Now the Corporation has filed a whole slew of applications for new "chaîne culturelle" transmitters across Canada, fulfilling its promise to bring the service to each provincial capital. The applications include transmitters in Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Calgary out west, adding to the already-licensed service in Winnipeg and (not yet on the air) in Vancouver.
On our side of the country, the CBC wants to extend chaîne culturelle service from CJBC-FM (90.3 Toronto) to Windsor (on 107.9, with 3360 watts) and Paris (on 89.9, with 8730 watts).
The network's service from CBOX-FM (102.5 Ottawa) would be extended to Mont-Laurier, Quebec on 91.1 with 72,000 watts.
Other areas of Quebec that would finally get Radio-Canada's second network would include Dolbeau (fed from CBJX-FM Chicoutimi, on 90.9 with 37,200 watts), La Malbaie (fed from CBVX-FM Quebec City, with 960 watts on 91.5) and Baie-St-Paul (also from CBVX, with 350 watts on 88.9), Matane (fed from CBRX-FM Rimouski, with 31,700 watts on 107.5), Sept-Iles (from CBRX, on 96.1 with 84,800 watts) and Rivière-du-Loup (from CBRX, on 90.7 with 56,900 watts).
In the Maritimes, la chaîne culturelle from CBAL-FM (98.3 Moncton NB) would be extended to Fredericton and St. John with a new transmitter on Mount Champlain (78,500 watts on 88.1) and to Edmundston on 94.3 with a full 100 kW.
A new chaîne culturelle station would be built in Halifax, at 91.5 with 77,500 watts, with relays in Charlottetown, P.E.I. (32,850 watts at 88.9) and St. John's, Newfoundland (101.9 with 90,200 watts) as well.
And those aren't the only proposals on the table when the CRTC holds a public hearing in Quebec City in February: no fewer than four applicants want to start new stations on 91.9 in Quebec City. The applicants are "9098-7280 Quebec Inc.," which we believe to be the folks behind classical CJPX Montreal, applying for a classical station with 2,367 watts; Cogeco, which wants to program an AC format with 4,500 watts; Communications Lévis 2001, which wants the frequency in suburban Lévis, for a 3,400 watt pop, rock and dance station; and Metromedia CMR, which wants to do pop and rock with 10,000 watts. (NERW wonders: if the CBC is expanding its French-language second radio service throughout English Canada, shouldn't it apply for more CBC Radio Two outlets throughout Quebec as well?)
Still more applications will be before the CRTC in Quebec City: southwest of the city, the licensee of CKNU (100.9 Donnacona) wants to move the station up to the Quebec City market, cutting power to 750 watts but moving to Mont Belair. In Quebec City itself, CHOI (98.1) faces license renewal, but the CRTC says it's failed to comply with the logger tape and French-language content rules.
Out in New Brunswick, CFAN (790 Newcastle-Miramichi) is applying to move to FM, where it would operate on 99.3 with 50,000 watts.
And in Ontario, Telemedia's CJCL (Fan 590) in Toronto wants to bring ESPN Radio programming to the airwaves on weeknights and weekends. CJCL has applied to start a "network" to feed ESPN Radio to CKGL (570 Kitchener), CJBX (1290 London) and CKTB (610 St. Catharines) after 6 PM on weekdays and all weekend long.
Scott's show has made nearly the grand tour of the Boston FM dial, having started years ago on the noncommercial side (at WERS, if we're not mistaken), with stops along the way at WBOS, the former WEGQ (now WQSX), WBMX and most recently at WROR.
There was big news on the AM dial in Boston, too; Eddie Andelman and WEEI (850 Boston) parted ways after a run there that lasted more than a decade. Andelman was part of the original all-sports format that debuted on WEEI, then on 590, in the fall of 1991. (Before that, he had been with the old 850, WHDH, for more than a decade; he would return to the 850 dial position when WEEI moved there in 1994.)
What's next for Andelman? The hot rumor has him moving to the Sporting News Radio outlet, WWZN (1510), where he might face off against Dale Arnold, who co-hosted the 10 AM to 2 PM "A Team" show with him for six years and continues solo in that slot on WEEI. Any such move isn't likely to take place until next March, when Andelman's WEEI contract expires.
There have also been rumors about interest in Andelman from FM talker WTKK (96.9), which has been taking on more of a sports focus lately; that seems more plausible than suggestions that Andelman could land at WBZ, which doesn't have a hole in its weekday schedule for sports talk.
One more Entercom note: WRKO (680) has picked up the syndicated Sean Hannity talk show for 8-11 PM weeknights, which bumps Laura Schlessinger to late nights in Beantown.
