New England RadioWatch: August 19, 1996

Cape Stations Sabotaged

by Scott Fybush

• Two Cape Cod radio stations spent some time off the air this weekend. WWKJ (101.1 Mashpee MA; ex-WFAL, WUNZ) and WJCO (93.5 Harwich Port; ex-WFXR, WUNX) were recently bought by car dealer Ernie Boch, and just last week changed from a modern rock simulcast to classic rock (WWKJ) and soft AC (WJCO). And then, over the weekend, someone cut the cables leading out to the stations' satellite dishes. Wire- service reports claim the damage was sufficiently severe to take both stations off the air, and to keep WJCO off the air through Monday. Boch is offering a $10,000 reward for information about the crime.

  NERW wonders about this...no mention was made of any damage to the transmitters themselves (they're each about 15 miles from the Hyannis studios; WWKJ at the Falmouth town dump to the west, WJCO off Rt.6 between Orleans and Chatham to the east), or even to the STL. Since when does the loss of a satellite programming feed knock a station off the air completely? Could this be a shameless promotional stunt to draw attention to two of the Cape stations with the worst signals and ratings? If so, it worked... (And if there's more to this story than I've found out, I'd love to hear from some of the Boch folks who are known to read these postings now and again.)

• NERW is considering buying earplugs to block out the roar of rumors concerning the impending demise of one of Greater Media's two Boston country FMs. The best-sourced rumor so far has Greater Media going to a simulcast on WBCS (96.9) and WKLB (105.7) on or about Monday, August 26...and then launching some new format on one of the stations a week or so later. The baseless speculation so far includes:
  • The WBCS calls moving to 105.7 (so Greater Media doesn't have to pay up on its million-dollar promise to keep WBCS country through January 1), and 96.9 being reborn as something new.

  • Country staying on 96.9 and the whole mess being sold to American Radio Systems, with ARS then moving the format and calls from newly- purchased rimshotter WAAF 107.3 Worcester-Boston to 105.7, and selling the 107.3 stick. That would give ARS the full complement of five Boston FMs, and get Greater Media out of a market where it's become a relatively minor player.

  • Country staying on 96.9, and 105.7 being reborn as an 80s-music station, possibly under calls like "WATX" ("W-Eighties").

  Those are just a few of the many rumors making the rounds; rest assured that theOfficial NERW Receiver is making frequent stops on both frequencies, and any changes will be reported here at once.

• American Radio Systems has been making big headlines by buying stations, but the Boston-based company also sells a station from time to time. The latest ARS sale involves WNEZ (910), until recently their sole AM property in the Hartford CT market. WNEZ has been drawing minimal ratings with a CNN Headline News/sports talk format, but it's been a very minor player in the ARS Connecticut stable, which also includes or is about to include WTIC (1080 Hartford; full-service), WZMX (93.7 Hartford; 70s), WTIC-FM (96.5 Hartford;hot AC), and WRCH (100.5 New Britain; AC). Now ARS is selling WNEZ to Mega Broadcasting for $750,000. Mega plans to take the station Spanish, just as it's doing with its other East Coast acquisition, WURD (900) Philadelphia. WNEZ will join WPRX 1120 Bristol, WRYM 840 New Britain, WLAT 1230 Manchester, and WRDM 1550 Bloomfield in broadcasting all or part of the day in Spanish. WNEZ's signal is adequate in most of the area by day, but at night the New Britain-licensed 5 kW station is hampered by a directional pattern that aims southeast from its Farmington transmitter site, away from Hartford. No word on whether Mega is buying the Birdseye Road transmitter site as well (the building used to house the station's studios back when it was WRCQ).

• The NERW Traveling Radio Bus (played by a Ford Contour in real life) paid a visit to Central Connecticut over the weekend, and here's what we found:
  • One of New England's most impressive FM transmitter sites sits atop Meriden Mountain, easily visible from I-91 and I-84. The road up to the top is open to the public in the summer, and the view from the summit is quite impressive. This was one of Edwin Armstrong's original FM sites in the late 1930s; it's now home to WPKT 90.5 Meriden, WWYZ 92.5 Waterbury, WZMX 93.7 Hartford, WKSS 95.7 Hartford-Meriden, WDRC-FM 102.9 Hartford, WMRQ 104.1 Waterbury, and WHCN 105.9 Hartford.

