North East RadioWatch: January 8, 1998

Ian Taylor, RIP

by Scott Fybush

• Radio listeners in southern Vermont and New Hampshire are mourning one of the area's best-known morning jocks. Ian Taylor died in his sleep New Year's Eve, just a few days before he was to have started a new job doing mornings on oldies WXOD (98.7 Winchester NH).

  Taylor was born Edward O'Donnell in Utica, New York in 1952, and attended the now-defunct Graham Junior College in Boston. After working at stations in Utica and Albany, his career included stops at WEQX (102.7) Manchester VT, WPYX (106.5 Albany), and four years as morning host at WKVT-FM (92.7) Brattleboro VT. In recent months, he had been working as a salesman for WYRY (104.9) Hinsdale NH.

  Taylor was to have started January 5 at WXOD, replacing a jock who reportedly resigned after spilling coffee into the station's board.

  In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Ian Taylor Memorial Fund, c/o First Vermont Bank, 215 Main St., Brattleboro, Vt. 05301, Rescue, Inc., PO Box 593, Brattleboro, Vt. 05302 or to the Monadnock Humane Society, PO Box 678, W. Swanzey, N.H. 03469.

• The oldest TV station in MASSACHUSETTS has a new look. WBZ-TV (Channel 4) unveiled its new logo featuring a "4" in a three-quarter circle Sunday night (you can see it at www.wbz.com, albeit in black and white), and was promptly dubbed "The Circle 4 Ranch" by sports anchor and station wag Bob Lobel. The retro-look logo accompanies the launch of BZ's 50th anniversary campaign and revamped morning show.

  Up the dial and down the road, future PaxNet affiliate WHRC (Channel 46, soon to be WIPX) in Norwell has launched a local newscast of sorts. "Norwell News" debuted last week on channel 46.

  Emerson College's WERS (88.9) will move into new quarters in August. Emerson's new Ansin Building at 180 Tremont Street gets its name from the parents of WHDH-TV owner Ed Ansin, who donated $1 million to the school. WERS has spent the last 14 years in second-floor studios at 126 Beacon Street.

  "Kiss 108," WXKS-FM (107.9) Medford-Boston, has been shuffling its DJ lineup in the wake of J.J. Wright's recent departure. Ed McMahon takes over Wright's old 10 AM - 2 PM shift, while "Artie the One Man Party" follows Dale Dorman from 6-10 PM, Skip Kelly works 10 PM -2 AM, and Christine Fox gets the all-night shift. Also shuffling jocks is modern rocker WFNX (101.7 Lynn), where Julie Kramer is replacing Adrian in the 10 AM - 3 PM spot, Angie C. departs the morning show (with Chris Kennedy filling in as interim host), and Cruze, 'FNX's new program director, takes the PM drive slot.

• In MAINE, Pilot Broadcasting is moving north from its Pine Tree State stronghold in the Waterville-Augusta market. Pilot is paying Tim Martz $5.2 million for his Maine stations. In Presque Isle, that's market-dominating country WBPW (96.9), hot AC WQHR (96.1), and oldies WOZI (101.7). Pilot also gets WHRR (102.9 Dennysville), the Calais-area station that has yet to pick a permanent format.

  There's a new nickname for WXGL (95.5 Topsham). The classic rocker now IDs as "Galaxy 95.5," killing off its longtime "Eagle" nickname.

  Gannett Co. (not to be confused with Maine media giant Guy Gannett) has closed on its purchase of Portland's WCSH (Channel 6) and Bangor's WLBZ (Channel 2), for a reported $115 million.

  And Bob Bittner's WJTO (730) in Bath has a new manager. Tory Gates moves up from Bittner's WJIB (740 Cambridge-Boston) to replace Scott Garrett at the station.

• The UPN affiliate in CONNECTICUT is getting new managers. WTXX (Channel 20) in Waterbury had been operated under an LMA by Paramount's NBC affiliate WVIT (Channel 30) New Britain - but NBC's purchase of WVIT ended that LMA. Now Tribune's WTIC-TV (Channel 61) in Hartford takes over management duties at UPN20. No programming changes have been announced, but NERW suspects the WVIT-produced 10 PM newscast on WTXX will disappear soon.

  New hires at WTNH (Channel 8) in New Haven: Susan Hiland joins the station from ABC News One in Chicago to anchor the morning news. Behind the assignment desk, ex-WTIC radio anchor/reporter Dana Whalen joins channel 8 as assignment editor, the job she was doing most recently at WTIC-TV.

• As we'd suspected a few weeks back, RHODE ISLAND now has a Radio Disney affiliate. WHIM (1450 West Warwick) quietly switched from country to kids radio late last month, ending a 30-plus year association between the WHIM calls (for most of that time on 1110) and country music in the Ocean State.

• The Rochester, NEW YORK market is getting a new low-power TV station. WBGT-LP (Channel 40) is owned by David Grant, a former Rochester TV engineer who now owns Fox affiliate WYDC (Channel 48) Corning-Elmira. Like WYDC, WBGT will go by "Big TV" on the air, and will feature a diet of sitcoms and old movies once it goes on the air later this month. This is the same license as the long-defunct W40AG, although it will transmit from the WRMM-FM (101.3) tower on Rochester's west side instead of W40AG's location on the WBEE-FM (92.5) tower east of town. If WBGT has already cranked up to its full 10 kilowatts, it will have serious signal problems south and east of town; here at the NERW listening and viewing post on the south side, the WBGT color bars are just barely viewable with an indoor antenna. Grant says he's working on UPN affiliation and cable carriage for his new station.

  Also from the Flower City, congratulations to Tom Sheridan. The former Boston jock is switching Jacor stations in Rochester, moving from PD and morning DJ at AAA WMAX-FM (106.7 Irondequoit) to AC WVOR (100.5), effective Monday.

  As WRGB-TV (Channel 6) in Schenectady gets ready to celebrate its 50th anniversary, it's getting a new on-air look. At the end of January, WRGB will get new sets and music, and "NewsCenter 6" will give way to a simple "Channel 6 News" identity.

  Dan Binder is out as program director at modern-rock WQBK-FM (103.9 Rensselaer)/WQBJ (103.5 Cobleskill); no replacement has been named yet.

  Chalk up another one for border broadcaster Tim Martz; the Watertown Daily Times reports he's buying country WNCQ (102.9) Morristown, in the Ogdensburg area -- and serving the Cornwall, Ontario area across the border. Martz' Cartier Communications is also buying the construction permit for WZEA (98.7) Ogdensburg. Martz owns WYUL (94.7 Chateaugay), which the Times says will begin broadcasting with a regular format in March or April, along with WICY (1490) and WVNV (96.5) in Malone and 8 other stations along the border in Maine and Michigan -- not counting the four he's selling to Pilot.

  In Hudson, country WTHK (93.5) is running in mono at the moment; blame problems with the station's studio-to-transmitter link.

And that's it for another week -- see you next Thursday!