North East RadioWatch: August 28, 1997

Hicks, Muse? Huge!

by Scott Fybush

• Our top headlines come from the business section this week, where the investment firm of Hicks, Muse, Tate, and Furst made national news with its $2.1 billion acquisition of SFX Broadcasting. The deal give Hicks, Muse the largest station group by number of stations (314) and the third-largest by revenue.

  Here's what it creates in the Northeast: Hicks' Capstar group owns the old Knight Quality group (WGIR AM/FM Manchester NH; WHEB-FM, WXHT(FM), and WTMN in the Portsmouth NH market; WTAG-WSRS(FM) in Worcester MA; and WEZF(FM) in Burlington VT) and the old Commodore Media group (WINE, WSTC, WNLK, WPUT, and WFAS on the AM side and WRKI, WKHL, WEFX, WAXB, WZZN, and WFAS on the FM side in southwestern Connecticut and Westchester County NY). Hicks' Chancellor group has the big-market properties (WXKS AM-FM and WJMN in Boston, the amazing five FM combo in New York that now includes WAXQ, WHTZ, WKTU, WLTW, and WNSR (ex-WDBZ), and WALK AM-FM, WBAB-FM and WBLI on Long Island). And the SFX deal will bring into the fold still more properties in southern New England and vicinity. In Massachusetts, it's WHMP AM-FM and WPKX(FM) in and around Springfield. In Rhode Island, it's WHJJ, WHJY, and WSNE in the Providence market. In New York, it's WTRY AM-FM, WGNA AM-FM, and WPYX in Albany and WGBB(AM) and WHFM on Long Island. And in Connecticut, it's WHCN, WKSS, WMRQ, WWYZ, and WPLR on the FM side and WPOP(AM). Not to mention Hicks, Muse's acquisition of LIN Broadcasting's TV stations, which brings WTNH New Haven-Hartford and WIVB Buffalo into the fold.

  NERW suspects Hicks, Muse may run into trouble keeping both WTNH and the enormous cluster of 8 FMs and 4 AMs in Connecticut, and even if that passes muster with the feds, there's still that persistent rumor that Hicks, Muse's next target is American Radio Systems -- which would bring three more Hartford FMs into the mix, while bolstering Hicks, Muse's presence in Boston and bringing it into the Rochester and Buffalo markets.

• We'll begin the rest of the week's news with another buyout, this time in MASSACHUSETTS and for all of $8 million. WNRB (1510), the withered descendant of the once-mighty WMEX, is in for yet another new owner and format. Communicom and its religious programs will give way by the end of September to One-on-One Sports, the Chicago-based network that's buying small AM facilities in big markets nationwide (they debut Monday in New York City on WXLX (620) Jersey City NJ). This will be something like the tenth format for 1510 in the last decade; you'll be forgiven if you've lost track too.

  In any event, WNRB will have at least a bit of local sports. Boston University football will return to commercial radio this fall on WNRB, after several years on BU's noncomm WBUR-FM (90.9). Giant Sports is handling the business end of the deal.

  The much-hyped format swap between Boston's 96.9 and Lowell's 99.5 happened right on schedule last Friday at noon, with the new "Country 99.5" making its debut with "Gone Country," while "Smooth Jazz 96.9" used "Smooth Operator" to mark its start. The legal calls remain WKLB-FM on 96.9 (they hide it in plain view by saying "If you're looking for WKLB-FM Boston, tune to 99.5") and WOAZ on 99.5 (where it's being buried very quietly while the WKLB-FM calls get transferred). And the WOAZ website at www.woaz.com still bears a big "Oasis 99.5" logo. What will the new 96.9 call be? NERW's been hearing it will be WSJZ, but M Street is reporting this week that 96.9 has requested WOAZ -- even though the "Oasis" identity has dried up and blown away.

  Another format change is reportedly on the way as well, down the AM dial at 1260. WPZE, the newest property of Hibernia Broadcasting, will reportedly take on Disney/ABC's "Radio Disney" kids format. Disney's been pushing the format hard around the country -- it just debuted on 50kW KTZN (710) Los Angeles and there are rumors it might even show up on WABC itself.

  Beverly's little WNSH (1570) is being sold by FSAM Corp. to Willow Farm Inc. NERW wonders why Hicks, Muse didn't grab this one too while they were at it...

  And out in Western Massachusetts, the 97.1 Amherst translator for WPVQ (93.9 Turners Falls) has applied to move to Mount Lincoln, the site of WFCR (88.5) and WAMH (89.3). Meantime, it's so long to the local newsroom at WHYN (560) in Springfield; Friday will be the last day the station originates its own news. News director Denise Vozella and reporter Bill Erickson will join Metro Networks in Hartford, which will begin providing news to WHYN next month.

