New England RadioWatch: February 8, 1996

More on WBPS, etc.

by Scott Fybush

• The WBPS saga continues, as Mark Shneyder has been reporting in the Boston Radio Watch. This ill-fated signal has been on the air for not much more than a year, most of it leased by owner Douglas Broadcasting to Prime Sports. Now that lease is over, and the last Prime Sports on 890 will have aired at noon on Thursday, 2/8. The 26000/3400 watt signal will go to music for a few days, then to leased-time ethnic next week. There's already leased-time ethnic in town on 950 WROL, 1150 WMEX, 1330 WRCA, 1360 WLYN, 1550 WNTN, and 1600 WUNR. I think on balance, I'd rather have WLS at night...

• Kiss 108, WXKS-FM Medford-Boston, promotes itself as being "Where the Stars Come Out to Play"...and Kiss stars Matt Siegel, JJ Wright, Dale Dorman, et al. will be playing in the big leagues on Friday, That's when Kiss' new corporate owner, Evergreen, will be simulcasting Kiss-108 over WYNY-103.5 New York, as part of 'YNY's ongoing format change from country to something as yet unannounced. Other Evergreen stations getting a Big Apple tryout over WYNY include WRCX, Chicago; KKBT, Los Angeles; and KMEL, San Francisco.

• The Twin Falls Calvary Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, remains convinced that people out here really want to hear their station KAWZ-FM...so much so that they've now applied for a translator on 97.9 in Fitchburg. Doesn't sound like much common sense went into this one, as WINQ-FM operates on 97.7 less than 20 miles down the road in Winchendon, Mass.

• Following up on the format and call swap late last year, WHIM 1450 in West Warwick RI now has new owners. Richard Muserlian's Providence Broadcasting will pay $200K for the 1kw AM which used to be WKRI. The spanish-language programmers who used to do weekends on WKRI 1450 are now full-time on the former WHIM facility at 1110 in East Providence, as WPMZ, "Poder Once-Diez." With its usual reputation for abject sloppiness, Broadcasting and Cable reports 1450 with the old WKRI format of "Adult contemporary; big bands of '40s, 50s, and 60s; Spanish." It's country, guys -- check your facts!

• Not emanating from New England, to be sure, but two expanded-band AMs are pounding into the region. WJDM on 1660, of course, with its new Radio AAHS format...and as I type this, I'm enjoying everyone's favorite Army experimental station, KTRK/ARMY/ABS on 1670 from Fort Meade MD.

• And finally, Boston-area listeners trying to hear Providence rocker WHJY 94.1 are out of luck for now. Word from the engineers at Boston's WJMN 94.5 is that the folks down at 'HJY blew out their antenna late last week...and have been operating with 2500 watts instead of the usual 50kw ever since. Meantime, WJMN has been doing maintenance on its own antenna, and in the meantime is using a backup antenna that seems to be splattering all over the dial from 93.9 to 95.1. (Naturally, WJMN's engineers say nothing's wrong.)