New England RadioWatch: August 22, 1996

WROR is Back in Beantown

by Scott Fybush

• A well-known set of Boston call letters has quietly returned to town. WROR was 98.5 FM under RKO and later Atlantic Ventures from the late 1960s until 1991. Now Greater Media has laid claim to the calls, using them for now to replace the equally-historic WMEX calls on leased- time ethnic AM 1150. The expectation around town is that WROR(AM) on 1150 is just a temporary move to hold the calls until they can resurface in a few weeks on one of Greater Media's two country FMs, either WBCS on 96.9 or WKLB on 105.7. At least one of the best-known personalities from WROR's glory days as an oldies and later as an AC station is currently available. Joe Martelle was dropped as morning host earlier this year at the former WROR, now WBMX. His non-compete clause expires in December, and after that he's free to move over to what may become the new WROR-FM. No word yet on what calls 1150 will end up with (although it's a good bet that the WMEX calls will be snapped up somewhere else very quickly.)

  Ironically, when ARS changed the original WROR to WBMX, they deliberately tried to get the calls out of town. ARS bought the WBMX calls from AM 640 in Zeeland, Michigan, and in turn sent the WROR calls out there to occupy 640. In the years that followed, though, Michigan's WROR(AM) became first WISZ, "Radio Aahs," and now WMFN, "The Fan," leaving the WROR calls open for a return to Boston.

• Cape Cod's "Coast 93.5," WJCO Harwich Port, is back on the air after allegedly falling victim to sabotage over the weekend. WJCO and sister station WWKJ Mashpee, "KJ101," reaped a publicity bonanza from the news that they had been knocked off the air, with articles appearing in the Boston Herald and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, among other places. NERW still doesn't understand why a cut cable to a satellite receiver would have knocked them out for so long... By the way, the stations are both using satellite formats from Westwood One. WJCO has the standards format; WWKJ has the classic rock format. As Bill Pfeiffer would say if he were here, "You're here, but we're not."

• Speaking of being off the air, the FM stations atop Boston's Prudential Tower were off for about 40 minutes early Tuesday morning. In addition to 100.7 WZLX, 104.1 WBCN, 106.7 WMJX, and 107.9 WXKS-FM, all of which transmit from the Pru, an alert NERW reader also noticed 96.9 WBCS and 105.7 WKLB off the air. WKLB's studios are in the Pru, and WBCS is reportedly in the process of moving its antenna from the FM128 site in suburban Newton up to the Pru.

• If WRJT (103.1) in Royalton VT isn't on the air yet, it will be very soon. They've applied for a license to cover for a new station. WRJT will serve the White River Junction VT-Hanover-Lebanon NH market, and will simulcast sister station WNCS (104.7) Montpelier VT, with a AAA format.

• Courtesy of M Street, a few CPs that have been cancelled: WNMH 91.5 at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Northfield MA won't be going to 235 watts at -272 feet after all. WNMH was supposedly building a new tower to move up from -307 feet...and I've seen the station's new transmitter and antenna myself. Strange. WRTC 89.3 at Trinity College in Hartford CT has lost its CP to increase power to 300 watts at 95 feet AAT and change its transmitter location. WRUV 90.1 at the University of Vermont in Burlington has been granted a CP to decrease antenna height and change its transmitter location. And way out there in Dennyville, Maine, WVZD 102.9 has requested an extension of time to build itself.

• More to come, no doubt, as Greater Media keeps dropping clues about where it's going with 96.9 and 105.7 in Boston. The latest rumors seem to add up to 96.9 staying country, although perhaps inheriting the WKLB calls from 105.7, and 105.7 becoming some sort of hot AC, possibly as WROR-FM, on or about September 5. Stay tuned...