January 2000 to June 2000

Latest items listed first.....

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June 26, 2000
Channel 20 Plans To Air Dr. Laura
Channel 20 plans to air the new Dr. Laura TV show this fall despite local protests against the program. The Washington Blade reported in its 6/30 edition that 300 people gathered at Dupont Circle on 6/25 to protest "the anti-Gay rhetoric" of Dr. Laura Schlessinger (right) who has called homosexuality "deviant" and "a biological error." More than 600 also sent letters to WDCA asking the station not to air the program. According to the Blade, Gay And Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) regional media director Cathy Renna said that despite a recent meeting she had with WDCA officials, the station still plans to carry the daily, hour-long talk show. A WDCA official reportedly said that the only way the station would not air the show was if syndicator Paramount cancelled it. Channel 20 is owned by Paramount's UPN network which is in turn owned by CBS/Viacom. Dr. Laura's radio show is heard each weekday on WMAL and WCBM.

June 15, 2000
Westwood One Buys SmarTraveler
Westwood One has announced that it will purchase SmartRoute Systems, which operates the SmarTraveler traffic information service that provides rush hour reports to area cable TV systems and via the internet at www.smartraveler.com. Westwood One already owns Shadow Traffic and Metro Networks, which provide traffic info to radio and TV stations.

June 10, 2000
Another Carpenter Joins 5
Deborah Carpenter has been named VP/general manager at WTTG, Channel 5. She replaces Laureen Ong who left to head the DC-based National Geographic Channel's US operations. Carpenter had been holding sales positions at several Chicago area TV stations. Her father, Bill Carpenter, was in charge of WTTG from 1971 to 1980; he died in 1997.

June 7, 2000
New FM Spanish Formats Due
July is the kick-off month for the new FM Spanish language formats on WMJS (92.7) and WPLC (94.3). Mega, which owns both stations, had hoped to launch its new formats in June but it is still installing a new tower for Prince Frederick MD's WMJS. However, the two stations will not be programmed together as some had predicted. We hear that easy listening WMJS will feature an Hispanic urban format and be co-programmed with Alexandria's WBZS (730 AM). Warrenton VA's modern adult contemporary WPLC will feature a love songs, "Amor" format, which is currently heard on WZHF (1390 AM) in Arlington. ZHF was recently sold to Multicultural Broadcasting.

June 6, 2000
4's News Dominates May Ratings Sweeps
Channel 4, WRC's news dominated the overall May 2000 TV "sweeps" ratings numbers. 4's newscasts took first place at 5 AM, 6 AM, 4 PM, 5 PM, 6 PM, and at 11 PM. Channel 9, WUSA's newscasts took second place at 5 AM, 4 PM, 5 PM, 6 PM, and at 11 PM. WUSA's noon newscast took first place in a battle with Channel 5, WTTG. Channel 7, WJLA's newscasts took 3rd place during the early evening periods and at 11 PM; the station did mount a 2nd place finish at 6 AM. Channel 5's 10 PM newscast dropped a bit from last year to come in at 4th place in comparison with 4, 7 and 9's 11 PM newscasts. 5's 7 AM news placed 3rd behind 4's "Today Show" and 7's "Good Morning America"; the CBS "Early Show" on 9 placed a distant 4th, down substantially from a year ago when 9 ran local news during the 7 AM time period.

June 5, 2000
TOP To Go For Redskins?
Will Bonneville (owner of WTOP) try to intercept the radio broadcast rights to the Washington Redskins from Infinity (WJFK)? Sources say TOP wants a sports team that's a Washington team (not a Baltimore team like the O's are). Plus, with games mainly on Sundays, TOP's weekday news programming would not be affected. There is one "small" hitch, we hear, the Skins want BIG bucks.

June 3, 2000
Baltimore TV Personalities Head For NYC
Tony Pann, Channel 11 weatherman, heads to NYC's WCBS-TV to handle the weekend weather chores. He's the second Baltimore TV personality to recently move to the Big Apple. Charm City's Channel 2 news anchor Todd McDermott also joins the WCBS-TV roster.

June 2, 2000
WJZ Does Well In Baltimore TV Ratings
Channel 13's news was the ratings champ during the May TV ratings "sweeps" in Baltimore. CBS-owned WJZ posted news victories at 6 AM, at noon, at 6 PM and at 11 PM. The Channel 11 WBAL news team won at 5 PM, and came in a strong second to 13 at 11 PM. While the news for Channel 2 WMAR's newscasts was not so good, the station did post some viewership increases at 11 PM.

June 1, 2000
Hill Leaves 9 For 7
Channel 9's chief weathercaster Doug Hill bolts for Channel 7. He'd been at WUSA since the early 1980s. Meanwhile, 7's General Manager Chris Pike is quoted as saying that WJLA plans to "significantly upgrade" its weather department. Hill's last day at 9 was May 31. He is due to appear on 7 this fall.

June 1, 2000
Changes For SmarTraveler On Cox Cable
SmarTraveler, the local cable TV morning traffic service shown on some DC area cable systems, won't be dumped from Fairfax County's Cox system after all. Cox previously announced that SmarTraveler was one of the channels it was dropping on 6/1 to make way for stuff like the "fair and balanced" right-slanted Fox News Channel. But now we hear that SmarTraveler can still be seen on Cox Cable channel 35 as of 6/1.

