Well...not so. In your editor's other life as Webmaster of the 100000watts.com radio directory site, the flips have been coming fast and furious this year as well. In NERW-land, they start in PENNSYLVANIA, where Entercom's 80s "Buzz" (WBZJ 102.3 Pittston/WBZH 103.1 Freeland) in the Scranton market, Clear Channel's oldies WWSW (94.5) in Pittsburgh and Clear Channel's AC "Sunny" (WSNI 104.5) in Philadelphia are all ho-ho-ho'ing already.... and now there's word that WSHH (99.7 Pittsburgh) is also joining the party.
Speaking of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the changes keep on coming at the Citadel cluster there: the hot talk that had been on WEOZ (95.7 Olyphant) went away last week, as "Z-Talk" gave way to a simulcast of the top 40 from WBHT (97.1 Mountain Top). The only remnant of the "Z-Talk" format is Bob & Tom, who land in mornings on WARM (590).
In the Philly market, public radio WHYY (90.9) needs a new antenna, something that's not uncommon for FM stations whose antennas have been out in the elements for nearly two decades.
What is unusual is the very public way in which WHYY is trying to raise the $132,000 needed to replace the antenna: in addition to a $50,000 federal grant, the station is holding a special pledge drive to raise the extra $82,000 from listeners -- and there's a whole section of the station's Web site that documents the sorry state of the current WHYY antenna, high atop one of the tallest sticks in the Roxborough antenna farm.
Congratulations to Brian Check, PD at the aforementioned WSNI, who's been promoted to Clear Channel regional VP/programming, overseeing the clusters in Philadelphia, Allentown, Reading, Lancaster, Williamsport and Harrisburg!
Heading over to Pittsburgh, the deal to sell public broadcaster WQEX (Channel 16) to a private group led by former WWSW general manager Diane Sutter has hit another snag: Sutter's Shooting Star Broadcasting notified WQEX's parent, WQED (Channel 13), that it's unable to complete its purchase of the newly-commercial station. WQED brass say they're still confident they can sell channel 16, and that a deal with Sutter is still a possibility.
Van Ness started at WKXW in 1997, and had been married just over a year when he died last Tuesday (Nov. 19) after a long battle with cystic fibrosis. Van Ness was only 28 years old.
New Jersey 101.5 has put up a nice tribute page to Van Ness on its Web site; donations in his memory can be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 117 Kinderkamack Road, Suite 104, River Edge, New Jersey 07661.
Up north, WCLX (102.5 Westport) has filed to make a nice little move, heading up the dial to 102.9 and jumping from 650 watts to 6 kW, which should improve its signal across Lake Champlain into Burlington, VERMONT considerably.
Down the road in Lake Placid, WLPW (105.5) and WIRD (920) were hit with an $8,000 Notice of Apparent Liability this week from the FCC, which says the stations didn't have their EAS equipment working properly, a big "no-no" at inspection time.
The FCC granted three New York LPFM applications this week: Planet Utica, for 105.9 in Utica; Colonie Educational Resource Services, for 98.7 in the Albany suburb of Colonie; and Kingston Outreach Services, for 103.9 in Kingston.
The still-unbuilt channel 52 in Ithaca was granted its last-ditch application last week, allowing it to build a low-power (26 kW) facility near Ithaca College to get on the air before its construction permit expires. Will it make it? Stay tuned...
Meanwhile in Syracuse, the Calvary Church translator for WZXV (99.7 Palmyra), W278AH (103.5), is applying to increase its power from the current 2 watts to 10 watts. And Reggie Jordan is heading for bigger pastures within Citadel, moving from VP/GM of the Syracuse cluster to the same post in Charleston, S.C.
First Chris Keyser gets to hang out with country star Carolyn Dawn Johnson; now the WYRK (106.5 Buffalo) assistant PD is about to take on a big new job. We hear Keyser is about to become the new PD of perennial Rochester ratings leader WBEE-FM (92.5), some two months after the departure of longtime PD Coyote Collins from the Entercom station.
Speaking of Buffalo, Family Radio's WFBF (89.9) is moving north; the station's been granted a CP that will move it from its current site south of Buffalo to a new site a few miles east, near West Seneca. WFBF will run 16 kW with a directional antenna 90 meters above average terrain at the new site, an improvement over its current 20 kW at a much lower site. (In the meantime, Family's CP for translator W211BH in Lockport has been cancelled.)
And we're sorry to report the death on Nov. 16 of Rob Stoddard, the longtime afternoon host on Crawford's religious WDCX (99.5 Buffalo).
Stoddard's Buffalo radio career began in the early eighties, when he was the newsman for Danny Neaverth's top-rated morning show on WKBW (1520); he later moved to the FM dial to do morning news on WJYE (96.1), and then took over the afternoon shift before switching to WDCX.
And WHTX-LP (Channel 10) in Hartford has changed hands from Harvard Broadcasting to Entravision.
WB affiliate WLVI (Channel 56) is losing one of its "Ten O'Clock News" anchors; Jeff Barnd joined Karen Marinella on the anchor desk in 1995 -- and what with the shakeups on the VHF side of the dial, that made the pair the longest-running anchor team on the Boston airwaves at the moment. No word on what Barnd, whose contract runs until 2005, will do next...
Steve Solomon has been named the new VP/programming of Superadio Networks (the "Open House Party" folks); you probably know him as Steve McVie, director of operations for Cape Cod's Makkay Broadcasting cluster. He starts his new job on December 2. Speaking of Cape Cod, "Cape Cod Christian Broadcasting" has been granted an LPFM on 97.7 in East Harwich.
It looks like the sale of WSRO (1470 Marlborough) to Multicultural will include a call change; the WSRO calls stay with owner Alex Langer, who plans to move them to what's now WJLT (650 Ashland) when the deal closes.
And while we're in MetroWest, we note a change in the talk lineup at "Boston Talk Party" WBPS (890 Dedham), which adds Sean Hannity to the schedule from 3-6 PM, followed by Rusty Humphries at 6 and Neal Boortz on tape delay at 8.
In the Portland market, "Rick and Jamie" are out of mornings at WMEK (99.9 Auburn), with "Kaos and Stacie" replacing them. The new morning team comes from country WYYL (96.1 Tunica MS) in the Memphis market, we're told.
And the FNX Radio Network's outpost in the Pine Tree State is in some trouble with the FCC, which handed down a pair of $17,000 Notices of Apparent Liability to WPHX (1220 Sanford) and WPHX-FM (92.1 Sanford). Seems the stations were in violation of the main studio rules and the public inspection file rules, another big "no-no" at inspection time. NERW expects an appeal any day now...