New England RadioWatch: April 16, 1996

by Scott Fybush

• Providence's WPRI-TV is changing hands, as mandated by the FCC. CBS bought the then-ABC affiliate on channel 12 from Narragansett Broadcasting last year, but was then acquired a few months later by Westinghouse, owner of WBZ-TV and WBZ radio in nearby Boston. The WBZ-TV and WPRI signals overlap over a broad area of southeastern Massachusetts, so CBS was given a 12 month waiver. WPRI became a CBS affiliate last fall, and is expected to remain so under new owner Clear Channel Communications.

  It's worth noting that Clear Channel's TV operations are mostly Fox stations, and the former CBS affiliate in the market, WLNE New Bedford MA, is owned by Freedom Communications, which recently signed long-term CBS affiliation agreements for several other stations. So, it's possible that WLNE could revert from ABC to CBS, WPRI could go from CBS to Fox, and existing Fox affiliate WNAC could end up with ABC...but that's just irresponsible speculation on this Radio Watcher's part. Clear Channel is paying $68 million for WPRI.

• The $100 merger of Robert Sillerman's Multi-Market Broadcasting and his SFX Broadcasting affects the Multi-Market properties in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut. The full list appeared in a recent NERW report. The merger will bring SFX's Long Island properties, WBAB/WHFM and WGBB(AM), back into the fold with former Liberty Broadcasting stablemates in the Hartford-New Haven area.

• Other notes from the Connecticut area: WTVU, channel 59 in New Haven, is reportedly about to change calls to WBNE (Warner Bros. New England, presumably). WTVU/WBNE has the distinction of being the longest- running construction permit in the US, having been granted in 1953 as WELI-TV, but not coming on air until just last year. Channel 59 is operated under an LMA by LIN's WTNH (Channel 8) New Haven. And it seems WLIE-FM 102.5 Southampton LI is now on-air, with standards and sports. I haven't been down there, but would guess WLIE can be heard in the New London CT area fairly easily.

• Back up here in Boston, a schedule change to report at talker WRKO (680), as Charles ("Call me Chuck") Adler gets bumped from his 7-10 pm weeknight slot in favor of the "Two Chicks Dishing," who are presently heard on Saturday afternoons. Adler already lost his 8-9pm WABU-TV simulcast, in favor of a 4-5 pm timeslot there. He'll continue on WRKO for now as a fill-in and weekend host.

• From the "Uh, What I *Meant* to Type Was..." Dept.: If you're looking for the WERS-FM website, you want: http://www.emerson.edu/acadepts/mc/wers/index.htm instead of whatever it was I typed in error the other day. And for the nitpickers among us, yes, WUNZ 93.5 is licensed to Harwich *Port* on Cape Cod, not just "Harwich." Sister station WUNZ 101.1 is now using the city of license "Mashpee" instead of neighboring Falmouth.

• Other notes from a day under cloudy, dripping skies on the Cape this past weekend:

• There is no way to overstate what a neat station WMVY 92.7 on Martha's Vineyard is. Anybody who reads this column for any length of time knows I'm a big fan of quirky AAA stations, and this is one of the originals. Suffice it to say 'MVY's Artist of the Day on Sunday was John Hiatt. Now if only there were a way to hear 92.7 up here in Waltham...

• The other truly different station is at the other end of the Cape. WOMR in Provincetown (way at the tip of Cape Cod) has successfully moved to 6kw at 92.1, and can now be heard over most of the Cape and a good chunk of the South Shore as well. This relentlessly local noncomm is located in a small house in P-town, and your Radio Watcher spent a pleasant half-hour or so chatting with one of the volunteer DJs. All kinds of music are to be found here, including one of the nation's only military-march programs, hosted by veteran AM DXer Ernie Cooper.

• Elswehere on the dial, WKKL 90.7 West Barnstable was out of its usual simulcast with WBUR 90.9 Boston all afternoon, running a program called "Soundprints," followed by rather loud rock music with a legal ID at the unusual spot of 13 minutes past the hour. The other two WBUR relays, WCCT Harwich and WSDH Sandwich, were relaying. WUMB Boston's Cape relay, WFPB 91.9 Falmouth, was on in stereo from the WUNZ 101.1 tower adjacent to the Falmouth Town Dump.

• As for commercial radio...ongoing kudos to WQRC 99.9 Barnstable for offering a comprehensive local newscast every hour, in addition to (very) soft AC. I still couldn't find the tower of WOCN 103.9 South Yarmouth, but their adult-standards format was enjoyable. "Radio Row" on West Main Street in Hyannis is about to get broken up, as WCOD 106.1/WUNZ 101.1/WUNX 93.5 move out from 745 West Main, leaving WQRC alone again at 737 West Main. The "UN" stations win my "Logo, or Lack Thereof" award, for their black-and-white oval with the block letters "UN" inside.

• Both Cape AMs were in full-simulcast mode, with WKPE 1170 Orleans simulcasting WKPE-FM 104.7's rock format, as usual, and WUOK 1240 W. Yarmouth now simulcasting sister talker WXTK 94.9. The WUOK ID was rather clumsily overlaid over WXTK audio, on AM only.

• Back in Falmouth, WCIB 101.9 is now "Cool 102," but the signs outside still say "Lite 102," and the music hasn't changed much. Out in Chatham, WFCC continues to provide classical music on 107.5. Hyannis' WPXC 102.9 is still rocking as "Pixy 103," and sister station WRZE 96.3 Nantucket is stull doing CHR as "The Rose." (Ah, for the days, brief as they were, when WMVY simulcast on 96.3 and I could hear it up here occasionally...)

• Missing in action: Still no sign of the CP for 102.3, WCDJ in Truro...and still no country music on the Cape, ever since the demise of WCIB's brief experiment in country, and the demise of the equally short country format on then-WFXR 93.5/WFAL 101.1. Most of the Cape can hear New Bedford's WCTK "Cat Country" 98.1, as well as Boston's WBCS and WKLB...and I even heard New Hampshire's WOKQ from Provincetown, which is a nifty DX site on all bands.

• And finally, Boston's WBZ-TV and WBZ radio have unveiled their Web presence. Check out http://www.wbz.com for the station Web site. You can also find 'BZ's Boston Marathon site at http://www.100th.com for another few weeks.