Station officials say Barber had mentioned several times that he was getting bored with the show; they considered keeping co-host Brian Smith as a solo act, but decided instead to buy out the rest of the duo's contracts. The decision came as a surprise to Smith, who tells Connecticut media outlets he wasn't expecting the show to end when it did.
The show's sidekicks, Megan Doll and Billy Winn, will stay on board when WPLR's new morning show launches later this month. Chaz and AJ come to the Cox rocker from Barnstable's WRCN (103.9 Riverhead) on Long Island; Chaz is a former night jock at WPLR.
Barber tells the New Haven Register that he's planning to start an Internet site to give parents advice on raising children; Smith says he has some possibilities but nothing definite. And while Cox offered the pair a chance to do a farewell show on Friday, they declined, saying it's hard to wrap up 18 years in four hours.
One other bit of Nutmeg State news: WHCT-LP (Channel 69) in Hartford has been granted a license to cover for its move down to channel 38. We'd love to hear from readers in the area who can tell us what this one is programming lately!
New owner Success Signal Broadcasting (helmed by Marshall Sanft, former owner of WESO in Southbridge) launched an oldies format on WARE Saturday, featuring veteran central Massachusetts jock Fred King in morning drive, a daily "Polka Hour" from 11 to noon (and all morning on Sunday), and an interesting lineup of local talk shows on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Dennis Jackson (of WQQQ/WMEX/WRIP fame) has a hand in this one too; he and programmer Jay "Biggie" Fink are behind the deep, deep oldies format on the 5000-watter, which blankets the territory between Springfield and Worcester.
More deep oldies are being heard at 1520 on the dial: we hear that WGAM (1520 Greenfield) has finally changed calls to WIZZ and is running commercial-free for the moment.
The local cable newscasts that served Lowell and Cape Cod for more than a decade are history: Comcast applied the budget axe to the "AT&T 3" channel, a legacy of previous owners AT&T Broadband and MediaOne. The cuts left a number of talented small-market newspeople out of work. Programming on the channel is reportedly being pulled back closer to Comcast HQ in Philadelphia.
The FCC granted a CP this week for the new channel 51 in Pittsfield; as expected, the Albany-market station will be on Berry Mountain, northwest of Pittsfield, running 1580 kW visual.
Think the noncommercial FM dial is crowded enough in eastern Massachusetts? California-based Calvary Satellite Network doesn't; its two-year-old application for a new station on 90.5 in Scituate was accepted for filing this week. It proposes 5 watts vertical, 21.6 kW horizontal at 88 meters above average terrain, from a site nowhere near Scituate on route 3A near Manomet, southeast of Plymouth -- with a directional antenna, yet, nulled towards Cape Cod (and adjacents WCCT 90.3 and WKKL 90.7). All that, and do you think there will be even a minute of local programming aimed at Scituate? Insert the usual rant here....
Down in the New Bedford market, WFHN (107.1 Fairhaven) was granted a license this week for its transmitter site at UMass Dartmouth -- even though the station wants to move back to its old site at Popes Island, closer to downtown New Bedford. WFHN had been operating from Fairhaven under a construction permit for the last couple of years; if it hadn't filed for a license, the CP would have expired.
The proposed sale of WALE (990 Greenville) to Jerry Evans' Moon Song Broadcasting never went through last year -- and now owner Francis Battaglia has an additional headache in addition to his Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings: the FCC has fined him $4,000 for not reducing the power at his KFNX (1100 Cave Creek-Phoenix AZ) at sunset. (NERW hears this has been a problem at WALE, as well....)
Down in Keene, the FCC has cancelled the license of W288AM (105.5); last we heard, the translator had been relaying WRSY (101.5 Marlboro VT).
Winslow's WWWA (95.3) has applied to boost power and move its transmitter. The religious station wants to become a class C3, running 5800 watts at 205 meters from a new site just east of Norridgewock.
WKXW (101.5 Trenton)'s talk programming moved last year from WBSS (97.3 Millville, now hot AC "Mix" WIXM) to WKXW (1450 Atlantic City, the former WFPG) -- and at the same time, the hot AC moved from "Shore" WKOE (106.3 Ocean City) to WIXM.
WKOE became CHR "Hot 106.3," but it didn't last; as of Saturday, "Hot" is gone and WKOE now carries the simulcast from "New Jersey 101.5." What of WKXW(AM), then? It's now doing ESPN radio, still with Harry Hurley's local morning show.
Over in Brigantine, Calvary Satellite Network has been granted a new signal on 90.5. The new station will run 1.31 kw, vertical only, at 33 meters -- with a directional antenna from a site just east of Smithville, New Jersey.
