Longtime NERW readers are already familiar with Bob Vinikoor's struggles to build WQTH (720 Hanover), the construction permit he was granted five years ago for a 50,000 watt daytime, 500 watt nighttime signal that would be a counterpart to his existing WNTK (1020 Newport), WNTK-FM (99.7 New London) and WNBX (1480 Springfield VT). The station would use four 266-foot towers on Etna Road in Lebanon, in an area zoned for industrial use.
But Vinikoor ran up against a Lebanon ordinance that prohibits any broadcast tower higher than 42 feet -- and a city government that was unwilling to accept the laws of physics (and FCC minimum efficiency requirements) that dictate that no station operating on 720 can possibly use a tower that short.
Several years of court battles ensued, including a setback last year when a state trial court found in favor of the city and refused to grant summary judgment in Vinikoor's favor.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court accepted his appeal, though, and on September 11 Vinikoor and attorney Fred Hopengarten of Lincoln, Mass. appeared before the court for oral arguments, with Chris Imlay, lawyer for the Society of Broadcast Engineers, submitting a friend of the court brief in support of Vinikoor.
The court issued its ruling on Thursday, and it's a pretty clear victory for Vinikoor and for the radio industry in general. In particular, the court agreed with Vinikoor that the city's laws prohibiting a 266-foot tower are in conflict with the federal regulations that require a tower of that height for a station on 720 -- and that simply arguing that Vinikoor is "not required by federal law" to build the station doesn't give the city's regulations precedence.
Vinikoor's next step: returning to the trial court for an actual court order, after which he'll be free to apply for a building permit and build the most powerful AM signal (at least during daylight hours) in northern New England.
One more Granite State story: Andy Mack is the new PD/OM at oldies WNNH (99.1 Henniker).
Meanwhile down in New Bedford, Edmund Dinis, owner of WJFD (97.3), faces a $20,000 Notice of Apparent Liability from the FCC for four morning show broadcasts on WSPR (1270 Springfield), the Spanish-language station he sold last March. The FCC says the WSPR morning shows included (avert your eyes if you're sensitive about such things!) "explicit depictions of anal sex, oral sex, excretory activities and sexual activities with a child present."
Those of less sensitive constitutions can check out the complete complaint, transcripts and all, at the FCC's Web site; we expect Dinis to appeal the fine and get at least a partial reduction.
It's been four months since WAAF (107.3 Worcester) pulled Rocko off its afternoon shift, and now there's a permanent replacement. Eddie Webb comes to the Entercom rocker from XM in Washington, where he was PD for the "Liquid Metal" channel; before that, he worked at KUPD in Phoenix and the old WRCX in Chicago. As for Rocko, he's still looking for his next gig....
Sean McDonough is staying put on WWZN (1510 Boston) and behind the mic at Boston Red Sox TV broadcasts; he passed up an offer to go to the New York Mets next season in favor of an 80-game TV deal with the Sox, and we're glad to see him staying with the Home Town Team.
(Speaking of staying, the Patriots signed a reported 10-year deal to remain on Infinity's WBCN, so Pats fans can look forward to many more years of Gil and Gino and their excellent game coverage, too!)
Up in Beverly, we hear WNSH (1570) has dropped most of its satellite-delivered music programming in favor of local shows, some live (including a 7-10 AM morning show with programmers Chris Williams and Peter Ciani) and some automated. WNSH is also carrying some midday talk and weekend ethnic programming.
On the commercial side, Lyn Tolan is the new news director at WFSB (Channel 3), arriving from WFTV (Channel 9) in Orlando to replace Deborah Johnson. Tolan is a native of Ridgefield, Connecticut and a veteran of WLWT (Channel 5) in Cincinnati.
Why was the plug pulled on the WJUX feed to translators
W232AL (94.3 Pomona NY) and W276AQ (103.1 Fort Lee NJ)? The
While Turro has won previous fights to keep the unusual
translator network (fed from studios in Dumont, N.J., near the
Fort Lee transmitter) intact, he tells the
Turro and Wesley Weis, who owns WJUX, are reportedly trying to sell the three transmitters to a noncommercial operator, which would be able to legally operate the translators and the primary together.