• Up north in MAINE, Presque Isle's WOZI (101.7) has a new format to match its new owner. Tim Martz flipped the station to satellite oldies from satellite country, getting it out of the way of his hot country WBPW (96.9) up there.

• Many of NEW HAMPSHIRE's radio stations joined in a group moment of silence this week to recall the victims of last week's shootings in Colebrook, near the Canadian border. Among the stations spearheading the effort was Dover's WOKQ (97.5), whose simulcast WPKQ (103.7 Berlin) from Mount Washington is one of the few US stations that reaches Colebrook.

  WNHI (93.3 Belmont) and WRCI (107.7 Hillsborough) in the Concord-Manchester market are looking for a co-host during "Imus in the Morning;" contact PD Harry Kozlowski if you're interested.

• Rhode Island modern rocker WDGE (99.7 Wakefield-Peace Dale) has dropped on-air mentions of its "Edge" nickname and is now going simply by "99.7" on the air. Their Web site (an overdesigned and under-informative site if ever there was one) still calls the station "The Edge" for now.

• The big news from VERMONT and the surrounding states is the petition to deny that's been filed by Carter Broadcasting and Cardwell Broadcasting against Brian Dodge's renewal applications for all his many translators. Will the FCC be swayed by the Carter-Cardwell group's hundreds of pages of filings? We'll let you know...

  And if you watch TV in and around Burlington, keep a close eye on channel 44. New Fox affiliate WFFF has until Sunday at noon to sign on, or it will reportedly lose the right to carry this season's NFL games to existing Fox secondary affiliate WCAX-TV (Channel 3).

  Cross-border listeners in northern Vermont, northern New York, and the Buffalo area will be able to tune in next Tuesday morning as Howard Stern makes his international debut. In addition to Montreal's CHOM (97.7), Toronto's Q107 (CILQ 107.1) will also be carrying Howard's show starting Tuesday morning. We'll see how the CRTC likes Stern...probably about as well as their brethren on M Street, we suspect.

• Other news from NEW YORK: Rome's WODZ-FM (96.1) has been granted permission to move from its current site south of Rome up to Smith Hill, home to Utica's big FM transmitters. Speaking of Utica, its ABC affiliate, WUTR (Channel 20) and Binghamton's ABC affiliate, WMGC (Channel 34) are now being operated in tandem with Syracuse ABC powerhouse WIXT (Channel 9). Recent job postings from WMGC and WUTR have referred applicants to WIXT's post office box in East Syracuse.

  There could be a new Hudson Valley station on 98.9 soon -- but it's not clear who. There's a proposal on the FCC's table to move the 102.5 allottment in Rosendale (near New Paltz) to 98.9 (see Connecticut news below and you'll see why), but there's also a counterproposal to add 98.9 as a new class A channel in West Hurley NY. Up in Old Forge, there's a proposal to move the 99.7A allocation to Newport Village. The only community anywhere nearby that we could find called "Newport" is not far from the Utica market -- is this a move-in on the make?

• On to CONNECTICUT and the other half of the proposed Rosendale frequency change: It seems Dennis Jackson wants 102.5 in Sharon for his WQQQ, now on 103.3. The 103.3 allocation would then go down the road to North Canaan, just south of the Massachusetts line.

  New Haven's WNHC (1340) is headed to bankruptcy court under Chapter 11. WNHC lawyer Andrew DiPietro tells the New Haven Advocate that the urban-formatted station is just over $400,000 in debt, but he hopes to get it back in good financial shape within two months under bankruptcy protection. WNHC has been the target of ongoing protests after a dispute led to the departure of talk show host Michael Jefferson.

  Just down the road in Hamden, Quinnipiac College's WQUN (1220) will hold an official launch ceremony on Tuesday, September 9. Charles Osgood of CBS will be the keynote speaker at the ceremony, which will be open to the public. WQUN is one of the few bright spots in the darkening skies of local radio; it's committed to local news coverage serving all the constituencies of the New Haven area. NERW wishes it all the best.

  And in Hartford, WCCC AM-FM (1290/106.9) will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary on Saturday, September 6, with a party at Union Station in downtown Hartford. Guests will include Fred Norris of the Howard Stern show (WCCC was one of Stern's early employers), and all past and present employees of WCCC are being encouraged to attend.

That's it for this week; we're off to the National Radio Club convention in Delaware and we'll be back next Thursday.