Howie has sent out the official notice that he will be on WMEX–AM 1510 starting on Monday. No word yet about the syndication.
As of today, WMEX-AM 1510 doesn’t exist. The station is currently using the call sign of WUFC-AM, a 50,000 watt day/night station located in Boston. Reportedly, the FCC has been asked for the WMEX call sign, which was the original call sign – but the call sign is currently in use by a LPFM station in New Hampshire that wallows in the memories of the heyday of the station before FM.
Howie’s transition is like moving from a penthouse condo in Cambridge to a fleabag motel in Chelsea – that’s how stark the difference will be.
This station had been the home station for “progressive” talk show host Jeff Santos after the failure of Air America. For a brief time it was Yahoo Sports Radio, the NBC Sports Radio. The station is now leased out carrying mostly shows that people are paying to be on the air.
http://1510wufc.com
Note that the contact info for the station is in New Jersey. Glenn Beck is on the station for two hours and Hannity for three. It’s very important for national syndication to be able to say they are “on the air” in all the major markets. Clear Channel tried and failed to place their Premiere lineup on their own AM radio station in Boston on AM 1200. Rush went back to WRKO, the station that Howie just left.
The first challenge to this venture involves God. My nuclear science relative in Boston has explained to me that 1450 kHz is the upper end of where the AM band actually ends. The FCC can feel free to hand out licenses, but the orbiting speed of electrons can’t be legislated. Around 1450 kHz, the RF energy is rapidly deflected, and sending a signal is like talking through a pillow. The station is 50 kW, but directional using 4 towers located West of Boston with the signal pointed to the East. There is no way to hear this station in Western MA other than over the Internet or if he picks up other affiliates.
Newspaper guy Howie Carr is about to learn that there is a lot more to running a radio station than the guy in front of the microphone. Howie is reportedly bringing along at least three staff to produce the show. They will want to be paid. To pay staff, you need to sell ads and actually collect the money. You need production equipment to create those commercials. You need a studio with a working phone system and someone to fix things when they break.
The license for WUFC is owned by Blackstrap Broadcasting – which is a guy named Peter Davidson, a guy who specializes in failing AM radio stations. He bought the station in 2007 from an absentee owner based in Oregon (Microsoft’s Paul Allen) along with WSNR in Jersey City.
Davidson Media uses the stations to target Hispanics or carry religious broadcasting, but this station (and WSNR) he owns personally.
http://www.davidsonmediagroup.com
There is this report that the two stations would be sold in 2011, but I see no evidence that happened. The stations are still licensed to Davidson, but with a huge loan against them – making it difficult to determine if the lender is from russia, theoretically (the station in Jersey City runs Russian language programming to the very large Russian immigrant population in New Jersey). That station is run by Davidzon Media (with a Z)
A guy named Kevin Wallis (Dr K) is leasing the station from the current mysterious owners.
http://mediaconfidential.blogspot.com/2014/05/boston-radio-wufc-to-relaunch-june-1.html
The talk about buying the station is nonsense. Nothing has been filed with the FCC. LMA operations can vanish overnight if LMA payments to the station owner are missed. You don’t want the LMA operator holding your ad sales money before the commercials have run.
http://mediaconfidential.blogspot.com/2014/09/boston-radio-back-to-future-for-wufc.html
Wallis does not “Own” WILC in Maryland – a few days ago, the station ended the lease and returned to Spanish music.
Son of Russian immigrants Peter Davidson (with an S) was profiled in 2007
http://radioymusica.com/Profiles/Pages/Davidson_P.asp
The entire group of 42 stations Davidson a Media was dumped a few months later to a buyer who agreed to pay $1000 in cash and agreed to assume responsibility for the massive debt. I’m pretty sure the buyer was just an employee of the lender whose name was put on the paperwork since he’s a U.S. Citizen.
If you are not nervous yet, you aren’t paying attention.
WCRN-AM would probably work out better. It was an affiliate – but may also have contractual issues with taking on Howie.
WCRN is owned by Kenneth R Carberry and run by his son Kurt. His wife died at age 78 in 2009, so the owner is in his 80s. She was a very staunch Irish Roman Catholics, not uncommon in Boston.
Here is his bio
http://www.massbroadcastershof.org/hof_ken_carter_carberry.htm
He was at WMEX back at the Halcyon days, so we’ve come full circle
He also is connected with this station
http://wrolradio.com
Which is a mixture of Irish music and Salem Broadcasting religious programs. Salem bought WROL in 2001 for $11 million
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/30/local/me-18799
Who is Dr K – the Libertarian renting this radio station and putting Howie on the air?
The Vanguard Radio Network is owned by Kevin Wallis, clearly the same guy who runs (ran?) a company in New Jersey offering ambulance transport services
http://vanguardhealthcare.com/the-team/
The description of him says he expected to receive his PhD in 2007 from this place:
http://nymc.edu/
Mike Siegel is now officially on the WRKO schedule. His claim to fame was he did the Coast to Coast show for a few months the first time Art Bell quit. He is from Seattle Washington and is a “media consultant” who has had late night shows on Business Talk Radio Network and Genesis Communucations (the Alex Jones network).
Boston more than any other city I know splits people into natives and foreigners based on how many generations your family has lived there. A guy from Seattle phoning in a “local” show is going to go nowhere.
As of today, WUFC has not received FCC permission to become WMEX. It’s great when a plan comes together. The new website is up however.
http://1510wmex.com
I’ve checked most of the Maine, NH and MA stations that Howie was formerly on…he is still on all but RKO. I’m listening to him right now on WHYN Springfield. He is positively giddy to be released from RKO.
Excellent! Did he mention anything about new affiliates?
When a syndicated host leaves, I always have to decide if it’s a new show with the same host. When Savage left TRN, he had a new time, new producer, new set of affiliates, so that was pretty clearly “new” and his momentum was not relevant.
Since Howie appears to be on the same affiliates at the same time doing the same show, this is just his “network” switching to a new “flagship, so I’m just going to leave it “as is”. Keep me posted of changes. Not that on the show page there is a checkbox to show every station that was ever an affiliate
Joe Pags is still the “Guest Host” for America Now.
On the stream, I just heard an ad for MGD Lemonaid 64 – I guess I was supposed to figure out it is lemon beer. The product was discontinued by Miller Brewing in 2011.
Nobody’s home.
This story connects the dots
http://www.masslive.com/news/boston/index.ssf/2014/11/howie_carr_ends_run_at_wrko_be.html
The show is actually being done by Kurt Carberry, the guy who runs WCRN and whose father ran the original WMEX.
Call sign change came through overnight – station is officially WMEX – the LPFM station didn’t change its call sign.