Dick Gordon is a familiar name to our readers north of the border, where he's a frequent guest host and regular reporter for "This Morning" on CBC Radio One. Gordon was one of three finalists for the "Connection" job, which he'll start in September.
As for Lydon, he's telling the Boston newspapers that he's still looking at his options for a return to the airwaves, but there's still no definite word about where or when.
Across the public broadcasting dial, WGBH may be making some moves of the physical variety. The Herald reported this week that WGBH is looking for a new home away from its current compound on Western Avenue in Allston. WGBH's main studio building is Harvard property, and the university is said to be eyeing the land for an expansion of its business school nearby.
The Herald says WGBH is looking at a two-acre site near the Turnpike, just a mile or so away from its current home (and almost next door to the new Entercom facility in the New Balance building). A new WGBH facility would be in the 350,000-square foot range, housing not only WGBH-FM (89.7), WGBH-TV (Channel 2) and WGBX-TV (Channel 44) but also the many national productions that call WGBH home.
On the commercial side of things, you can stop sending resumes to "Kiss 108" (WXKS-FM 107.9 Medford-Boston). The CHR powerhouse has named the replacement for departed station manager/PD John Ivey, and it's a familiar name within the Clear Channel Boston family: "Cadillac Jack" McCartney. He comes to Medford from the PD seat at WJMN (94.5 Boston), opening a vacancy at "Jam'n" that was quickly filled by assistant PD Dennis O'Heron.
Down in Walpole, say goodbye to WSRB (91.5). Dark for years, the 10-watter at Walpole High School officially lost its license and call letters this week.
Expect a new noncommercial station on the air in New Bedford one of these days, as New Bedford Christian Radio and Broadcasting for the Challenged settle their competing applications for 88.1. More details to come on this one; in any event, the station will have to operate from the Tiverton, R.I. tower of New Bedford's WLNE-TV, which occupies adjacent channel 6.
Speaking of New Bedford, there's a new voice on WSAR (1480) in the afternoons. Todd Feinburg has moved his afternoon talk show there from WSMN (1590) up in Nashua, N.H.
The Granite State may soon get some new full-power FMs as well; comments are due to the FCC September 17 on a proposal to add a 97.1A allocation up north - way up north - in Pittsburg, hard by the Canadian border. In addition, the 99.5A in Jackson was granted a CP this week. "Jackson Radio Company, LLC" will get to build the new facility serving the Mount Washington Valley; you may recall that an earlier CP for that frequency was abandoned unbuilt some years back.
Add one more station to the Red Sox affiliate list. Yes, the season's half over, but WSMN (1590 Nashua) jumped on the Sox network after the All Star break. WSMN will stay with the Sox for at least the next two seasons.
Down in Stamford, we hear PD Dave Ashton has parted ways with oldies WKHL (96.7 Stamford); no replacement has been named so far.
Out in the New York suburbs, Marty Mitchell is the new PD of country quadcast "Y107" (WYNY 107.1 Briarcliff Manor, et al), though there's still some doubt that the country format has much longer to run on those challenged signals.
On the TV side of things, the FCC approved Fox's purchase of the Chris-Craft station group, creating a duopoly in New York with Fox's WNYW-TV (Channel 5) and Chris-Craft UPN affiliate WWOR (Channel 9). Though there's word that WNYW staffers' contracts are being rewritten to include appearances on channel 9, we don't expect the WWOR newscast to disappear; after all, a newscast geared towards New Jersey viewers was part of the deal when RKO lost its WOR-TV license back in the early eighties and the station was relicensed to Secaucus, N.J. Fox owner Rupert Murdoch was given 24 months to comply with the TV-newspaper cross-ownership rules, but he's betting that those rules will disappear before he has to consider selling the New York Post.
Big Apple DTV viewers can finally see Jay Leno in high-definition: WNBC-DT (Channel 28) applied for its license to cover this week. New York's DTV signals have been relatively slow to take air, thanks to construction delays at the World Trade Center, so WNBC-DT joins a dial that consists only of WCBS-DT (Channel 56) and WNYW-DT (Channel 44) so far.
Upstate, Paul Kelly has departed his PD job at Poughkeepsie's WPDH (101.5), joining his brother Tom in Philadelphia to run Kelly Music Research. His shift moves WRRV (92.7 Middletown) PD Greg O'Brien across the hall to WPDH, and WRRV morning guy Andrew Boris into the PD chair there.
Way upstate, it's been a quiet week indeed - so quiet, in fact, that WWWG (1460) here in Rochester didn't even turn its tower lights on the other night! - but there are a few tidbits to pass along:
All Access reports that Hornell's WKPQ (105.3) will shift to an AC format on August 13. The station reports itself to the trades as a AAA outlet, but it always sounds more like a CHR when we pick it up here at NERW Central.
Buffalo public broadcaster WNED had its application for a new channel 46 in Jamestown dismissed this week, as part of a slew of dismissed applications at the FCC. Expect that channel to end up being auctioned - or whatever mechanism the FCC comes up with to allot open noncommercial channels.
And if you're still waiting for that promised 70s-pop format on WWKB (1520 Buffalo), put away those bell-bottoms: our colleague Carl Gorney says Entercom management has decided to leave the business-talk and leased-time format in place for now.
It's the end of the line for a quirky little station in the obscure town of Greenville, about halfway between Youngston, Ohio and Erie. M Street reports that WEXC (107.1) and WGRP (940) have shed their "anything-goes" AC-ish format, with WEXC now running religion and WGRP doing "positive country."
Just across the state line from the Pittsburgh market, Clear Channel has new calls for its "Kiss" outlet in Wheeling, West Virginia. WZNW (105.5 Bethlehem WV) is now WVKF. Just a bit to the north in Steubenville, Ohio, we hear the end of the week will bring a change of city of license to WOGH (103.5), as it relicenses to Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, considerably closer to the Steel City. No facility changes - yet.
Our DX buddy Saul Chernos sent along some updates on the Ontario FM dial in between spectacular skip openings (Channel 2 from Calgary on a little portable TV with a whip antenna? Believe it!), so we can report that CKGB-FM (99.3 Timmins) is on the air testing, with regular programs due to start in August and the old AM 750 to go silent by October 31. Up in Owen Sound, the new country station on 93.7 should be on within a month, and is rumored to be carrying the CKYC calls that used to be on 590 and 1430 in Toronto. And little CJBB (103.1 Englehart) has boosted power from 17 watts to 1600 watts.
Over in Quebec, the CBC has been given an extension (until November 14) to build the new Sherbrooke relay for CBM-FM (93.5 Montreal), CBC's Radio Two service. (Anybody up that way have an update on the CKTM tower situation, by the way?)
And from the "Where are they now?" files: Charles ("Call me Chuck") Adler, known to Boston viewers and listeners from his mid-90s stints at WRKO and the late WABU-TV, is getting back on the TV screen. He's been hired to host "Global Sunday," the new national public-affairs show that's part of the growing network's committment to increasing its national news presence. The show will debut in September.
Barnouw had been retired since 1973. In addition to the broadcasting volumes, his works included the book "The Sponsor" and several award-winning radio and TV documentaries. Erik Barnouw was 93 years old.
That's it for this week, and for next week, as well. There will be no NERW on August 6, since we'll be exploring sunny southern California and even journeying across the border to see the mighty "X" stations of Tijuana and Rosarito.