North East RadioWatch: August 27, 1999

Maine Station Owner Dies in Plane Crash

by Scott Fybush

• We begin this week's news up in MAINE, where J.J. Jeffrey's new Atlantic Coast Communications has made another purchase. As expected, Jeffrey is adding WXGL (95.5 Topsham) to the group that already includes WRED (95.9 Saco), WJAE (1440 Westbrook-Portland), and WJJB (900 Brunswick). Will the $1.3 million purchase put WXGL in a simulcast with WRED? Or will some creative engineering with the two second-adjacents create a new full-market Portland signal? We'll be watching...

  Up the coast, some sad news to report from Rockland, where WMCM/WRKD owner Peter Orne Sr. died this week in the crash of the private plane he was piloting. Orne grew up in Rockland, attended Bowdoin College, and went into TV sales and management, eventually ending up at WTNH in New Haven, then as general manager of WVII in Bangor, a post he left to go into radio ownership (at one time including WABI/WWBX Bangor in addition to the Rockland stations). Orne's son, Peter Jr., takes over management of WMCM/WRCD. Peter Orne Sr. was 64. A memorial service will be held Saturday.

• Across the border in NEW HAMPSHIRE, there's one station sale to report and another possibly on the way, as Tele-Media moves into the Granite State by buying Clark Smidt's oldies WNNH (99.1 Henniker) in the Concord market. Smidt stays on with the new owners as "director of procurement for New England." Tele-Media (which northeast listeners know from the Albany WABY/WCPT/WKLI group) is reportedly looking at Nashua's WHOB as its next acquisition -- but we've heard that station mentioned in enough rumors to stock an entire issue of Inside Radio!

• Don Imus switched MASSACHUSETTS affiliates on schedule Monday, with WSJZ (96.9 Boston) taking over from WEEI (850) (and from Worcester's WWTM, which also loses the I-man). Departing WSJZ PD Shirley Maldonado sent out an e-mail farewell to the station's mailing list this week, mentioning the Web as the only local source for smooth jazz all day (with sister station WMJX offering a few hours on Sunday mornings).

  Out on the Cape, word is that WCDJ (102.3 Truro) is truly on the air with a whopping 70 watts and a CD of jazz music. Our Cape spies also note that WWKJ (101.1 Mashpee) is on with the new 6kw facility at the Mashpee Industrial Park, and that WCOD (106.1 Hyannis) is at long last running its full licensed 50kw (it had been at 45kw for some time).

• There's a new PD at WWBB (101.5 Providence) and WWRX (103.7 Westerly) in RHODE ISLAND, but Bill Weston is no stranger to the Ocean State. Weston used to program WHJY (94.1) under GM Jim Corwin, who also made the jump to B101 and WRX. Weston had been down in New York at WAXQ and with the MJI syndication folks.

  A correction: WHKK and WXEX are Citadel stations, not Capstar (too many C-groups out there!)

• Not much news from CONNECTICUT, except for a new GM at Radio Towers Park in Hamden. Jim Simonetti moves up from GSM to replace Faith Zila in the top job at WKCI (101.3) and sister stations WAVZ (1300) and WELI (960) New Haven.

  Over in Farmington, Robin King's not sticking around at the new office-park studios of WTIC (1080 Hartford). Friday (8/27) was her last day as morning co-host; she's leaving to spend more time being her kids' mom (as opposed to talking about it on the radio!)

• Our VERMONT listeners have checked in to report that WEXP in Brandon is indeed testing on 101.5 -- the 101.9 cited in the newspaper articles was the old CP frequency, which was moved to make room for WCVR Randolph to move from 102.3 to 102.1 a few years ago. WEXP is reportedly forcing Rutland-area listeners of WENU (101.7 Hudson Falls NY) to look elsewhere for adult standards, which has got to be good news for that Monty fellow out on Post Road.

• We'll start our NEW YORK report out at the tip of Long Island, where the Associated Press reports WRIV (1390 Riverhead) is about to lose its transmitter site to an expansion of the municipal sewage-treatment plant (aren't all AM sites near sewage plants, after all?) While the station looks for another site, it plans to lease the air rights to its old site -- and transmit into a 146-foot longwire attached to a balloon high overhead! Guess we have no choice but to make that Long Island trip now...

  Up in Middletown (well, "down" in Middletown from our perspective, actually), Crystal Communications is making some big changes at WALL (1340), as the station's local programming gives way to a relay of WEOK (1390) in Poughkeepsie. Morning host John Moultrie was to have remained on WALL until next Friday (9/3), but after he voiced his opinions on the changes a bit too loudly, the plug was pulled a bit early. Also leaving is polka guy Jimmy Sturr, who returns to nearby WTBQ (1110 Warwick). Speaking of WTBQ, which we really should do more often, Dale Anderson is departing as news director to go home to New Jersey. OM Chris Cordani will fill in for now. And former morning guy Rob McLean rejoins the station as evening jock.

