<?xml version='1.0' encoding='ISO-8859-1'?><rss version='2.0' xmlns:atom='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'><channel><atom:link href='http://www.theradiojournal.com/headlinefeed.asp' rel='self' type='application/rss+xml' /><title>Radio Journal Headlines</title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com/</link><description>Lastest Headlines</description><lastBuildDate>Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:53:10 GMT</lastBuildDate><language>en-us</language><item><title>Frequency swap turns into a minor shift for listeners in central Oregon. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| The fallout from a move-in in the Portland market had the potential to bring some big confusion to the FM dial in Bend, Oregon - but a clever move by Gross Communications made things much easier for listeners to two Bend stations. Bustos Media`s move of the former KTIL-FM, Tillamook, OR (94.3) to Government Camp, east of Portland near Mount Hood, forced two Bend-market stations to change frequencies, sending Gross` KXIX, Bend from 94.1C0 to 92.9C0 and Fields Ponds Group`s KRXF, Sunriver, OR from 92.7C2 to 94.1C2. But since Gross LMA`s KRXF from Fields Ponds, it was able to swap formats and calls at the same time it swapped frequencies - so the KXIX calls and ``Power 94`` top-40 format stayed put on 94.1, even though that facility is now the Sunriver-licensed C2 that belongs to Fields Ponds. And the modern rock format and KRXF calls that were on 92.7 slid just one notch up the dial to the higher-powered C0 facility on 92.9 that used to be KXIX.]]></description></item><item><title>FCC`s Auction 88 closes. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Remember the days when FCC spectrum auctions routinely hauled in six- and seven-figure bids for new FM channels in even relatively small, obscure markets? Further evidence that those days are gone comes from the conclusion of the latest FM Auction 88. This one was a closed auction, limited to applicants who`d already filed for the baker`s dozen of FM channels involved, some of them more than a decade ago. After 17 rounds of bidding, the FCC auctioned off 13 licenses for $1,886,000 â€" or $1,442,450 when bidding credits are factored in. The highest bid was for a new FM (98.9A) licensed to Rosendale, NY in the Poughkeepsie market. That one went to Hawkeye Communications for $499,999. The most sought after license was for a North Madison, OH signal (93.7A) that went through 16 rounds between two bidders before South Shore Broadcasting won the FM for $425,000. The station covers northeast Ohio about an hour outside Cleveland. Winners will have three years to build the stations and put them on the air or else forfeit the permit.]]></description></item><item><title>Clear Channel donates what`s now a six-pack of AMs to MMTC. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Clear Channel`s need to pare down its station holdings in some markets, and to exit unprofitable situations in others, has been good news for the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. Last year, Clear Channel announced the donation of four AM signals to MMTC, which is using them as part of a ``train-to-own`` initiative to get more minorities and women into station ownership. Now Clear Channel is adding two more stations to the donation list: WTOC, Sussex, NJ (1360), which runs 2-kw days/320 watts at night from a two-tower array northwest of New York City, and KFXN, Minneapolis (690), a 500-watt daytimer from a three-tower array near Newton in northwest New Jersey. Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan says, ``By donating these two additional stations, we`re helping to create more opportunities for those who want to excel in the radio industry.`` The company also donated a transmitter to MMTC last year. MMTC president David Honig says it`s already found operators for two of the donated stations, who will run them under local marketing agreements with the eventual goal of buying the stations outright.]]></description></item><item><title>Atop Vermont`s tallest mountain, a long-running tower project wraps up. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Mount Mansfield, towering 4393 feet above northern Vermont, has long been a flashpoint for conflicts between environmentalists and broadcasters. Burlington`s TV stations need to be up there to reach viewers â€" but when they tried to replace their towers to accommodate DTV antennas a few years back, it touched off a battle that lasted for years and made Burlington one of the last markets in the country to get DTV. A compromise finally allowed construction to start in 2006 on three new low-profile towers to replace the existing towers that had crowned the mountaintop since 1954. Last summer, two of the old towers came down, and this month saw the removal, at last, of the remaining original tower on the mountain, a 308-foot guyed tower that went up in 1969 for WVNY-TV (Channel 22) and WEZF (92.9). Both stations have now moved to the new community towers that went up in 2008. Those towers and antenna radomes are all painted a flat gray, and to further reduce their visual impact, the lower portion of the towers, below the TV and FM antennas, are shrouded in solid steel.]]