June 1, 2000
WNST Relays EWTN
We hear that Towson MD's WNST (1570 AM) is now relaying audio from the Catholic-based Eternal World TV Network. The station is owned by Catholic Family Radio which has put WNST and its chain of stations up for sale. CFR had been programming a religious-based talk format on its radio stations before switching to EWTN on Memorial Day weekend.

May 31, 2000
Changes At HTS
Management changes at HTS pending its sale from CBS to either Fox Sports Net, Comcast, or someone else. Jody Shapiro, who has been general manager since the regional sports network network was formed in 1984, leaves to join NBA management.

May 17, 2000
WJFK Fined
On 5/17 the FCC hit WJFK owner Infinity Broadcasting with a $4000 fine for airing the conversation of a Texas woman live, without her permission. The incident stems from an August 1999 Don & Mike show when the pair called the El Cenizo, Texas town hall to ask why some town meetings were being held in Spanish. Don & Mike (actually Mike Sorce and Mike O'Meara) then remarked that if folks didn't want to speak English then they should go back to Mexico. The exchange got the rowdy radio duo kicked off an Albuquerque station. Several months ago, the FCC came to the same conclusion about WJFK's fault during a preliminary examination of this incident. Apparently, in the latest round, Infinity officials argued that WJFK aired the woman's comments via a tape delay (not live) and therefore the FCC rule did not apply. The Commission did not buy that argument.

May 16, 2000
Channel 20 To Carry Dr. Laura
WDCA Channel 20 is planning to carry Dr. Laura Schlessinger's controversial TV talk show when it takes to the airwaves this fall. Gay activist group GLAAD is planing to "mobilize an effective group of people to rally" against WDCA's decision to carry the program. On 5/30 gay representatives met with WDCA officials. The doc, whose radio show airs on WMAL (630 AM) and WCBM (680 AM), has been under pressure from gay and lesbian groups who are angry over Schlessinger's on-air remarks about homosexuality as "deviant" and "a biological error".

May 15, 2000
Stern Explores Leaving Infinity
Shock jock Howard Stern has indicated that he is exploring the possibility of leaving Infinity/CBS which produces his nationally syndicated radio (and TV) show. Internet columnist Matt Drudge recently reported that the WJFK morning man had been offered a five year, $100 million deal to remain with Infinity/CBS. But Stern, on his radio show, has denied any talk of a deal with his current employer. Also, Stern is upset with Infinity/CBS because last fall it flipped NYC FM rock station WNEW to "hot talk" and installed a bunch of what Stern terms "clones" (including DC's Don & Mike), many of whom, Stern says, badmouth him. If Stern does leave Infinity/CBS, he could sign with Clear Channel, the firm that owns Rush Limbaugh's show and will soon own a batch of radio stations in the DC area including rocker DC101, which Stern used as his springboard to fame in the 1980s.

May 12, 2000
New Faces At 9 and 4
DCRTV learned 5/12 that WUSA, Channel 9 is getting a new news anchor. She's Gurvir Dhindsa, currently a morning news anchor at WAGA, the Fox station in Atlanta. We hear she'll be co-anchoring 9's 6 PM news along with Gordon Peterson. She starts this summer and will replace Andrea Roane, who'll continue co-anchoring the 11 PM newscast along with Peterson. Meanwhile, Channel 4 sports anchor George Michael hires a woman, Jill Sorenson, to replace sports reporter and weekend sports anchor Darrian Chapman. Sorenson, who holds a sports anchor position at a Duluth TV station, becomes one of only a handful of females to do TV sports in the DC market. Chapman is moving to WMAQ-TV in Chicago.

May 3, 2000
Channel 5 News Crew Injured
Three members of a Channel 5 news crew were injured when the transmission mast on their news van accidently touched a power line in Alexandria while covering a story on the evening of 5/2. An explosion sent the three to various area hospitals where, as of the morning of 5/3, two were still hospitalized - one in serious condition with burns and one in fair condition. By the afternoon of 5/3, only one crewman was still hospitalized and he was no longer in serious condition. The WTTG live truck, which was stationed in front of the Alexandria police headquarters building, was nearly destroyed by the surge of electricity. A Channel 9 news crew happened to catch the explosion on tape.

April 23, 2000
Capitol Radio Moves To 53
Capitol Radio, the punkish rock music show axed by WJFK (106.7 FM) in early April, may be coming back to life - on TV. It looks like the show will appearing on WNVT, Channel 53, the Northern VA public TV station that currently features Canada's MuchMusic network most evenings. By the way, 53 is also airing music partnerships with DC101's Jon Ballard (tv101), and WHFS's Alan Scott (MegaHertz).

April 21, 2000
Ray Woolfendon Dies
DCRTV hears that "Cousin Ray" Woolfendon passed away on 4/21. For almost three decades Mr. Woolfendon owned traditional country WPWC (1480 AM) in Dumfries VA. This past January he sold it and the station went dark. He then suffered a heart attack in late February.

April 20, 2000
Beatrice Retires
Ken Beatrice has decided to retire and say goodbye to sports talker WTEM (980 AM). His last day was 4/20. The call-in host's 24-year career included 19 years on WMAL (630 AM).

April 19, 2000
1690 To Go Easy Listening
DCRTV hears that Lexington Park MD's WMDM (1690 AM), the area's only expanded-band AM station, will soon flip from talk to adult standards, thereby trying to fill the void of the loss of easy listening WMJS (92.7 FM) which will soon be going with Spanish language music. The M Street Journal newsletter says that 1690's "new" calls will be WPTX, which are the current calls of now defunct 920 AM, from where 1690 originated.

