New England RadioWatch: April 30, 1996

A Big Move?

by Scott Fybush

• It's amazing what the FCC can hide when it fails to release full information about station applications. A few weeks ago, I wrote about now-dark WRPT 1050 Peterborough NH, which according to the Commission had applied to "change city of license and power." What we didn't know until know was just how much of a change.

  It seems WRPT's new owner, Alexander Langer, wants to move the station more than a hundred miles to the southeast, specifically to Foxboro, Mass. (M Street had this erroneously as "Foxboro NH") Langer's application calls for the new WRPT to move to 650 kHz, with 250 watts DA-D, diplexed from the Norfolk MA transmitter/studio site of WDIS 1170.

  This will be a somewhat tight directional, since Norfolk is just barely north of the 0.5 mv/m contour for WFAN 660 New York. And giving protection to WNNZ 640 Westfield MA and WPRO 630 Providence RI means WRPT's 250 watts will be pointed mostly northeast...which, how about this, just happens to be the direction of Boston! Clever fellow, this Alexander Langer. (He also owns the license for currently-dark WBIV 1060 Natick MA, which has applied for 50kw ND-D, something that can only be possible with WRPT off 1050.)

  As for the 650 frequency, there was a longstanding CP for WBSO Clinton MA on that frequency. It was to have been a 10kw DA-2 operation, with a decent signal into Boston and a tight null towards NYC. The CP was granted in 1984 and revoked about a year ago, making this possible.

  It seems to me this is one of the more dramatic move-ins of late... comparable perhaps to the still-unconsummated move of WDMV 540 from Pocomoke City MD (on the Delmarva Peninsula) to Brinklow MD (between Washington and Baltimore), or the never-permitted move of WHMA-FM Anniston AL to the Atlanta area a decade or so ago. Admittedly, there's no station licensed to Foxboro MA (the home of the New England Patriots), but it's hard to claim to be the first service to a community when you're diplexed off an existing station's tower. In fact, Foxboro is within city-grade contours of most of the Providence RI stations as well as Boston.

• The former morning team at WJMN (Jam'n 94.5) in Boston has found a new home in the Motor City. JR started a few weeks ago at Detroit modern-rocker WHYT ("96.3 the Planet"), and he's now brought comic sidekick Chris Zito aboard. It must feel a lot like Beantown in the halls of the Fisher Building...the program director at sister station WJR (760) is Al Mayers, formerly of WRKO and WHDH in Boston.

• The new evening lineup took effect this week at Boston talker WRKO (680). Lori Kramer and Leslie Gold, aka "Two Chicks Dishing," now hold down the 7-10pm slot last occupied by Charles Adler. Dr. Laura, who must be on just about every AM station in the country by now, takes over 10pm-1am from Phyllis Levy and "Sex Talk."

• From the high-school front: WHHB in Holliston MA has completed its transmitter move. This little class D outlet used to run 18 watts from the roof of the high school; now, according to an article in the (Framingham MA) "Middlesex News," it's moved to a nearby cell-phone tower, giving it somewhat better reach. The article could have been a bit better researched; it gave WHHB's frequency as "91.9" (try 91.5, with a CP for 99.9), and repeated without any verification WHHB's claim to be one of only 4 high-school stations in Massachusetts. In fact, I think Massachusetts may lead the nation in high-school broadcast FM:
  • Acton - 89.1 WHAB (Acton-Boxboro HS)
  • Andover - 91.7 WPAA (Phillips Academy)
  • Boxford - 88.3 WBMT (Masconomet Regional HS)
  • Charlton - 90.1 WBPV (Bay Path Vocational HS)
  • Concord - 88.3 WIQH (Concord-Carlisle HS)
  • Deerfield - 91.7 WGAJ (Deerfield Academy)
  • Harwich - 90.3 WCCT (Cape Cod Regional Technical HS)
  • Holliston - 91.5 WHHB (Holliston HS)
  • Marion - 88.5 WWTA (Tabor Academy)
  • Maynard - 91.7 WAVM (Maynard HS)
  • Northfield - 91.5 WNMH (Northfield Mount Hermon School)
  • Rockland - 88.3 WRPS (Rockland HS)
  • Sandwich - 91.5 WSDH (Sandwich HS)
  • Sheffield - 91.7 WBSL (The Berkshire School)
  • Sudbury - 97.7 WYAJ (Lincoln-Sudbury HS)
  • Walpole - 91.5 WSRB (Walpole HS)

  That's 16 by my count, not even counting the now-defunct WHSR at Winchester High School or the never-built CP for WDBY at Duxbury High School.

• And finally, a friendly hello to the folks at East Boston's own unlicensed community radio station, "EB 101.3 FM." One of the station's jocks, known on the air as "SuperSport," recently sent me a composite tape of some of the station's broadcasts. It's almost enough to make me change my mind about low-power FM...these guys are providing a real service to a community that's pretty much ignored by the big Boston stations. I'd certainly support giving stations like this priority over the satellite-delivered religious translators that I've often decried in this space.