Some personnel moves in Worcester: WORC (1310) adds former WTAG host Bob McCauley as anchor of its "Worcester News Nightly" news hour. WORC will also carry a Wednesday morning "Mayor's Forum" with Worcester mayor Tim Murray. Across town at Citadel, Geno leaves WXLO (104.5 Fitchburg) after a decade. The night jock is heading to Florida and middays at WHTF in Tallahassee.
Add one more to the Christmas music list: WPLM-FM (99.1 Plymouth) began its annual "Twelve Days of Christmas Music" on Friday (Dec. 14); the usual "Easy 99.1" format should be back in place on Boxing Day.
On the TV side, we've heard a report that channel 66 out in Marlborough has changed its ID from "WFUB" to "WUTF-TV"; there's been nothing yet to that effect in the FCC database, but we'll keep looking. (The station's still running the Home Shopping Network while awaiting next year's launch of the new Telefutura network.)
One other Granite State note: WFEA (1370 Manchester) is back to standards from holiday tunes, having switched satellite providers when the feed it had been running (the same Westwood One product heard on Boston's WXKS, among others) went all-Christmas.
Just one item up here in upstate New York: Infinity rocker WCMF (96.5 Rochester) is applying for an auxiliary antenna at the Colfax Street tower that's long been home to its sister station WRMM (101.3). The aux site, which would share WRMM's own auxiliary antenna, would run 15 kW at 133 meters - just the thing to keep WCMF on the air if there's work being done on the Pinnacle Hill TV tower it usually calls home.
The big news out of the Big Apple came from classic rocker WAXQ (104.3 New York), which announced last week that it's adding "Radio Chick" Leslie Gold to Bob Buchmann's morning show. Will Gold, last heard doing "hot talk" at WNEW (102.7), help the Clear Channel station battle Howard Stern in the morning ratings? We'll be listening...
(Gold also brings sidekicks Chuck Nice and Butch Brennan over to Q104, which says the new morning show will be far less music-intensive than Buchmann's show had been.)
WNNK won't talk about the reasons for the dismissal; a note on Bond's own Web site reads "I've always asked WINK to fire me...I guess I got my wish."
Bond's shift, which had been a morning-show style broadcast, is being filled by his former sidekicks (Stretch, news director John Paul Shaffer and producer Frank Schofield) for the moment; Bond had been off the air since Nov. 30.
Fans of the Philadelphia Phillies will have to adjust their radio dial next season, for the first time in years. The team has been heard at 1210 on the dial (first as WCAU, later as WOGL, WGMP, WPTS and WPHT) since 1982. The 2002 Phillies, though, will move down the dial to Greater Media's WPEN (950), which last carried the team in 1951 (as well as a brief period at the start of the 1982 season).
NERW suspects the move from the big 50 kW signal at 1210 will lead mors suburban Philadelphia stations to pick up Phillies games to fill in the gaps in the directional 950 night signal; we can't say we'll much miss hearing the team here in upstate New York! (Now if WTIC ever drops the Red Sox, we'll have some issues...)
Up in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market, Kevin Fennessy's WAAT (750 Olyphant) is taking on a new sound. The former leased-time religious and ethnic outlet began running an all-Sinatra morning show last week, and this week Fennessy announced he's picking up Laura Schlessinger beginning January 7.
The Premiere talker was previously heard in the market on Entercom's "WILK Network" (WILK 980 Wilkes-Barre, WGBI 910 Scranton); in her new home on 750, she'll lead a change towards more general-interest talk on WAAT.
We don't mention Shamokin much, but we have an excuse this week: WISL-FM (95.3) has changed format under its new Clear Channel ownership, switching from satellite oldies to a simulcast of "Bill Country," WBYL (95.5 Williamsport). We hear WISL's AM sister on 1480 has been off the air for the last week or so. (Shamokin, for those unfamiliar with the place, is about 40 miles southeast of Williamsport and southwest of Wilkes-Barre...)
Speaking of Williamsport, we hear that WQZI (103.9 Laporte), northeast of town, is now running a soft AC format as "Cozy," following its all-Beatles stunt as "Fab 104."
Over in Pittsburgh, Vinnie Ferguson is the new music director at WXDX (105.9), inbound from Clear Channel's WXEG in Dayton, Ohio. A few dozen miles southwest, WANB (1580) and WANB-FM (103.1) in Waynesburg are changing hands: for $850,000, Robert Stevens' Broadcast Communications Inc. picks the country simulcasters up from Joseph Hennessey's "WANB Radio."
And that's it for another week here at NERW.