New England RadioWatch: November 29, 1996

Thanksgiving Miscellany

by Scott Fybush

• Winning an "A.I.R." award wasn't enough to save Boston newsman Dave Faneuf's job. Just two days after he was named best newscaster, Faneuf was let go from CBS's oldies station, WODS (103.3). "Oldies 103" management tells the Boston Herald that afternoon news on a music station no longer makes economic sense in Boston. Morning news guy Gordon Hill appears to be safe for now.

• Speaking of the Herald, it's involved in a noisy feud with Boston's all-news WBZ (1030). An article in Wednesday's Herald calls BZ "Radio Ripoff" and accuses the station of reading news from the paper verbatim. This is probably a good time to restate our policy here at NERW: If we use an item from one of the local papers, we credit them. We also mention the papers when they goof, so we'll note in passing that the same issue of the Herald showed Oldies 103 as "WODS-AM."

• A few pre-Thanksgiving bits from the FCC, courtesy of NERW's research director Garrett Wollman:

• The dark AM/FM combo up in Lincoln, Maine has been sold. WTOX (1450) and WHMX (105.7) had been in bankruptcy; they're being transferred to the Bangor Baptist Church, which owns WHCF (88.5). No word on exactly what WHCF plans with its new outlets, both of which serve territory that's already well within the reach of WHCF's 100kw transmitter.

• Up in Milbridge, Maine, way down east beyond Bar Harbor, one Robert Scott Hogg, Sr. has applied for a new station on 93.7.

• And that's about all the miscellany we can scrape up today. Next time, we finish our Maine history, and just maybe move on to New Hampshire.