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August 4, 2003
WUTR Pulls Plug on Local News
By SCOTT FYBUSH
*TV viewers in Utica, NEW YORK had
two choices last week if they wanted to see local news. This
week, they're down to just one after Clear Channel shut down
the news operation at ABC affiliate WUTR (Channel 20), closing
the books on a newsroom that's struggled in second place in the
Mohawk Valley ever since the station's 1970 sign-on.
 For a little while
in the mid-nineties, WUTR almost caught up to dominant NBC affiliate
WKTV (Channel 2), but the station's eventual sale to Ackerley
- putting it in the same hands as ABC affiliate WIXT (Channel
9) 45 miles away in Syracuse - put the pieces in place for its
eventual demise.
While WUTR got a snappy new graphics package from WIXT, it
also lost much of its independence as Ackerley moved the station's
master control and, later, its morning newscast to Syracuse.
Weekend news came and went on channel 20, setting in motion a
vicious circle that gave WKTV more viewers and WUTR less money
to work with.
So it was no great surprise on Friday (Aug. 1) when WUTR's
5 PM newscast failed to appear, and in its place was the WIXT
broadcast, with all that news of Oswego and Auburn and Cortland
and DeWitt that Utica viewers care so little about.
And WIXT's newscasts are all that WUTR viewers will see now,
if they bother to watch. Clear Channel, which bought WUTR and
WIXT (and four other upstate stations) from Ackerley, says it
will provide additional coverage of Utica-area weather and news
on the WIXT/WUTR newscasts - but do WIXT viewers want coverage
of New York Mills and Herkimer? (We'd bet not.)
It's not clear exactly how many WUTR employees were let go,
though we can tell you that news director Steve Osterhaus was
one of them, and we'd guess the remainder of the news staff at
WUTR numbered between 20 and 30. WUTR was one of a dwindling
number of stations in the region that provided a valuable first
stop for young reporters, photographers and producers en route
to bigger and better jobs at stations like WIXT, and we're certainly
sorry to see any of those opportunities go away. (We're also
hearing that there's a lot of concern about the future of news
at WUTR sister station WWTI 50 in Watertown, which is in a similar
ratings disadvantage against much larger WWNY, and that the folks
at Binghamton's WIVT 34 are nervous, too - and we don't blame
them one bit.)
*Elsewhere around the region, it's been a
very quiet week indeed. We spent a chunk of the week in PENNSYLVANIA,
beginning with a Sunday-evening stop at the tower of the new
WPHD (96.1 South Waverly), which wasn't yet on the air, despite
reports to the contrary. We also had a chance to hear WISL (1480
Shamokin), which was on the air, albeit just tracking
oldies CDs with nary a legal ID (or, in fact, any ID at all!)
Down the road in Pottsville, we stopped up at the WPPA (1360)
site on a hill north of downtown, only to find four of the five
towers were down. They're rebuilding up there, and that means
a temporary non-directional operation with 1500 watts by day
and 250 watts at night until the new towers go up (this week
or next, if all goes well.)
In Allentown, Scott Lowe is coming back East to take over
nights at WAEB-FM (104.1); he'd been at modern rocker KFSD-FM
(92.1 Escondido CA).
 Philadelphia's Rollye
James is going national - she's launching a syndicated three-hour
version of her WPHT (1210) talk show later this fall. It'll be
distributed by Jones Satellite Services, with James' own "Mediatrix"
handling the business end, and will run live 10 PM - 1 AM eastern,
which means WPHT may have to shuffle its schedule slightly; right
now, James is heard from midnight until 2 AM there.
Just over the state line in DELAWARE (where we had
a most interesting station visit that you'll soon read about
in Tower Site of the Week), George Brusstar has parted ways with
all-news WILM (1450 Wilmington), where he was the afternoon anchor.
*In RHODE ISLAND, the new owners are
touting their plans for WALE (990 Greenville), telling a very
gullible Providence Journal-Bulletin reporter some
of the tall tales that seem to be endemic to that troubled facility.
The ProJo obligingly reported over the weekend that WALE
will soon power up to serve an area that will include "Hartford,
Worcester and Boston" (does WXCT 990 in the Hartford market
know?), and that the calls will change to "WMAX" when
the sale closes this fall. (Those calls are already taken, on
AM in Bay City MI and on FM down in the Atlanta market.)
 *In
MASSACHUSETTS, Friday was the last day for Sebastian's
afternoon sports-talk show on WNNZ (640 Westfield), as well as
on simulcaster WAVZ (1300 New Haven CT).
The veteran Hartford jock says his big concern now is taking
care of his ailing dog, who was just diagnosed with cancer (NERW
wonder-dog Freckles sends her sympathy), but he does acknowledge
that he'll have a hard time finding a new gig now that he's been
blown out by both Infinity (which fired him from WZMX in Hartford
in 2001) and Clear Channel.