April 18, 2000
WNST To Be Sold
Catholic Family Radio is planning to sell all of its stations. The only area station affected by the decision is Towson's WNST, 1570 AM, which flipped from sports talk to religious based talk last year.

April 17, 2000
Warrenton's WKCW Sold
Bill Parris, former owner of Rockville's WINX, is selling Warrenton traditional country music outlet WKCW (1420 AM). Daytimer WKCW is being purchased for $450,000 by Arthur Liu, who heads Multicultural Broadcasting. Multicultural, which operates a chain of mainly foreign language, time brokered stations in the NYC area, made a deal on 4/11 to purchase Arlington's WZHF (1390 AM) and WKDV (1460 AM) in Manassas from Mega.

April 15, 2000
Mega Buys Second Area FMer, WPLC
Mega Communications made a second DC area FM acquisition. This time, it picked-up hot adult contemporary with a tinge of modern rock WPLC, Warrenton VA, on 94.3, to complement its new 92.7 signal from Prince Frederick MD, which is set to debut in June. Mega buys the station from Syd Abel for approximately $6 million. A 94.3/92.7 combo certainly would give Spanish language Mega more-or-less blanket coverage of the DC metro on the FM band. A formal announcement of the "Mega-ization" of the mid-powered FM facility (which WTOP used as its FM relay in late 1997 and early 1998 before moving to 107.7) was to be made on 4/17. Mega recently got rid of two of its area AMers (WZHF and WKDV).

April 15, 2000
Channel 7 Gets New News Director
Steve Hammel, the news director for a St. Louis TV station, has signed on to become the news director at Channel 7. Hammel replaces Jim LeMay who was canned in March after he failed to bring WJLA's newscasts higher ratings. Hammell told the 4/15 Washington Post that he's "a plain old fashioned news guy moving from Middle America to the city where huge news happens on a daily basis." Hammel is due to start his duties with 7 in early May.

April 12, 2000
Bastfield Dies
All Access radio news reports that the former morning show producer at Baltimore's WWIN (95.9 FM/1400 AM), James Bastfield, died of colon cancer on 4/12. He was 32. Mr. Bastfield was known as "JB The Baldheaded Wonder," All Access adds.

April 12, 2000
Ong Leaves Channel 5
Fox Channel 5 VP and General Manager Laureen Ong leaves to become CEO of the new National Geographic Channel, a DC-based joint venture of Fox, NBC and the magazine. Ong had been with WTTG since March 1998. The Geo's cable channel is set to launch a US-version later this year; a European version was launched in 1997.

April 11, 2000
Mega Trades Away WZHF & WKDV
Mega Communications announced 4/11 that it is trading WZHF (1390 AM) in Arlington and WKDV (1460 AM) in Manassas to NYC-based Multicultural Broadcasting. In the $24.5 million deal (which includes the swap of the two DC area AMers), Silver Spring-based Mega is buying an AMer in NYC from Multicultural, which operates a number of Big Apple area multi-lingual formatted radio outlets. Does this mean other languages will be added to the current Spanish on 1390 and 1460? Mega will continue to own WBZS (730 AM), WKDL (1050 AM), WINX (1600 AM), and its new WMJS (92.7 FM).

April 10, 2000
WWMD Sold
Hagerstown easy listening outlet WWMD (104.7 FM) has been sold. Locally based Hagerstown Broadcasting Company has sold one of the last true, old fashioned, laid-back, mellow music stations in the DC area to the HJV limited partnership (John VerStandig) for $2.5 million plus WAYZ, 101.5 FM in Mercersburg PA (which does not make it to the DC area as 104.7 does). Expect 104.7's easy listening format to move to 101.5 soon, while 104.7 will take on a new format - probably country. VerStandig owns a bunch of Shenandoah Valley stations including Harrisonburg VA news/talker WSVA (550 AM).

April 3, 2000
Nurse Leaves Channel 50
Michael Nurse, general manager at Channel 50 WBDC, has left the station to join IMAKE, a Bethesda interactive media and technology firm. He is replaced by Jerry Martin who used to run WTIC in Hartford, a Tribune-owned station like 50 is. Nurse, who was with 50 for seven years during which the station had three owners, is credited with bringing the Orioles, Wizards and Capitals to the station as well as the launch of the WB network in DC.

April 1, 2000
WJFK Cancels Capitol Radio
JFK's punkish rock music show Capitol Radio has been cancelled. The 10 PM weekly Saturday show went missing from 106.7 on 4/1, replaced with the new Ron & Fez internet-based talk show, which normally airs on JFK later in the overnights. The website says that WJFK's new management team (former JFK Program Director Jeremy Coleman's now at NYC's WNEW) has decided to pull the plug on the cutting-edge music program. We hear that the show may have aired some music with questionable lyrics. It looks like JFK is moving to an "all talk all the time" format with the recent demise of the jazz-based overnights and now the canning of Capitol Radio.