South of Albany, WCKL (560 Catskill) is changing hands from Concord Media to "Black United Fund of New York"; no word yet on what changes might come to the station, which is now doing standards.
Albany talk host J.R. Gach has a new home: the former WGY (810 Schenectady) afternoon host, whose career there ended when he was diagnosed with mental illness last year, is now doing mornings on Galaxy rocker WKRD (93.7 Scotia).
In Kingston, WBPM (94.3) is now being run by Cumulus from its Pendell Road studios in Poughkeepsie; "Cool 94.3" has added a local morning show with Nick Robbins (from sister station WCZX 97.7.)
Up in the Glens Falls market, Vox has parted ways with WNYQ (105.7 Queensbury) program director Jackie Donovan; Justin Clapp adds WNYQ programming duties to his operations manager title at the cluster there, while Chad Herron (late of WLZW in Utica) comes on board as afternoon jock/production director.
Rochester jazz station WGMC (90.1 Greece) had its application for a power increase returned this week by the FCC; we'll keep you posted as this one progresses.
And over in Buffalo, WWKB (1520) finished off its first week of oldies with plenty of publicity and message-board chatter -- and spent most of the week as the only station on the radio here at NERW Central. So far, we're enjoying most of what we're hearing, especially when it comes to Jackson Armstrong's screaming 6-10 PM shift, which just may be the best voicetracking we've ever heard. We're still a little disconcerted by hearing the early 60s "Futuresonic" jingles mixed in with 70s rock, but it's still early in the game over there, and we're sure some of those kinks will be worked out as 'KB gets back on its feet after all these years.
On the DTV front, Clear Channel won extensions this week for WIXT-DT (Channel 17) in Syracuse and WETM-DT (Channel 2) in Elmira. Up in Watertown, expect WWNY-DT (Channel 35) on the air within a few months, we're told; on the analog side, WWNY-TV (Channel 7) morning host Mark Mason has accepted a buyout offer and will soon be leaving the CBS affiliate.
We're very sorry to have to report the death of Stan Martin, whose career in New York City radio included stops at WPIX-FM, WHN, WKTU, WNEW and WFAN. Martin was best known, though, for his 1992-1998 run as program director of WQEW (1560), the last attempt at programming pop standards on the New York City dial. Since WQEW's flip to Radio Disney, Martin had been doing standards shows in syndication and on-line. He suffered a stroke recently, and died Tuesday (January 28) at Lenox Hill Hospital. Martin was 64.
We also remember Stan Hayes, who was the very first voice heard on WINR-TV (Channel 40, now WICZ) in Binghamton when it signed on in 1957. Hayes, who later went on to be the news director/anchor on WBJA (Channel 34, now WIVT) in the seventies, died Friday (Jan. 31).
And one late bit of news for the DXers out there: just as this issue of NERW was going to press, we heard from WBBR (1130) chief engineer Bob Janney, who tells us there will be a silent period on WBBR and WEVD (1050) next weekend. Listen for something else on both channels between 1:00 and 4:00 AM on Saturday morning (Feb. 8) and Sunday morning (Feb. 9); WWDJ (970 Hackensack NJ) will also be off, at least briefly, during those times.
Philadelphia's WURD (900) is being sold as part of the gradual spinoff of Mega Communications' non-core properties; the kilowatt daytimer (now with 42 watts at night) goes to Levan Communications, which we hear is associated with the former owners of crosstown WHAT (1340). Expect the black-oriented talk that's been running on a leased-time basis to continue under WURD's new ownership.
WQBR (99.9 Avis) has been granted its power increase; the country station will move its tower slightly to the northeast and go up in height, to 570 watts at 321 meters. Now if we could just hear a legal ID there....
Bible Broadcasting was granted a license to cover last week for WYFU (88.5 Masontown), so we'd expect that religious station is now on the air.
And just over the state line, the three-way power increase was granted last week for WAKZ (95.9 Sharpsville PA/Youngstown OH), WAKS (96.5 Akron OH) and WNPQ (95.9 New Philadelphia OH).
Montreal's CJAD (800) is shuffling its hosts; Andrew Carter moves from "The World Today" in the afternoons to the morning show, while Ric Peterson takes over afternoons.
An LPTV in Quebec City? That's what "Tele-Mag Inc." wants; it's applying for 50 watts (!) on channel 9 for a community station there.
And out in Truro, Nova Scotia, Barry Reid's "Hope FM Ministries" wants 50 watts on 98.5 for a Christian contemporary station.