></description></item><item><title>Hudson Valley AM tries again for a frequency change. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| ``1170 Broadcast Radio Inc.`` wants to make its name a misnomer. For years now, it`s been trying to move its lone broadcast property, WWLE, Cornwall, NY, down the dial from 1170 to 1150. That move would add two more towers to WWLE`s existing two-tower array some 50 miles north of New York City, boosting the station`s power from 800 watts (daytime-only) to 2500 watts days and 500 watts at night. WWLE held a CP to make the move back in 2004, but that CP was cancelled in 2007. Now the station has submitted new measurements on two co-channel stations to demonstrate that no interference will result, and it`s once again applying for the move to 1150.]]></description></item><item><title>$10,000 fine for a pirate just north of New York City. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Dexter Blake of Mount Vernon, New York was just one of the many pirate radio operators the FCC has busted in and around New York City in recent years. In August 2008, FCC agents found him operating on 101.5 without a license. Like so many pirate operators, Blake was hit with a $10,000 Notice of Apparent Liability â€" and like so many of them, Blake never responded to the FCC`s call for cash. Last week, the Commission turned the NAL into a forfeiture notice. (RJ wonders how many of those unpaid forfeitures ever catch up to pirate operators, should they ever go for a federal loan or a tax refund or make other contact with the government.)]]></description></item><item><title>More juice for a Chicago AM rimshot.   </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Polnet`s WNVR, Vernon Hills, IL (1030) has been granted a construction permit to improve its limited coverage of Chicagoland. WNVR now runs 10-kw days and 120 watts at night (when it`s on at night at all) from four very short, top-loaded towers. Its new CP would replace those with six new 195-foot towers at the same site, boosting WNVR`s day signal to 27-kw, with 8-kw during critical hours and 210 watts at night. The new day facility won`t change WNVR`s signal toward Chicago very much - it puts 2 mV/m over most of the city - but it would expand WNVR`s fringe signal to the north and west toward Wisconsin, putting 0.5 mV/m over both Milwaukee and Madison.]]></description></item><item><title>Seattle`s TV tower climber faces the music. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Last week, we told you about the man who climbed the KIRO-TV tower on Queen Anne Hill overlooking Seattle, and now we can tell you his name and the fine he`ll pay. 53-year-old Joseph Pidgeon pleaded guilty to a trespassing charge. He`ll pay a $1,000 fine for the stunt, which he told police he did simply because the big tower ``was there.``]]></description></item><item><title>Veteran Chicago engineer retires. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Gordon Carter came to Chicago classical station WFMT (98.7) in 1969, and he`s served as chief engineer there since 1995. Along the way, he moved the studios three times. But after 41 years, Carter is taking a buyout from WFMT`s parent company, Window to the World Communications. Carter, whose latest big project was the overhaul of WFMT`s transmitter site with a new Nautel HD transmitter, says he`ll remain active in broadcast engineering on a contract basis in the Chicago area.]]></description></item><item><title>Unpaid bills doom a community station north of Toronto. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Frank Rogers had big hopes for the 50-watt station he put on the air in Alliston, Ontario just a year ago. But despite a dearth of local media in the growing suburb on the edge of the country`s biggest market, CFAO (102.7) struggled to pay its bills. The local paper says the station is now off the air after failing to pay its rent, and some of its equipment has been seized to pay other unpaid creditors.]]></description></item><item><title>Bronx FM move-in signs on. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| It`s not often that a new commercial FM signal signs on in the biggest city in America. WHTZ (100.3) was the last such facility to move into the Big Apple, and that was 27 years ago, when the former WVNJ-FM moved across the Hudson from its old home in northern New Jersey to become a full-fledged Empire State Building signal. Last week, another new FM signal crossed the city limits: Bill O`Shaughnessy`s WVIP, New Rochelle, NY (93.5) traded its old site in Yonkers for a new home in the Bronx, atop the same building that`s home to public broadcaster WFUV (90.7). With 1750 watts/433`, WVIP`s new class A signal city-grades most of three boroughs (Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens) and continues to reach much of the area north of the city that the old site served. The new site is also running HD Radio at -14 dBc, with two additional subchannels that will, like WVIP`s main channel, eventually be leased out to ethnic programmers. WVIP is the first of three suburban class A signals to move to the big city: Cumulus is building a new facility, also at the WFUV site, for its Westchester-based WFAS-FM, Bronxville (103.9), and Cox has a CP to move its WCTZ, Port Chester (96.7) from its longtime home in Stamford, Connecticut to a tower in Yonkers, not far from WVIP`s old site.]]