March 28, 2000
Should AMFM/Clear Channel Be Worried About Latest DC Radio Ratings?
When Clear Channel finally takes over DC's AMFM-owned stations this spring or summer will a shake up be in order? You kind of wonder considering AMFM's performance in the latest Arbitrend ratings, the preliminary radio numbers (age 12+) released on 3/28 and posted on the All Access website. The best AMFM could do was a tie for 6th with country WMZQ, despite the fact that AMFM owns eight stations in the DC market and usually commands about a quarter of the market's listening shares. AMFM's adult contemporary WASH placed 9th with fairly steady numbers, but trouble is showing up further down. AMFM's oldies WBIG continues a slow negative trend to land in 12th place and its "Jammin' Oldies" WJMO has steadily slumped from a 4.5 share last spring to a 2.7 share now, for 17th place. The firm's rocker, DC101, slumps slightly in the overall numbers to 13th. And none of the firm's AM outlets (WTEM, WWRC and WGAY) rank higher than 20th place. Other non-AMFM numbers: adult urban WHUR takes the top spot, with urban WPGC-FM and WKYS taking 2nd and 3rd. Classical WGMS soars upward to 4th tied with news/talker WMAL. Hot talker WJFK, hot adult contemporary WRQX tie for 6th with WMZQ, smooth jazz WJZW is 10th. Classic rocker WARW continues its slow upward climb to 15th, while alternative rocker WHFS comes in at an all too typical 18th.

March 28, 2000
WERQ Tops Charm City Radio Numbers
In Baltimore the 3/28 Arbitrends show that urban WERQ, as usual, is tops. Second is country WPOC, 3rd is news/talker WBAL, 4th is urban WWIN-FM and 5th is adult contemporary WLIF. Rounding out the top ten - oldies WQSR, hot adult contemporary WWMX, rocker WIYY, contemporary WXYV and gospel WCAO. Other interesting stuff - alternative rocker WHFS slumps a bit to 11th place, classic rocker WOCT dives to 16th (is a format change brewing at 104.3???), and WZBA, which flipped from country (as WGRX) to adult rock last fall, ranks an anemic 21st.

March 22, 2000
WGMS Widely Heard On Internet
DC's classical WGMS (103.5 FM), www.wgms.com, was the most-listened to internet station via the "average time spent tuning" (ATST) stats according to Arbitron's "Infostream" webcast ratings for December 1999, which were released on 3/22. A number of other DC area stations were among the top 25 ATST stations including smooth jazz WJZW (105.9 FM) at 3, hot adult contemporary WRQX (107.3 FM) at 4, and all-news WTOP (107.7 FM/1500 AM) at 11.

March 20, 2000
TOP & MAL Fued Over News Judgment
News/talk WMAL (630 AM) and all-news WTOP (107.7 FM/1500 AM) continue to battle each other over the coverage of a recent incident involving a firebomb thrown into a store (allegedly by animal rights campaigners against an establishment that sells fur coats) located in WMAL's Jennifer Street building. TOP covered it first; MAL didn't cover it until much later. And TOP is crowing about beating MAL to the punch. However, MAL News Director John Matthews defends his station's news judgment in the Washington Post's 3/21 DC Radio Talk: "An apparent incendiary device was indeed thrown through the window of a fur store on the first floor of our building. It did not catch fire inside the store. There was no damage beyond the broken window. The building was not evacuated. No one was injured. And this all happened at around midnight. We certainly knew about the story, but it never ran on our air. Why? It wasn't newsworthy. I don't know why any news organization would. The Washington Post certainly didn't run the story, either. I don't know how many windows were broken in DC last week, but this is one we didn't cover," Matthews adds. However, TOP News Director Jim Farley fires back: "The story ran at length on the local TV newscasts (although it happened too late to make the Post). Good spin by WMAL, but when they walked into their newsroom that morning and saw the AP story crediting WTOP, they realized we scooped them on a story in their own building. It pays to have the only radio newsroom in town staffed 24/7," adds Farley.

March 17, 2000
Apostolides Dies
Penelope Apostolides, who hosted the Greek-American Hellenic Radio Hour for 45 years on DC area radio, died 3/9. She was 86 and suffered a heart attack. Ms. Apostolides' program debuted in 1950 on 730 AM in Alexandria, then known as WPIK, and later moved to 900 AM in Laurel, then known as WLMD, as well as to Rockville's 1600 AM, WINX.

March 17, 2000
Channel 7 News Director Resigns
Jim LeMay, the news director at WJLA Channel 7, resigned in mid-March. LeMay had reportedly been in a budget battle with Allbritton Communications, which owns the station. While LeMay oversaw many changes in 7's news department during his 21-month tenure, such as the arrival of long-time 9 anchor Maureen Bunyan and the dismissal of long-time 7 vet Paul Berry, 7's news continues to wallow at the bottom of the news ratings heap despite ABC's ratings-strong prime time programming, as well as the hefty numbers Oprah Winfrey delivers in the late afternoon. Assistant news director Michael Fountain has been named as LeMay's interim replacement.

March 17, 2000
Victoria Jones Joins WMAL
Former WRC (back when non-sports talk was on 980 AM) radio personality Victoria Jones took over the 7 to 10 PM slot on WMAL (630 AM) as scheduled on 3/27. Unlike many of MAL's other talkers, she's not a man and she's not a right-winger. The British talker has been signed to a multi-year deal. She replaces a variety of evening hosts on MAL since Chip Franklin left for WBAL (1090 AM) last fall. In addition, Chris Core's PM drive show is trimmed from 4 to 7 (instead of 8). MAL is also planning to announce a new host for the 10 PM to 1 AM slot in the very near future.

March 17, 2000
DC101 GM Resigns
DC101 General Manager Mark O'Brien resigned 3/17. You'll recall, O'Brien had a run-in with morning man Elliot Segal in February over a tasteless lobster joke, causing Segal's one-day "indefinite" suspension. O'Brien also handled WASH. We hear that Catherine Malloy, of co-owned WBIG, and Bennett Zeir, head of AMFM's DC operations, will take charge of WWDC & WASH until a replacement is found.

