTY Sarnia, Ontario, which is heard extremely well here at night, despite what's supposed to be a null towards the US.
• Also in Providence: Tuesday, March 5, is news director Rory O'Neill's last day at WPRO (630). Rory is heading for the sunshine and a job at WNDB Daytona Beach, Florida. No successor has been announced yet.