  Do the Catskills really need a new radio station? Any sane person might look at the plethora of Poughkeepsie relays, "originating stations for New Jersey translators" (speaking of which, WJUX Monticello won a reprieve from its license-cancellation battle this week, as the FCC overruled a staff decision that Monticello Mountain Broadcasting had surrendered control of the station to Gerry Turro), and newly-built, interim-programmed jukeboxes, and might conclude that the answer is "no." Not the folks at the FCC -- they've opened up 102.9A at Narrowsburg, over there in the hills just east of Honesdale, PA.

  A Johnstown correction: that's WIZR on 930, not "WIZN," which is of course up in Vergennes, Vermont (and a much more fun station to listen to, to boot!)

  Up north, WVNC (96.7 Canton) is running nothing but a loop of 70s and 80s hits as it prepares to relaunch itself on Wednesday (9/1) as "the new 96.7" playing -- you guessed it -- 70s, 80s, and 90s hits. WVNC had been hot AC as "Mix 96."

  Down in Elmira, Pensacola Christian Church has applied for a change of frequency for its WPCS translator. W209BG wants to move off 89.3 to 88.9 with a directional antenna.

  And while the trades are reporting a sale of WUTV (Channel 29) in Buffalo and WUHF (Channel 31) in Rochester, it's really not much of a big deal. The stations were to have been sold directly from Sullivan Broadcasting to Sinclair, but they'll take a detour first while Sinclair waits for the sale of WROC-TV (Channel 8) in Rochester from Smith Broadcasting (which has ownership ties to Sinclair) to Nexstar to clear. So until then, WUTV and WUHF will be owned by a shell company called BS&L Broadcasting, controlled by one Joseph Koff -- but they'll be LMA'd to Sinclair, which will keep operating them. Clear as dirt? Good...we're confused too.

• It's less confusing to look up at CANADA, where letters of intent were due last week for the 740 channel (and the new 93.5 FM channel) in Toronto. All the usual suspects piled on, including CHUM Group, Shaw, Telemedia, CHIN, "CIRC" (which operates multilingual CIRV), Fairchild Radio, Durham Radio (CJKX Ajax), and Oakville's CHWO. Applying for the FM, among others, was Denholm Jolly, who lost out on the 99.1 channel to the CBC and said at the time that he wasn't going to take 93.5 as a consolation prize. Formal applications are due later this month.

  Over in Quebec, the CBC wants to add English-language Radio 2 service to Sherbrooke, with a 23.4 kW relay of CBM-FM (93.5 Montreal) on 89.7, presumably from the usual Mont Orford site. Speaking of Montreal radio, a group of disgruntled listeners marked Friday's first anniversary of CHOM's cancellation of Howard Stern by staging a "Great Montreal Radio Turn-Off." Check out all the details at their Web site.

  Maritimes? We've got that, too, as CJYC (98.9 Saint John NB) again applies to the CRTC to drop power from 50kw to 12kw. "C98"'s old owners, NewCap, had been granted that drop (which would have allowed them to move the transmitter from Sandy Point just north of Saint John to Mount Champlain, halfway between Saint John and Fredericton), but never built it. Now Maritime Broadcasting System, the new owner, is applying to try it again.

• Out on the Web: "Radio's Best Friend," Michigan's Art Vuolo, has finally put his huge collection of "video airchecks" on-line. Pay a visit to his Web site to see the whole list. And if you ever listened to the "Big 8," you should have been tuned in to NPR's All Things Considered Friday afternoon (8/27), as the year-long "Lost and Found Sound" project presented a 20-minute tribute to the mighty CKLW. Here in NERW-land, we only heard the first half, no thanks to WXXI (1370)'s decision to interrupt halfway through for local programming (we miss our days in a multiple-NPR market!) -- but you can hear the whole thing in Real Audio at NPR's site. Stick around and check out the rest of the year's offerings while you're there...

And that'll do it for another week of Northeast radio. Please note that NERW will NOT appear next Friday, September 3. We'll be out of the region, enjoying the start of the MW DX season with our friends from the National Radio Club in scenic Bridgeport, West Virginia -- but be with us September 10 as we recap the drive down and back (via such hotspots as Oil City, Washington, Johnstown, and Lock Haven, PA), as well as all the news from the NAB Radio Show in Orlando. See you in two weeks!