March 10, 2000
Don & Mike Snare A Fine For JFK
The Federal Communications Commission has hit WJFK (106.7 FM) with a fine for a segment aired on the Don & Mike show last summer. On 3/8, the FCC issued JFK owner Infinity/CBS a $4000 summons for broadcasting a telephone conversation live without first informing the party of its intention to do so. The August 1999 incident took place during a call to the El Cinezo, Texas town hall following a decision to conduct some hearings in Spanish. Don & Mike, actually Mike Sorce and Mike O'Meara, jested that people who couldn't speak English should go back to Mexico, a joke that caused an Albuquerque station to drop their show.

March 10, 2000
Channel 4 Leads In News Ratings
Channel 4 leads the pack among newscasts, but Channel 7 leads in prime time viewers. In the morning news category (7 to 9 AM), 4's Today Show leads, 7's Good Morning America is 2nd, while 5's Fox Morning News is 3rd but it showed a whopping 24 percent gain; 9's Early Show was in 4th. At 4 PM - 4's news is in 1st place (up 14 percent), while 9's news is in second (down about 8 percent). At 5 PM, 4's news again leads with an 11 percent gain, 9's news is in 2nd (down about 6 percent), and 7's news is in 3rd (with a 12 percent rise). At 6 PM, 4's news is in 1st, 9's news in 2nd and 7's news is in 3rd. In the late news race, 4 leads again, 9 comes in 2nd, 5's 10 PM-cast is in 3rd and 7 is 4th. And, in prime time, 7's ABC programming is first (thank you Regis), 9's CBS programming is 2nd, 4's NBC programming is 3rd, 5's Fox programming is 4th, 20's UPN programming is 5th, and 50's WB programming is in 6th place. All DC network stations showed a downward ratings trend during prime time hours.

March 10, 2000
Channel 11 Gets Good News Numbers
Baltimore's Channel 11, WBAL, has something to crow about. Its 5 PM and 6 PM weekday newscasts took first place, above long-time news leader Channel 13, WJZ, in the February TV "sweeps." However, WJZ's newscasts still showed their strength at 6 AM, noon and at 11 PM. Channel 13 blames its poor showing during early evening on its 4 PM lead-in programs but hopes to remedy things this fall with the arrival of Rosie O'Donnell from Channel 2, WMAR.

March 8, 2000
WJMO & WHFS Slump In Latest Radio Ratings
The news is not good for "Jammin' Oldies" WJMO and WHFS which claims to be an "alternative" rocker (whatever that is, these days). Both turned in rather anemic performances in the November thru January preliminary Arbitrend radio ratings, as publicized by the All Access website on 3/8. WJMO slumped to 17th place in the overall age 12+ early bird trends, while WHFS took 18th place. The top three, as usual, were WPGC-FM, WHUR, and WKYS, all with urban contemporary-ish formats. Hot talker WJFK took 4th place, country WMZQ 5th, classical WGMS 6th, smooth jazz WJZW and hot adult contemporary WRQX tied for 7th. Talker WMAL took 9th and oldies WBIG took 10th place, tied with rocker DC101. Classic rocker WARW continued a slow upward trend at 15th. Poor old sports talker WTEM was 19th, as usual. Up in Baltimore, urban WERQ took its customary first place, urban WWIN-FM took 2nd, talker WBAL was 3rd, and country WPOC dipped to 4th. Rounding out the top ten in decending order - WQSR, WLIF, WWMX, WXYV, WIYY, WCAO and WHFS (tie). The final Arbitron numbers are due out in late April.

March 7, 2000
Nestor Moves To WBIS
"Nasty Nestor" Aparicio (left) will move his sports talk show from Baltimore's WCBM (680 AM) to WBIS (1190 AM) come 4/3. Is a format change from business news to sports talk in the cards at WBIS? The Annapolis station (which is co-owned with Falls Church ethnic outlet WUST) is moving its transmitter to Baltimore this summer, along with a power hike.

March 7, 2000
Clear Channel Sells WPOC
Clear Channel Communications has released the list of stations it is selling in connection with its merger agreement with AMFM. Only one area station is affected, country WPOC (93.1 FM) in Baltimore, which will be purchased by Chase Radio Partners. Also, Clear Channel will sell four stations in Richmond VA (WKHK, WKLR, WMXB and WTVR-AM) to Cox Communications and four stations in Harrisburg PA (WNCE, WNNK, WTPA and WTCY-AM) to Cumulus Media.

March 6, 2000
WMJS Signs Off
Prince Frederick MD easy listening outlet WMJS (92.7 FM) has gone dark as of 3/2. The station has been sold to Mega Broadcasting which owns DC area Spanish language AMers WBZS, WINX, WZHF, WKDV and WKDB, and plans to turn 92.7 into a Spanish language music station. We had heard that 92.7 wouldn't convert to its new format until late spring or early summer, but maybe that time frame has been moved up. Also, Mega was planning to make signal improvements to 92.7 to jack up its coverage into the DC area.

March 6, 2000
Cousin Ray Recovers
DCRTV hears that "Cousin Ray" Woolfendon, former owner of WPWC (1480 AM) in Dumfries VA, is back at home, recovering from a heart attack he suffered on 2/21. He had been in the intensive care unit of Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg. WPWC signed off on 1/14 after almost three decades of playing traditional country, bluegrass and gospel music. The station, which has been dark since Woolfendon sold it to JMK Communications, is expected to adopt a Korean language format in the near future.