WNNZ and WAVZ, meanwhile, will fill the 3-6 PM slot with Jason
Jackson's "Jax Show," simulcast from WPOP (1410 Hartford).
Up the (hilly) road in Shutesbury, the "Sirius Community"
was planning a radio barnraising of sorts for its new LPFM on
100.3 - but now it's been cancelled, with the Sirius folks (it's
a commune, apparently) postponing their radio plans due to lack
of funds. (NERW notes: even LPFMs cost money to build and operate,
and we suspect Sirius won't be the last LPFM hopeful to run into
that particular obstacle.)
In Boston, Spencer Hughes gets a regular slot on WRKO (680);
the KSRO (1350 Santa Rosa CA) host will be doing Sundays 1-4
PM by ISDN on "THE Talk Station."
*Southern NEW HAMPSHIRE listeners
are hearing something new on WOTW (900 Nashua): it's doing oldies
as "AM 900, the Spirit," with new calls WSNH on the
way. New England's own Dennis Jackson is helping to get the format
launched (though he says the real credit goes to WMEX's Gary
James) - and we'd advise you to keep an ear out for that wacky
jock "Scotty D," too...
(The new format is also being simulcast, at least for now,
on WGAW 1340 in Gardner MA.)
Meanwhile up in Concord, WTPL (107.7 Hillsborough) adds Arnie
Arnesen's show (from WNTK over in Newport) weekdays from noon
until 3 PM, displacing Bill O'Reilly and an hour of the Dolans.
And (clearing up a story we got half-right in an earlier version
of this week's column) it looks as though WTPL is getting new
management: Vox is LMA'ing the FM talker to Embro, Warren Bailey's
group that bought former sister station WKXL (1450 Concord) a
year ago. The Arnesen show will originate from Embro's Concord
studios, and will be heard on both AM and FM. More next week...
*One more note before we leave the U.S.: the National Association
of Broadcasters is out with its list of finalists for the Marconi
Awards, and a good chunk of NERW-land is represented. Both New
York's WABC and Philly's WBEB are in the hunt for "Legendary
Station of the Year" (even though WABC's parent company
has pulled out from NAB membership), while WBEB and New York's
WLTW are in the running for "Major Market Station of the
Year." WABC's Curtis and Kuby are finalists for Major Market
Personality of the Year, while John LaBarca at WICC in Bridgeport
is a finalist in the small-market category there.
In the awards by format, Portland's WMGX is a finalist for
AC, while down the hall WYNZ is an oldies finalist; both WBLI
on Long Island and WSTW down in Wilmington are CHR finalists,
while WBLI's sister station WBAB is a rock finalist - and small-market
WFRY Watertown and WILM Wilmington are finalists for country
and news/talk, respectively.
The awards will be given out at the NAB Radio Show in Philadelphia
on October 2.
 *The
big news from CANADA is two more AM-to-FM moves: in Bathurst,
New Brunswick, CKBC (1360) wants to move to 104.9 with 20 kW,
while Radio-Canada hopes to move CBGA (1250) in Matane, Quebec
to 102.1 with 2.9 kW.
The CKBC move would drop New Brunswick to just six AM stations
remaining - and we've just gotten word from the National Radio
Club's mailing list (via DXer Brent Taylor up in Doakstown, N.B.)
that CFAN (790 Miramichi-Newcastle) has finally turned off its
AM signal for good.
One other CRTC application of note: Southshore Broadcasting
wants a new community TV station in Leamington, Ontario. The
station would run 400 watts visual on channel 34, providing daily
newscasts, local sports programs, town council meetings and other
local information.
In Toronto, Rogers' CISS (92.5) got its first jock in its
new "Jack" format, but he's not sticking around - Canada's
own Dan Aykroyd stopped by last week to spend an hour, er, playing
what he wanted. (The ex-Blues Brother is everywhere in
Canada, it seems - your editor's parents met him during a visit
to Ottawa a couple of weeks ago, too.)
Meanwhile, Corus' CFMJ (Mojo 640) has a new morning guy to
replace Humble and Fred, as John Oakley comes over from Standard's
CFRB (1010); Mojo also adds the Jim Rome show, last heard in
Toronto on the late "Team 1050" a year or so ago.
And that's it for another week...see you in seven days!
*Calendar Update: Tower Site
Calendar 2003 is now sold out for individual purchase!
We're hard at work on Tower Site Calendar 2004, which will be
even brighter and better - but if you absolutely have
to have the 2003 edition, all is not lost. A very small quantity
of calendars are still set aside for subscribers, so if you haven't
subscribed yet, now's the time. Make your 2003 NERW subscription
pledge to support NERW/fybush.com at the $60 level or higher,
and you'll get this lovely calendar for free! How can
you go wrong? (Click here to
visit our Support page, where you can make your NERW contribution
with a major credit card...)
And keep an eye on this space for 2004 calendar details; we'll
start pre-ordering around Labor Day, which is less than a month
away (yikes!)
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is copyright
2003 by Scott Fybush. |
MAINE