  • One of New England's least impressive FM transmitter sites is concealed off Round Hill Road in Middletown. Little WIHS (104.9) has an unassuming antenna mounted perhaps 30 feet off the ground. The transmitter is apparently in a small metal cabinet at the base of the tower. I never would have found it if I hadn't known where to look.

  • Also in Middletown, the former WCNX (1150) is now using the WMRD calls and programming an odd mixture of big bands and leased-time ethnic. The River Road studio and transmitter site is reached by driving through the grounds of the state mental hospital. Someone may want to give WMRD a quick lesson in tower painting; the whole tower is red.

  • There's some decent AM radio being done in Waterbury (and a good thing, too, since both of Waterbury's FM licenses are now pretending to be Hartford stations). WATR 1320 has a nice-looking facility and a decent full-service sound (its Broadcast Lane studio is also home to sister country station WWYZ 92.5); WWCO 1240 was doing a New York Yankees game when NERW drove past its nondescript studios in an industrial park on Mattoon Avenue. The WWCO transmitter site remains a mystery, but the mortal remains of the late WQQW 1590 can still be seen behind a nasty "NO TRESPASSING" sign on Thomaston Ave., across the river from Route 8. Odd site; there's one very tall (over 350 feet was my guess) tower flanked by two much shorter sticks. NERW also glimpsed the transmitter site of leased-time ethnic WFNW 1380 Naugatuck, wedged in next to a trailer park. WFNW's studios have allegedly moved to 175 Church St. in downtown Naugatuck, but there's nothing on the outside of the building to prove it. For radio-with- pictures fans, NERW saw the very small studios of WTXX-TV 20 on the Waterbury/Prospect town line, as well as seeing a very strong signal that proves WBNE-TV 59 New Haven is up with full power now.

  • NERW couldn't find the transmitter of WPRX 1120 while driving through Bristol, but it was not at all hard to find the WPOP 1410 transmitter down the road on Rt. 175 in Newington. Two tall towers, a nifty-looking old brick building with nice metal "WPOP" letters out front -- and a speaker out back blasting WPOP audio for all to hear!

  • Down the road, there's a "sale pending" sign outside the Rt. 175 studios of WPOP/WMRQ. New sister station WHCN is also on the move, vacating its 1039 Asylum Street digs in Hartford, and NERW wonders where this megaopoly is establishing its new headquarters.

  • On the dial, NERW couldn't find much to excite the ears on a Sunday afternoon. WNEZ and WZMX were simulcasting the Patriots, WMRD had the New Britain Rock Cats (minor-league baseball), WTIC-FM was heavy into syndicated programming, leaving us little chance to hear its new hot AC format, and WTIC(AM) had the Red Sox. Everyone else seemed to be playing any of the half-dozen Alanis Morrissette tracks currently on the charts, except when they were playing "Insensitive" by Jann Arden (at one point, WKSS and WTIC-FM were both playing the song at the same time!) The non-comms weren't bad; WHUS 91.7 Storrs (UConn), WESU 88.1 Middletown (Wesleyan U.), WFCS 107.7 New Britain (Central Conn. State U.), WWUH 91.3 West Hartford (U. of Hartford), and WPKN 89.5 Bridgeport were all on the air and fairly enjoyable.

• And a few parting notes from around New England: WSSH 101.5 Marlboro VT is now on the air from Marlboro's Ames Hill, simulcasting WZSH 107.1 Bellows Falls and its soft-AC "Wish" format. And WLIS 1420 in Old Saybrook CT has been sold. Crossroads Communications of Old Saybrook LLC is taking over from owner/operator Del Raycee. No word on whether changes are planned at this nifty little locally-oriented AM.