March 6, 2000
Clear Channel Buys SFX
Clear Channel Communications, which is in the process of buying AMFM (which owns of a bunch of area radio stations including WBIG, WASH, WMZQ, WJMO, WWDC, WWRC, WTEM, WGAY), wants to buy SFX Entertainment, a major concert promoter which owns the Nissan Pavilion near Manassas and the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, as well as Alexandria-based Cellar Door Productions.

March 6, 2000
Shake-Up At Pacifica, WPFW
The controversy surrounding Pacifica, owner of DC's WPFW (89.3 FM), continues. The "Save Pacifica" group had scheduled events in early March, including a DC "teach in," to coincide with the Pacifica board of directors meeting in Arlington. And, according to the board, a new "transition team" is now in place "to heal the conflict over management and policy" that the non-profit station group has suffered, as well as a host of station funding problems. Pacifica has been charged with news censorship at all its stations, including WPFW, and with non-democratic, anti-employee actions at its San Francisco station. Pacifica Board Chairman Mary Frances Berry will resign when her term expires in September; she is blamed by some for the tension between Pacifica and its San Francisco station, KPFA. Berry will be replaced by Houston accountant David Acosta. Also, Executive Director Lynn Chadwick has resigned and will be replaced by Bessie Wash, manager of WPFW. Also, the Pacifica board released the latest Arbitron ratings for its five stations and, it says, that for the first time in history, the Pacifica total cumulative audience has passed a record of 800,000 listeners per week. DC's WPFW has the largest audience share of any Pacifica station with a cumulative listenership of 182,000 or 1.3 percent.

March 6, 2000
Fine Tuning At WINC
DCRTV hears that there's some fine-tuning going on at Winchester's hot adult contemporary WINC (92.5 FM), which can be heard throughout Northern Virginia and seems to be scoring record numbers with female demographics. There's an effort underway to market the station to the entire region, including the DC suburbs. Also look for less repetition in the music and maybe even a slight shift in the direction of a classic rock sound at night and on weekends.

March 4, 2000
Greaseman Does Not Get Virgin Islands Gig
The Greaseman won't be heard on a Virgin Islands radio station after all. The owner of WMNG radio in St. Croix decided on March 3 not to hire former WARW (94.7 FM) morning man Doug Tracht (right), who was fired in February 1999 for telling a racist joke. WMNG had announced on February 29 that it planned to hire Tracht to do his comedy-based program along with an internet feed of the show. However, the news that the Greaseman had been canned in DC because he joked about a black man being dragged to his death behind a pick-up truck was too much for Virgin Islands residents and political leaders who protested Tracht's arrival. The Virgin Islands population is 80 percent African American, by the way. Tracht was trying to land his first radio job since he was fired.

February 28, 2000
Don & Mike Debut In NYC
WJFK's Don & Mike debuted 2/28 (via tape delay) at NYC hot talker WNEW. Their show airs from 7 PM to 11:30 PM. The Ron & Fez overnight team from Florida is now heading for WNEW instead of WJFK (both are Infinity/CBS properties); we'd earlier reported that Ron & Fez would start doing an T&A/internet-based talk show at WJFK in mid-February. Infinity/CBS recently brought in former JFK General Manager Ken Stevens to fix WNEW, which flipped from a rock format to a hot talk format last fall and has floundered in the ratings while JFK soared to the number 2 place in the DC ratings. We hear that JFK still plans to carry Ron & Fez in overnights, replacing the sleepy jazz, but the duo will be doing their show from Manhattan instead of from Fairfax (where JFK's studios are).

February 24, 2000
USA Today Runs Controversial AOL Photo
It's back! The controversial picture (left) featuring WRC news anchors Doug McKelway and Susan Kidd as part of the AOL-TV team appeared in the 2/24 edition of USA Today along with a story on AOL's plans to create a TV service. In early January, when AOL and Time-Warner announced their merger, WRC objected to the creation of the America Online promotional picture since the two Channel 4 anchors have no connection to AOL.

February 16, 2000
WTOP To Start "WTOP 2"
Washington DC's all-news radio WTOP AM/FM will launch an Internet-Only all-news station, WTOP2, on February 22, 2000. "This is a completely new product with original programming, not a rebroadcast of WTOP," says Joel Oxley, Vice President and General Manager of WTOP. "We have been successfully streaming WTOP Radio over our website, wtopnews.com, for over a year. This is a unique new service that carries on the WTOP tradition. We are using the slogan of Federal Line-Online." Jim Farley, WTOP Vice President, News & Programming, explains, "WTOP2 is a world and national news service. Partnering with the Associated Press, WTOP2 will provide world and national news as well as extensive coverage of the federal government. The White House, Pentagon, State Department and other federal briefings will be carried live along with key House and Senate hearings." Some features heard on WTOP Radio will also be carried on WTOP2 including "Today at the White House" "Today on the Hill" and "Federal Line." Marlis Majerus, News Director of WTOP2 says, "This new station will appeal particularly to the hundreds of thousands of federal employees and military personnel and their families, not just in the nation's Capitol but worldwide." Exclusive advertisers on WTOP2 include Hewlett Packard, GTSI, Litton PRC and A &T Systems. WTOP Radio and WTOP2 are owned by Bonneville International Corporation.

