North East RadioWatch: January 12, 1998

Ice Storm EXTRA

by Scott Fybush

Much of the upper Northeast remains paralyzed by the Ice Storm of '98, with hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the border without power or heat. The storm has taken a major toll on the region's broadcast facilities. NERW's correspondents across the area have been checking in throughout the weekend with updates, and here's what things look like for the broadcasters of the Northeast as of Monday evening, starting with the areas that have suffered the most damage:

• QUEBEC - Montreal's top-rated English-language news outlet, CJAD (800), lost all four towers at its South Shore transmitting site at the height of the ice storm early Friday morning. CJAD management decided not to move the news programming to their FM sister station, CJFM (95.9), and "Mix 96" continued to play soft-rock tunes while 800 remained silent, adding only a top-hour newscast from CJAD to its usual morning show. That decision prompted CJAD news anchor Jim Duff to fire off an angry letter to station management, saying he'd rather quit than work for a station "that put the motive of profit ahead of public service."

  In the meantime, the newly Duff-less CJAD leased time from Ottawa's CFRA (580) for a bottom-hour newscast that reached listeners on Montreal's West Side. CJAD also arranged to borrow the La Prairie, Quebec transmitter site of the former CFMB (1410). The foreign-language station moved to 1280 (the former CJMS facility) last September, leaving the fully-functional four-tower 1410 array standing but unused. CJAD turned on its temporary 1410 transmitter on Sunday, after securing a source of fuel for the generators at the La Prairie site.

  It will be Wednesday at the earliest before a temporary 800 kHz facility can be operating again at CJAD's own site in Saint-Edouard. The 675-foot towers that had been standing there since 1962 were crusted with as much as 6 inches of ice on each face when they toppled.

  Elsewhere in Montreal, the CBC's emergency programming in English has been heard exclusively on the Internet and on CBM-FM (93.5), because of a transmitter failure that's silenced 50 kilowatt CBM (940) throughout the storm. There's no word so far on what's caused the problems at CBM; sister station CBF (690), which shares the site, is on the air.

  Vidéotron cable lost its microwave feed of WPTZ (Channel 5) North Pole NY and WCAX (Channel 3) Burlington VT and replaced them with a satellite feed of Boston NBC affiliate WHDH-TV (Channel 7) and CBS affiliate WBZ-TV (Channel 4).

• ONTARIO - A wire-service photo that appeared on the front page of Monday's Buffalo News (among other papers) showed the tangled wreckage of "a TV tower on Wolfe Island, near Kingston." That tower carried CKWS (Channel 11) and CFMK (96.3); the CFMK web site still doesn't reflect that station's presumed off-air status.

  Still dark is Cornwall's CJSS (1220); its newscasts are being heard on Ottawa's CFRA (580), which has been doing an extraordinary job of informing its own listeners in Ottawa, as well as filling the gaps of the missing stations in Cornwall and Montreal. CFRA can be heard on the Internet at www.cfra.com; it's well worth a few minutes of listening.

  Wire service reports say the city of Brockville is 100 percent without power; no word on whether CFJR (830) or CHXL (103.7) are on the air.

• MAINE - On the US side of the border, Maine's stations suffered the most serious damage. The New Gloucester tower used by WKZS (99.9 Auburn) collapsed in the storm, and "Mix" expects to be off the air for a while while it secures a new tower. In Sanford, WCDQ (92.1) lost its tower to the storm as well. Its web page says the transmitter shack at the base of the tower was spared. In Gray, the tower site shared by WPXT (Channel 51), WPME (Channel 35), and WJBQ (97.9) is back up and running after the heavy ice bowed the tops of the towers towards the ground. Once the ice melted, the towers snapped back into place, allowing all three stations to return to the air. WPXT was able to stay on many cable systems, since there's a major cable headend adjacent to the tower site.

  Maine Public Television has been off the air due to failure of the microwave network that linked its transmitters statewide. Public broadcasting engineers focused their attention on restoring radio service first, and flagship WMEA (90.1) is now back on the air.

  Our correspondents in Maine report these stations also suffered outages as a result of the storm:

