New England RadioWatch: May 28, 1996

by Garrett Wollman for the vacationing Scott Fybush

• Long-running construction permit WAEF, 96.5 in Bedford, N.H., is now on the air testing. The program seems to be an endless loop of 20 minutes of classical music and 40 minutes of silence, with no announcements or other identification. The station is directional to protect WSRI in Rochester, N.H., and WTIC-FM, but the signal is otherwise quite good for a class-A drop-in, reaching all the way to Boston's Route 128 beltway (about ten miles out of town). I had initially speculated that New Hampshire Public Radio might attempt to purchase this CP to jump-start their efforts at forming a second, all-classical network, but an official there states that they are not involved with WAEF.

• WBFL in Bellows Falls, Vermont, has been sold. The station previously was part of a two-and-a-half-station adult-alternative network broadcasting from WUVR (now WNBX) in Lebanon, N.H. as ``The River''. WBFL and its Keene translator W288AM were observed Monday rebroadcasting a scratchy over-the-air pickup of White River Junction's WKXE ``Lite 95.3''. I did not have a chance to hear WNBX to see if the AAA format survives on that station.

• The satellite dishes were active in the Brattleboro/Keene market as well, as talker WKBK and oldies WKNE were both running satellite-delivered programs, as was Brattleboro rock outlet WKVT-FM. By contrast, AC outlets WKNE-FM, WKXE/WBFL, and WTSA-FM all sounded live, as did WJDF in Orange, Mass., and quirky WVAY in Wilmington, Vermont.

• And over on the other side of New Hampshire, I noted WRDX, 98.7 in Somersworth (really Dover) on the air with satellite soft AC, and WVYH (near Lewiston, Maine) simulcasting the standards format of AM sisters WLAM and WZOU. (Obligatory plug for another quirky AAA station, 92.1 WCDQ in Sanford, Maine, which calls itself ``Mount Rialto Radio'' and uses this as a running gag in its positioning.)

• Back in Boston, the WKOX saga continues. In addition to a previously-filed formal peteition to deny WKOX's application to move its daytime transmitter to Newton (immediately west of Boston) and increase power to 50 kW ND from that site, the FCC now also has received at least one informal objection to the move as well. If this continues, the station may be tied up in regulatory knots for some time, hampering Fairbanks Communications' efforts to sell the station. (In addition to the daytime application, there is a corresponding night power increase, from the current Framingham site half an hour west of Boston. They will likely need this to be heard outside of Framingham when WLIB gets its night power.)