February 8, 2000
Fall/Early Winter Radio Ratings
Urban contemporary WPGC (95.5 FM) tops the fall/early winter Arbitron radio ratings for the DC market. But the big news is the strength of hot talker WJFK (106.7 FM), which has surged into 2nd place in the overall age 12+ numbers. Adult urban contemporary WHUR (96.3 FM) and urban contemporary WKYS (93.9 FM) take 3rd and 4th place, respectively. Adult contemporary WASH (97.1 FM) ranks in 5th place while active rocker DC101 (WWDC 101.1 FM) makes a strong 6th place finish, tied with country WMZQ (98.7 FM) and hot adult contemporary WRQX (107.3 FM). Classical WGMS (103.5 FM) places 9th, and soulful WMMJ (102.3 FM) jumps to 10th place, in a tie with oldies WBIG (100.3 FM). "Jammin' Oldies" WJMO (99.5 FM) drops to 16th; it had bested WMMJ the past few ratings periods. Poor old sports talker WTEM (980 AM) languishes at 19th place. Other news - Howard Stern (WJFK) wins the morning drive battle; Don & Mike (WJFK) win among male demographic groups; WARW also scores well among male demos, soaring to 2nd place with men; Elliot (DC101) ranks 4th among female demos. Up in Baltimore, urban contemporary WERQ (92.3 FM) takes the top place followed by country WPOC (93.1 FM), adult urban contemporary WWIN (95.9 FM) and news/talker WBAL (1090 AM).

February 8, 2000
Broo Returns To Cincinnati
Former Channel 9 sports anchor Ken Broo returns to Cincinnati. He joins WLWT/Channel 5 there to become sports anchor and sports director. Broo originally came from Cincinnati's Channel 12 to DC's WUSA, where he served several years as main sports anchor until he was canned last fall. Jess Atkinson was named as his replacement at WUSA.

February 7, 2000
9 Misses Golf Event
Channel 9 fumbles the ball again. This time it's the golf ball. WUSA decided not to carry the 2/7 final round of the Pebble Beach PGA Tour event in favor of its regular 4 PM and 5 PM newscasts. It just so happened that Tiger Woods made history by coming back from a 7-shot deficit to win the event, his 6th win in a row. At the last minute, 9's new sports anchor Jess Atkinson (right) did show some of the CBS event live in his 5:40 PM sports window. You'll recall, 9 blew it back in January when it failed to carry the first 15 minutes of a Redskins game; an error the station blamed on CBS.

February 5, 2000
Banules Dies
Dick Banules, director of operations at Fairfax Public Access Corp (FPA), died suddenly on 1/31 at age 60. FPA operates several public access TV channels serving Fairfax County cable subscribers, as well as WEBR, public access radio serving the Cox and Comcast cable systems in Fairfax County and the world via the internet.

February 5, 2000
TOP Gets O's Weekend Games, AMFM Stations May Get Weekday Games
WTOP finally signs to carry the Orioles for a 22nd consecutive year. The deal calls for 1500 AM/107.7 FM to air mainly weekend games not to interfere with TOP's weekday news and traffic coverage. The possibility still exists for some weekday games to be carried on AMFM's DC area AMers including WTEM (980 AM), WWRC (570 AM) and WGAY (1260 AM). Of course, the O's Baltimore flagship - WBAL (1090 AM) - will continue to carry all Orioles games.

February 4, 2000
Elliot Segal Returns To DC101 After Suspension
Elliot Segal returned to the DC101 airwaves 2/3 after a one day suspension. Station Vice President & General Manager Mark O'Brien had announced that "Elliot In The Morning" had been "suspended indefinitely" (but not fired) for something he said on the morning of 2/1. While O'Brien made no mention of what was said, Elliot or a caller uttered a profanity ("sh*t") in connection with a "discussion" of colostomy bags and told a dirty joke involving a lobster. Station officials say they received an overwhelming number of calls and e-mail messages requesting the return of Elliot. Publicity stunt?

February 4, 2000
Pacific Reports Strike
Pacifica Foundation news reporters and correspondents go on strike against news censorship. Pacifica, which recently moved its headquarters from Berkeley CA to DC, and owns DC's WPFW (89.3 FM), has been criticized for censoring news items not favorable to itself.

February 4, 2000
Vance Re-signs With 4
Veteran news anchor Jim Vance signed a new deal with Channel 4 in early February. Vance had been off the air the past few days while he'd been in contract negotiations with WRC. There was talk a plenty that Vance was thinking about leaving the station or the TV news business altogether.

February 3, 2000
Goldstein Joins JFK
Steve Goldstein, general sales manager at Baltimore's contemporary WXYV (102.7 FM), heads south on the BW Parkway to Fairfax's talker WJFK (106.7 FM), where he becomes general manager. JFK's top brass have flown the coup to struggling NYC FM talker WNEW (see item further down this page). The three stations are owned by CBS/Infinity.

February 1, 2000
XM Gets Ready To Roll
DC-based XM satellite radio has announced that it's getting ready to begin broadcasting 100 channels of digital-quality music, news, sports, talk and kids programming. The audio channels will be beamed to vehicle and home receivers as well as portable XM-Ready radios for a monthly fee of $9.95. XM has also lined up its charter advertisers and is setting up sales reps.

January 31, 2000
WRQX & WJZW Get Good Internet Listernship Grades
ABC's two DC area FMers chalk up big ratings for internet listenership. Arbitron 1/31 has released its nationwide webcast ratings for last November and smooth jazz WJZW (105.9 FM) (www.smoothjazz1059.com) and hot adult contemporary WRQX (107.3 FM) (www.mix1073fm.com) top the list.