></description></item><item><title>New Franken-FM signs on in Denver. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| The Spanish-language sports programming from ESPN Deportes appeared on radios along the Front Range not long ago, and the new signal where they`re being heard may be one of the most potent ``Franken-FMs`` yet. Those are the channel 6 low-power TV stations carrying FM-standard audio, and the new one in Denver is Syncom Media Group`s KXDP-LP, which has moved down the dial from channel 69 to 55 to 30 and now to 6. With 300 watts from the Lookout Mountain tower farm that overlooks Denver from the Rocky Mountain foothills to the west, KXDP`s audio carrier is being widely heard across the Denver market.]]></description></item><item><title>New York`s WNYC ties up a 9/11 loose end, many years later. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| It`s going on nine years since WNYC-FM (93.9) was able to transmit from the World Trade Center, but the public radio station has remained licensed at that facility all this time, even as it`s moved its transmitter to Four Times Square and then to the master antenna at the Empire State Building. Those operations remained under STA while WNYC worked out interference issues with CBS Radio`s WZMX, Hartford, CT (93.7), which will end up short-spaced to 93.9 in New York as a result of the WNYC license moving northward from the World Trade Center to Empire. CBS had filed an informal objection to the move, citing the additional interference WZMX would receive, but WNYC argued that there was no other workable site for its transmitter, and CBS eventually dropped its opposition. On July 12, the FCC finally granted the application WNYC filed on November 20, 2001, allowing WNYC-FM to be licensed at 5.4-kw/1361` from Empire, a slight power boost from the 4-kw WNYC-FM has been using at Empire under STA since 2002.]]></description></item><item><title>Lightning takes down a Texas public radio station. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| There`s no shortage of bad weather in south Texas, and public station KMBH-FM, Harlingen found that out the hard way: its tower took a direct hit from Hurricane Alex when the storm made landfall June 30. The high winds snapped a guy wire, sending the KMBH antenna and the top portion of the antenna crashing to the ground. The station says it could take two months or more to replace the tower, but it`s working on a temporary fix to get a signal back on the air sooner.]]></description></item><item><title>As an LMA dissolves, a custody fight over a famed Knoxville callsign. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Citadel`s bankruptcy is having an interesting ripple effect in eastern Tennessee. That`s where the Citadel Knoxville cluster had been LMA`ing the big FM signal of WNOX, Oak Ridge, TN (100.3) from Johnny Pirkle`s Oak Ridge FM, Inc. But the Citadel bankruptcy led to missed payments - and then to Citadel dissolving the LMA entirely, effective August 1. Citadel`s plan was to move WNOX`s historic calls and news-talk format down the dial to a rimshot signal it owns, WOKI, Oliver Springs, TN (98.7), and last week Citadel pulled the plug on 98.7`s True Oldies format and began simulcasting WNOX on both frequencies. But Pirkle now says he plans to keep doing talk on 100.3 himself after Citadel leaves the class C signal at month`s end. And those historic WNOX calls, which bounced around the AM and FM dials before Citadel put them on 100.3, won`t be making the move down to 98.7 as Citadel has planned. Under the LMA with Oak Ridge, Citadel retained the rights to the calls - but after the LMA was dissolved, the calls appear to be staying with Pirkle on 100.3, while Citadel will rebrand its ``News Talk 98.7.``]]></description></item><item><title>Man climbs tower, ``because it`s there.`` </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| That was about the extent of the explanation from the 53-year-old man who started to make his way up the ladder to the top of the KIRO-TV tower on Seattle`s Queen Anne Hill Thursday afternoon. As onlookers and emergency personnel gathered below to watch him, the man made it all the way to the top of the 609-foot tower, sat down for about 15 minutes, then climbed back down, started to climb up again, then finally returned to ground, where he was arrested for criminal trespassing and reckless endangerment. It`s still not clear how the man made it inside KIRO`s heavily-fortified transmitter complex in a dense urban neighborhood overlooking the Space Needle.]]></description></item><item><title>Milwaukee AM-on-FM translator seeks new frequency. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| WNOV, Milwaukee (860) was thrilled to be able to add a full-time FM signal to its AM home a few months back. But the arrival of ``Majic 102.5,`` via translator W273AT, created some static (literally) for listeners in Milwaukee`s western suburbs who`d become accustomed to fringe reception of Northwestern College`s WNWC-FM, Madison (102.5). Though the Milwaukee area is outside WNWC-FM`s protected contour, Northwestern rounded up enough listener complaints to prompt WNOV to ask the FCC for a new translator frequency. The proposed move to 93.9 would require an FCC waiver, since it wouldn`t ordinarily be considered a minor change, but WNOV says it would be in the public interest to keep its translator on the air while keeping WNWC-FM free of interference.]]></description></item><item><title>FCC goes to federal court to collect $4,000 from Saga.</title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[|  Five years ago this month Robert Naginewicz entered an Aerosmith-related contest on classic rock ``Rock 102`` WAQY, Springfield, MA and won a two-year lease on a 2005 Buick LaCrosse, plus a trunk full of band memorabilia. But Naginewicz didn`t get the keys to the car until a month after he`d won. The Aerosmith items didn`t show up for an additional six months. Naginewicz filed a complaint with the FCC, insisting WAQY wasn`t living up to its own contest rules promising awards would be given within 30 days. Saga agreed the delay wasn`t ideal but was ``within the zone of reasonableness`` arguing ``promptness`` isn`t part of the FCC`s contest rules. But it conceded that making him wait six months for the Aerosmith memorabilia was a ``problem`` and gave him additional prizes to compensate. The Enforcement Bureau handed Saga a $4,000 fine, which the company appealed and lost. Last month Saga asked for review by the five commissioners. While the agency can put a stay on the fine while a proceeding moves forward, it hasn`t done that in this case. So after waiting for its money since April Fool`s Day, the FCC has filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Michigan looking to get its cash.]]></description></item><item><title>FCC cuts some annual license fees - but rejects flat tax-type approach. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| It`s not often a regulatory fee gets smaller, but that`s what will happen for thousands of stations. The FCC is lowering annual license fees by 4% to 5% for all FMs, regardless of class or market size, as well as for class A and C AM stations. The other AMs - Class B and Class D stations - would see their annual fee hold steady. License fees range from just under $11,000 for major market FMs to about $700 for small town daytimers, depending on how much power a station has and how many listeners the signal covers. The FCC says it considered comments filed by New England station owner Bob Bittner, who says the current way of calculating regulatory fees unfairly favors the largest operators with the most revenue. He instead proposed a flat percentage tied to a station`s income, or a per-person rate based on the signal`s coverage. The FCC also considered a proposal by Radiotechniques Engineering`s Ed Schober to base the fee on the amount of actual spectrum occupied by a station. That would mean FMs - which use ten times as much spectrum as AMs - would pay more. The FCC called both ideas ``interesting`` but concluded they don`t fit with federal guidelines or agency precedent. ``Any changes in fee methodology must be consistent with the governing statute, including the prior notification to Congress,`` it says. But it`s not ruling out reworking its licensing system over the next few years.]]></description></item><item><title>Remembering the inventor of the ``Max twins.``</title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[|  In the days before Optimods and Omnias, state-of-the-art audio processing for radio meant a pair of beige boxes from CBS Labs. The inventor of the Volumax and Audimax processors died recently - and Emil Torick is being remembered as an important figure in broadcast engineering from the 1950s through the 1990s. In addition to heading CBS Labs, Torick oversaw Broadcast Technical Partners, the CBS/NAB joint venture that promoted improved FM audio. In later years, Torick worked with the National Radio Systems Committee on digital radio standards and was active with the Audio Engineering Society until his death in late June. Torick had been living in California. He was 78.]]></description></item><item><title>Canada This Week - CBC moves ahead on a long-delayed Maritimes AM-to-FM switch. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| The CRTC granted the CBC permission to move CBI (1140 Sydney) to FM way back in 2007, but budgetary woes and concerns about replicating CBI`s 10-kw AM coverage of Nova Scotia`s scenic Cape Breton Island kept the move from happening right away. But last week, the CBC began testing the new FM signal, CBIT-FM (97.1). Once it`s done with its testing period, the AM station has a 90-day simulcast period to get listeners transitioned, and then it will go silent, leaving Nova Scotia with just five remaining AM signals, at least one of which also holds a permit to move to FM.]]></description></item></channel></rss>