More from MASSACHUSETTS: Cape Cod probably needs another FM allocation the way it needs more summertime traffic on US 6, but that hasn't stopped someone from asking the FCC to allocate 94.3A to Brewster, near the "elbow" of the Cape. If you're keeping track, that means that the Cape would have 13 commercial FMs (plus two AMs) for a total year-round population of just over 200,000. This allocation would have been impossible, of course, before Ernie Boch's WXTK in West Yarmouth moved from 94.9 to 95.1 last year. (And NERW notes also that the 102.3 CP in Truro, WCDJ, is *still* unbuilt...)
Two station sales to report: Joe Gallagher's Auritaur Communications (which owns WBEC AM/FM in Pittsfield, is buying WNGN in Hoosick Falls NY, and has an interest in WBET/WCAV in Brockton through KJI Broadcasting) is paying $1 million for WMVY (92.7 Tisbury), the Cape and Islands' really cool AAA station. Meantime, troubled business-talker WADN (1120 Concord) changes hands from Ned Crecilus' Assabet Communications to Susan Armstrong's Money Matters Radio, for a reported $450,000. Money Matters programs the morning business show on WADN.
Radio people on the move: After five years as program director of WBOS (92.9 Brookline), Jim Herron has left the building on Soldiers Field Road. Don Kelley of sister station WMJX (106.7) will handle WBOS PD duties for now. And after losing his bid to host Good Morning America to Kevin Newman, WBZ veteran Tom Bergeron has signed on to host a new version of Hollywood Squares.
Digital TV updates: WBZ-TV (Channel 4) and WCVB (Channel 5) have applied for DTV licenses. WBZ-DT, on Channel 30, and WCVB-DT, on Channel 20, will operate from WBZ's Cedar Street tower in Needham.
In Central Massachusetts news, Cardwell Broadcasting's WPVQ (93.9 Turners Falls) has been granted a license for a 105.3 translator in South Hadley. W287AK was granted over the objection of Brian Dodge's Harvest Broadcasting. And Athol's WCAT-FM (99.9) has been granted permission to move to a higher tower on the south side of Route 2 a few miles east of its present location.
And religious WJLT (1060 Natick) has applied to move its CP for 40,000 watt daytime operation. The station now holds a CP to build two new towers at the old Unisys plant in Sudbury, but without approval from the town, it can't actually use that site. The new application is for 40 kW day, 22 kW critical hours from WJLT's current site, shared with WKOX (1200 Framingham) and WRPT (650 Ashland) on Mount Wayte Avenue in Framingham.
It's license-renewal time, and someone has filed petitions to deny renewal against more than a dozen upstate radio stations. Syracuse University's WAER (88.3) and WJPZ (89.1) are the targets of opposition from neighbors unhappy about the interference they say the stations are causing in the SU neighborhood. NERW suspects WSQG (90.9 Ithaca) is being opposed by locals who say the Binghamton-based WSKG operation isn't running enough local Ithaca programming. And there's been a slew of EEO-related petitions as well; targets of those are Ithaca's WQNY (103.7), Syracuse's Pilot group (WNSS-WNTQ-WAQX-WLTI), Albany's WABY-WKBE-WKLI, Lockport's WLVL, and the Y107 stations in Westchester and Long Island, WWXY and WWVY.
WVIN-FM (98.3) in Bath has applied to boost power from 2750 to 4500 watts, while New York's WLIB (1190) has applied for an extension of time to add 30 kilowatts of night power. NERW thinks the delay in this one is at the other end of the 1190 chain, where WOWO in Fort Wayne has yet to build its new 9.8 kilowatt night facility. A recent visit to WLIB's transmitter in the Jersey Meadowlands found that the two new towers needed for night service are in place and apparently ready for use.
Across the lake in Lindsay, Ontario, CKLY (910) has turned on the transmitter of CKLY-FM (91.9). Both stations are simulcasting for the next few months as "Y92" before the AM leaves the air for good.
Radio people on the move: Rochester's WHAM (1180) welcomes Randy Gorbman back as news director. It's Randy's second time on the job; he left a couple of years ago to become operations manager at WIBX (950) down the Thruway in Utica. WHAM has also replaced its evening rerun of "Dr." Laura Schlessinger with a new local talk show, hosted by former WPXY (97.9) morning co-host Joan Brandenburg. Her show airs weeknights from 8-10 PM. Speaking of PXY, part-timer/promotions assistant Cory Kincaid is moving down to the Elmira market, where he'll do nights on WNKI (106.1 Corning). Aaron Brillbeck is leaving the morning news slot on the North Country's "FSR" (WGIX 95.3 Gouverneur/WSLB 1400 Ogdensburg) to work at WSYR (570) in Syracuse.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-New Haven) is standing up for the FCC in the ongoing fight over unlicensed "La Nueva Radio Musicale." In an op-ed piece in the New Haven Register this week, DeLauro said she understands the need for a station like the 104.5 pirate, but she says the FCC's duty to keep the spectrum well-policed for legal stations takes priority. The 104.5 folks (who are back on the air after a third FCC visit last week) had presented DeLauro with a petition supporting their cause.
New London's WHPX (Channel 26) has a new owner. Roberts Broadcasting is selling the (soon to be) PaxNet outlet to DP Broadcasting. The "DP," of course, stands for Devon Paxson, son of PaxNet owner Lowell ``Bud'' Paxson. DP is also the new owner of WBPX (Channel 46) in Norwell MA.
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That's it for NERW this week; please note that next week's NERW will be an abbreviated early edition, arriving in your mailboxes sometime Tuesday night or Wednesday while we head off to northern Ohio and Indiana for Memorial Day. See you next week!