January 20, 2000
More JFKers To NYC?
Could more of successful talker WJFK's (106.7 FM) management team be heading to Infinity's co-owned struggling New York City talker WNEW-FM? DCRTV hears that JFK Program Director Jeremy Coleman has been seen at WNEW lately and that he may be making the move to the Big Apple. Recently, JFK General Manager Ken Stevens joined WNEW.

January 20, 2000
FCC Votes In Favor Of Low Power FMers
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 1/20 approved granting licenses for low power FM stations. The commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of the plan despite objection from the National Association Of Broadcasters (NAB). The new low-power stations will be noncommercial and be either 10 or 100 watts. Expect the NAB to go to court to stop the plan, claiming that full-power broadcasters will suffer increased interference. The DC-based Mount Pleasant Broadcasting Club plans to apply for a station; check them out at mtpleasantbroadcasting.org .

January 17, 2000
Comcast Gears Up For DC Area Cable Internet Service
Comcast makes a big cable modem order and says it plans to target the DC area, especially Prince Georges County, for its cable internet connections through 2001. The Philadelphia-based firm recently opened a major customer service call center in Silver Spring. In the DC area, Comcast already owns the Alexandria, Prince William and Reston cable systems and is in the purchase of buying the Prince Georges, Montgomery, Arlington and DC systems.

January 14, 2000
Country WPWC Signs Off
Almost three decades of "real" country music programming was silenced at just past 5 PM on 1/14 when Dumfries VA country outlet WPWC (1480 AM) signed off for the last time. After 27 years on the air, "Cousin Ray" Woolfendon, owner of the station, anchored the last minutes and thanked the "thousands" of people for their expressions of appreciation for "The Big W." Station officials are referring listeners who want "real country," bluegrass and gospel music to "The Big K," country outlet WKCW at 1420 AM in Warrenton VA. "It's just one of those things that had to be done," Woolfendon explained of the station's recent sale to JMK Communications which plans to install a Korean language format in February.

January 10, 2000
Greaseman Does Infomercial
Doug "Greaseman" Tracht made his debut early last Sunday morning, 1/9, as "Dr. Chip Bandwidth" in dating service matchmaker.com's infomercial, which aired on Channel 9. Tracht was fired from classic rocker WARW (94.7 FM) last February for making a racist joke. He has also turned up doing bit acting parts on Discovery Channel's "American Justice" series which dramatizes infamous crimes.

January 9, 2000
WBIS Plans Signal Improvements
Annapolis business news outlet WBIS (1190 AM) plans to increase its power to 50,000-watts (days) to help it cover the Baltimore metro area. The station also plans to move its transmitting towers to Baltimore.

January 8, 2000
YDB on TOP
Former DC101er "Young" Dave Brown (YDB) now does overnights on all news WTOP (107.7 FM/1500 AM). Says TOP VP Jim Farley: "He'll pop up in other dayparts. We're thrilled he wants to give this a shot and hope he'll stick around."

January 6, 2000
Fox 5 Back On Cox Cable
Channel 5 was restored to the line-up of Cox Cable in Fairfax County on the evening of 1/6. A deal has been worked out between Cox and Fox but neither side is revealing any details about it. Cox pulled the plug on Fox 5 on 12/31. Fox was withholding "retransmission consent" to encourage Cox to carry some Fox-owned cable networks such as the FXM (movies) and Fox Sports World.

January 6, 2000
Comcast Buys Naming Rights For UMD Arena
Comcast, the Philadelphia-based cable company that will soon own most of the DC area's cable TV systems, has agreed to purchase the naming rights for a proposed $90 million, 17,100-seat arena at College Park's University Of Maryland, to replace the aging Cole Field House. Comcast agreed to pay $20 million over 10 years for the naming rights. By mid-year, Comcast should own the cable TV systems in DC, Montgomery, Prince Georges, Prince William, Alexandria, Arlington, Reston, Fort Belvoir and Charles. Comcast already owns Baltimore area cable systems serving Baltimore County, Anne Arundel, Harford and eastern Howard, and will be acquiring Baltimore city.

January 4, 2000
CBS Drops Ball On Skins
CBS has apologized for failing to carry the first 14 minutes of the 1/2 Redskins game. The network decided to stay with the Kansas City/Oakland game of which coverage ran until 4:29 PM rather than switching to the Redskins/Miami game, which started at 4:15 PM, causing area viewers to miss the first part of the hometown team's game. During a newsbreak during the Skins' game, WUSA Channel 9's Bruce Johnson said that his station had asked CBS to allow it to switch to the Skins game in time for the start, but CBS refused citing the playoff implications of the earlier game. Johnson said that WUSA fielded many complaints from viewers.

January 3, 2000
Core Goes Stevens-less
The Chris Core Show, without partner Brooke Stevens, premiered 1/3 during PM drive on WMAL (630 AM). The news/talker fired PM drive personality Stevens on 12/29. She co-hosted the show with Core for the past few years. WMAL officials are reportedly concerned about a ratings slump in the PM drivetime period; reports had surfaced in mid-December that Stevens' contract, which was to end in February, would not be renewed.

January 1, 2000
WNVT Goes MuchMusic
With the arrival of the new year, public TV station WNVT, Channel 53, Goldvein VA, has started its new format which includes a relay of Canada's MuchMusic contemporary music channel. The non-commercial station relays the network with public service ads and station promos during ad breaks. The MuchMusic programming starts most days at 3:30 PM and runs through the evenings. WNVT continues carrying educational programs during mornings and early afternoons and has added some high-tech shows to its line-up. With studios in Merrifield VA, WNVT is carried on cable in DC and Virginia and on some Maryland systems.

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