North East RadioWatch: December 17, 1999

WWLP, WENY-TV Sold

by Scott Fybush

Our promised look at 1999 In Review, Part One will appear early next week. Sorry about the delay -- we've got a building implosion this weekend here in Rochester, and planning live coverage is keeping your editor busy at the ol' day job. Never fear, the Year In Review and the Year End Rant will be in your mailboxes next week.

• In the mean time, a quick look at the little bit of news from the past week around the Northeast, beginning in MASSACHUSETTS, where Springfield's NBC affiliate is getting a new owner. WWLP-TV (Channel 22)'s owner, Benedek Broadcasting, is spinning the station as part of its purchase of Chronicle Broadcasting's Nebraska and Kansas properties (Chronicle flagship KRON-TV San Francisco just set a record for the sale of a single TV station, over $800 million, earlier this month).

  Benedek is paying Chronicle $141 million for WOWT Omaha and KAKE-TV Wichita, in a roundabout transaction through which the stations are actually being sold to LIN Broadcasting. LIN will then transfer them to Benedek, in exchange for WWLP (valued at $123 million) plus $18 million cash.

  The deal works well for LIN, since it creates a natural connection between WWLP and LIN's New Haven ABC affiliate, WTNH (Channel 8). WTNH engineering staffers will help WWLP with its move into new studios in Chicopee next year, and news partnerships between the two stations are expected as well.

  Conn River Broadcasting is growing in both Massachusetts and VERMONT. Following its purchase of WHAI (98.3/1240) earlier this month, we hear Conn River is also picking up Bob and Shirley Wolf's WMXR (93.9 Woodstock) and WCFR-FM (93.5 Springfield), which simulcast as "Magic." No purchase price just yet...

• Up in MAINE, WCLZ (98.9 Brunswick)'s new owners will launch a new format Monday. The station is running a computerized voice countdown to 9 AM Monday, when its AAA formt will be replaced with...well, anybody's guess. The hot rumor in the Portland market is that Citadel will use the new 98.9 to showcase Lori Voornas, whose non-compete from Saga expires in February.

• We've been hearing rumors about this one for a few weeks, and now it's official: WENY-TV (Channel 36) in Elmira, NEW YORK is being sold for $4.8 million. The buyer for the little ABC affiliate is Kevin Lilly's Lilly Broadcasting LLC, based in Natick, Mass. WENY-AM/FM (1230/92.7) aren't included in the transaction; wonder if this means the TV station can finally move out of the garage behind the radio stations in Horseheads (a landmark of sorts, considering all the upstate New York TV people whose careers have started there...)

  Can Rochesterians pronounce "Watervliet" and "Skaneateles"? They'll have to learn, at least if they want some of the jobs opening up at WHAM (1180) in the Flower City. Sources tell NERW Clear Channel is planning to implement the statewide news networking the company pioneered in Ohio, with anchors in Rochester handling newscasts for Clear Channel stations like WSYR in Syracuse, WIBX in Utica, and WGY in Schenectady. Those newsrooms, in turn, would be reduced to offices for a small staff of street reporters. We'll bite our editorial tongue on this one until next week's Year-End Rant...

  One more Clear Channel/Rochester note: WHAM is also looking for a Rochester-only anchor to replace Shelly Tripp, who leaves at year's end to do PR for a local hospital group.

  Downstate, AAA Entertainment (formerly Back Bay Broadcasting) crosses Long Island Sound to pick up WEHM (96.7 East Hampton) and WBEA (104.7 Montauk). Those East End stations are now Webcasting, albeit with the technically-flaky Webradio service...find them at for WEHM's AAA format and for WBEA's hot AC format.

• Listeners in CANADA have two new all-news sources, with Tuesday's launch of "Info 690" (CINF) and "940 News" (CINW) in Montreal. The 690 night signal is a new showcase for "Le Canal Nouvelles TVA", the French-language all-news TV service of commercial TV network TVA. LCN audio will run overnights beginning at 11, 10 on weekends, on CINF.

• DX'ers get ready: Sunday night (actually Monday morning, Dec. 20, Eastern Time) will be your best chance to hear WJIB (740) from Cambridge, as station owner (and friend-of-NERW) Bob Bittner fires up the 250 watt day transmitter for a 20-minute DX test beginning at midnight. Bob promises "recognizable" music and a QSL for correct reports to 443 Concord Ave., Cambridge MA 02138 -- so fire up the radios and have a listen (and for once -- and once ONLY -- NERW is actually grateful that Toronto is off the air!)

Finally this week, we send our best wishes and prayers to Pat Townson, the veteran moderator of Telecom Digest (comp.dcom.telecom) and interim moderator of Airwaves Online (rec.radio.broadcasting). Pat suffered a stroke two weeks ago and has been unconscious in a Kansas hospital ever since. We're hoping for a successful recovery...

That's it for this week; look for Part One of the Year in Review sometime this week (once the old Hotel Rochester has been successfully reduced to a pile of rubble!) and Part Two, plus the Rant, next weekend.