  • WMSJ (89.3) Freeport - dark
  • WMPG (90.9) Gorham - dark
  • WYFP (91.9) Harpswell - dark
  • WMME (92.3) Augusta - dark
  • WOXO (92.7) Norway - dark
  • WCYI (93.9) Lewiston - dark
  • WXGL (95.5) Topsham - dark
  • WLOB-FM (96.3) Rumford - dark
  • W245AB (96.9) Portland - off air because its primary, WKZS, is gone
  • WPOR-FM (101.9) - using backup facilities at its Forest Avenue studio
  • WQSS (102.5) Camden - reportedly suffered antenna damage
  • WBLM (102.9) Portland - off since Thursday because of severe icing at its antenna site on the WGME-TV (Channel 13) tower in Gray
  • WABK (104.3) Gardiner - dark
  • WBCI (105.9) Bath - dark
  • WLAM-FM (106.7) North Windham - off because of tower damage at the WPXT site, which it shared
  • WTHT (107.5) Lewiston - off because it shared the downed WKZS tower; NERW wonders whether they can reactivate their old site
  • WGAN (560) Portland - running on generator power at the transmitter, WGAN was on all through the storm with all-night news updates
  • WJTO (730) Bath - hasn't been heard in Portland for several days
  • WLAM (870) Gorham - apparently dark
  • WZAN (970) Portland - on-air but unable to switch to night pattern

  We've also heard that there may have been problems at the transmitter sites of Ellsworth's WKSQ (94.5) and WWMJ (95.7); we hope to hear more soon from our readers up that way.

  On the TV side, WCSH (Channel 6) and WGME (Channel 13) in Portland have both been going on and off the air because of ice and power problems. WCSH has been reaching many listeners without power, since its audio carrier at 87.75 MHz can be heard even on battery-powered FM radios. NERW wonders whether power-less listeners appreciated the helpful advice given out by one WCSH reporter during a live shot Saturday night, when he noted that while viewers without power could use kerosene or propane heaters to stay warm, "electric heaters are a safer alternative." Mm-hmm.

• NEW HAMPSHIRE - Worst damage in the Granite State was suffered by Laconia's WLNH (98.3), whose 300 foot tower came down in the storm. With help from Manchester's WZID (95.7), which loaned a remote truck, WLNH engineers were able to put a flea-powered signal on the air from the truck's 30-foot mast. WLNH was a key station in the New Hampshire EAS system; the 14 Lakes Region stations that monitored it will have to rely on alternate sources until WLNH gets up to full power again. Chief engineer Dick Wholey came to town from WLNH corporate parent Sconnix to help restore the signal. Also affected by the collapse of WLNH's 35 year old tower was WBHG (101.5 Meredith), which shared the tower. It's been operating from a backup antenna with extremely reduced power, in part simulcast with WLNH. Laconia's WEZS (1350), the former WLNH(AM), also helped out with a WLNH simulcast for part of the weekend.

  WRCI (107.7 Hillsborough) and WNHI (93.3 Belmont) are back on the air after a dark weekend. Also dark for much of the weekend was WSCY (106.9 Moultonborough); it's been back on and off since Monday morning. WVFM (105.7 Campton) was reportedly silent over the weekend; its simulcast originates at WLKZ (104.9 Wolfeboro), which is on the air.

  In Rochester, the loss of power shut down WZNN (930) and WQSO (96.7). WZNN was back up and running Thursday, but the power failure caused damage that kept WQSO silent an additional day.

  NOAA weather radio in New Hampshire was also off the air at the height of the storm Friday and Saturday.

• NEW YORK - Only one station in St. Lawrence County has remained on with full power throughout the storm; it's WMSA (1340) in Massena. Nearly everyone else in the St. Lawrence Valley has suffered at least on-and-off power failures, including Watertown TV stations WWNY (Channel 7) and WWTI (Channel 50). WWTI was off the air Friday and Saturday, and WWNY, which lost power at its studio, was programming directly from its live truck to its transmitter on Saturday. The WCIZ (93.5) tower on Perch Lake Road north of Watertown was reportedly toppled by the ice buildup, while sister station WFRY (97.5) is operating with only 20 watts or so from its exciter. WTNY (790) has been on and off the air since the start of the storm because of repeated power failures. NERW hasn't heard anything yet on the status of stations in Potsdam, Ogdensburg, and Canton, areas most heavily affected by the storm. In Plattsburgh, WIRY (1340) has continued its long tradition of community service with comprehensive local information updates, as well as storm information and Real Audio on its Web site. WMEX (102.5 Westport) is reportedly silent.

That's a preliminary report on the storm's effect up here. NERW thanks its correspondents across the region, especially Ed Brouder in New Hampshire, Sid Whitaker and Dan Billings in Maine, Roger Kirk, Larry Weil, Dennis Jackson, Ronald Holmes, and Kevin Vahey. Some Canadian information comes from an excellent page just set up in Ottawa, with daily updates on the state of storm damage to radio up there.

If you live in a storm-damaged area, NERW welcomes your reports on the state of your local broadcast facilities. We'll update this story on Thursday, or sooner if conditions warrant.

And of course our thoughts are with all the hundreds of thousands of people without power, water, phones, or gas, and the tens of thousands of workers from all over the area who are trying to get things back to normal up there as quickly as possible. We wish them all the best of luck.

We'll see you Thursday.