Here in Rochester, a fond farewell to Doc and Katy Abraham, the "Green Thumb" couple who've hosted the Saturday gardening show on WHAM (1180) for an amazing fifty years! Doc and Katy, who have also written for the local paper and were seen for many years on WOKR (Channel 13), did their final show on WHAM this past Saturday before heading off for a much-deserved retirement, for which we wish them the best of luck....
LATE UPDATE: After this week's NERW went up on the Web, we started to notice some changes down the street from NERW Central on Pinnacle Hill, home to Rochester's TV stations (and several FMs as well). The new American Tower tower rising on Pinnacle Hill (you can see exclusive photos at www.fybush.com!) will be home to WUHF-DT (Channel 28) and perhaps to WUHF-TV (Channel 31) as well, relocating from the candelabra tower at right that's also home to WXXI-TV (Channel 21), which needs the space in order to get WXXI-DT (Channel 16, but with an application for channel 41) on the air. American Tower also hopes to move WZNE (94.1 Brighton) and LPTVs WBXO-CA (Channel 15), WAWW-LP (Channel 38), W42CO (Channel 42) and WROH-LP (Channel 47) from the little tower adjacent to the new stick.
And on the IBOC front, those who submitted comments about the FCC's ruling approving Ibiquity's digital system for daytime use on the AM band received a fat packet in the mail last week from the Glen Clark consulting firm, which is now asking the FCC to modify its ruling to allow IBOC use 24 hours a day, skywave or no skywave. Stay tuned on this one; we'll be hearing more about it in the weeks to come....
Up in Montrose, it seems WPEL (1250) has split from its longtime simulcast of religious sister WPEL-FM (96.5); while the big-signal FM (the only FM with good coverage of both Binghamton and Scranton) continues with preaching and contemporary Christian music, the AM side is reportedly running southern gospel.
In Shamokin, WISL (1480) made it back on the air December 3 with oldies, just in the nick of time; over near Pittsburgh, WURP (1550 Braddock) also made it back before the one-year deadline. It's running a loop of modern AC music, we're told....
Fulton's Toronto career began back on the old CKFH (1430, now CHKT), where he did afternoons in the seventies, later moving to CING (107.9) in Burlington and CJRT (91.1) before landing at CHWO when it launched on 740 two years ago.
Fulton had reportedly just stepped outside the station's Oakville studio after the show last Monday (Dec. 9) when he suffered a massive heart attack; he was only 58 years old.
The CRTC granted CHUC Cobourg's application to move from 1450 (with 8000 watts day, 1000 watts night) to 1580, with 10 kilowatts full-time; the move should give CHUC wide coverage of the east on what's been a very empty channel since CBJ in Chicoutimi, Quebec moved to FM a few years ago.
Barrie religious broadcaster CJLF (100.3) has been granted an Owen Sound relay transmitter; it'll operate on 90.1 with 75 watts. Meanwhile down in London, "Sound of Faith Broadcasting" has been granted 10 watts on 105.9 to play contemporary Christian music.
In Ottawa, Algonquin College's CKDJ is about to get a much better signal; it was granted a move from 96.9, where its 8 watts were getting smothered under new classical CJLX (97.1), to 107.9 and 100 watts.
Church station CFPP in Sherbrooke, Quebec was granted a move from 89.7 to 88.1.
And heading east to New Brunswick, CFAN in Miramichi is in its final weeks on the AM dial. The station plans to complete its move to FM (on 99.3) just after the New Year, and it's being widely heard by DXers in the east on the AM dial in the meantime. Reports on the National Radio Club's mailing list indicate CFAN's first choice for an FM transmitter site didn't work, so the station tried putting its FM antenna on one of the AM towers. That, in turn, meant going non-directional on 790 from the remaining tower, giving DXers one last chance to hear CFAN before it leaves the AM dial for good.