WISCONSIN:
One of Wisconsin's longest-running formats ended Monday night (6/25) just after Midnight, with Saga's WFMR/106.9 (Brookfield-Milwaukee) dropping Classical for Smooth Jazz. 106.9 is picking up the format that WJZI/93.3 recently abandoned. The only broadcast options for Classical music in the Milwaukee area are now the fringe signal of WGTD/91.1 (Kenosha) or the HD2 service on WHAD/90.7 (Delafield-Milwaukee). The original WFMR signed on at 96.5 (now WKLH) in 1956. In 1983, 96.5 changed formats, and Menomonee Falls-licensed 98.3 picked up the WFMR callsign and format. The owners later swapped the formats of 98.3 and 106.9 in 2000. Ironically, Smooth Jazz was 106.9's original format (as WFMI) when it signed on in 1995. (6/26/2007)
MINNESOTA:
Three Eagles' KCPI/94.9 (Albert Lea) has dropped Classic Hits for Adult Contemporary as "The Breeze." The station had carried Hot AC before switching to Classic Hits in 2003. The only other FM station directly targeting Albert Lea, KQPR/96.1, carries a Classic Rock format. (6/25/2007)
IOWA/ILLINOIS:
WKBF/1270 (Rock Island, IL-Quad Cities) has flipped format again: now it's Regional Mexican as "La Pantera," the only spanish-language format in the market. WKBF had flipped from Progressive Talk to Christian Talk just six months ago following its sale to Quad Cities Media. The licensee is now leasing the station to Juan Valenzuela. The Quad City Times has more, including a history of WKBF. (6/25/2007)
WISCONSIN/IOWA:
The five Queen B radio stations were off the air for a few hours on Thursday morning (6/21) after lightning struck the group's Platteville facility, damaging computer power supplies, a satellite receiver, and part of the studio board for WGLR-FM/97.7 (Platteville). WGLR-FM, WPVL-FM/107.1 (Platteville) and KIYX/106.1 (Sageville-Dubuque, IA) returned to regular music programming within a few hours, but ESPN Radio didn't return to WGLR/1280 (Lancaster) or WPVL/1590 (Platteville) until afternoon. (6/25/2007)
MINNESOTA/NORTH DAKOTA:
WZFN/1100 (Dilworth, MN-Fargo, ND) has applied for a license to cover, meaning it has signed on or will soon. The station is owned by Brantley Broadcast Associates. It'll transmit from southeast of Moorhead with 50kW nondirectional day, 5kW nondirectional during critical hours (after sunrise and before sunset), and 440W directional at night. (6/20/2007)
WISCONSIN:
WJZI/93.3 (Milwaukee) has completed its transition from Smooth Jazz to mainstream Adult Contemporary as "Smooth 93.3." The core market had not had a mainstream AC station since Clear Channel flipped WLTQ/97.3 to WQBW "The Brew" in September 2004. However, WJZI's transition and WYMS/88.9's recent format flip leave Milwaukee without a Jazz outlet. (6/20/2007)
IOWA:
KGAN/2 (Cedar Rapids) has filed a cable special relief peition with the FCC, challenging whether Mediacom should be allowed to carry WHBF/4 (Rock Island-Quad Cities) on its Iowa City cable system. Both are CBS affiliates. Mediacom added WHBF to the system during a retransmission dispute with KGAN owner Sinclair Broadcasting earlier this year. Iowa City is in the Cedar Rapids market, but WHBF is listed as "significantly viewed" in Johnson County and FCC rules allow cable systems to carry "significantly viewed" stations even if they are out-of-market. (6/16/2007)
WISCONSIN:
News Corp. has announced plans to sell nine owned-and-operated FOX affiliates, including WITI/6 (Milwaukee) and stations in Birmingham, Cleveland, Denver, Greensboro, Kansas City, Memphis, St. Louis, and Salt Lake City. The stations are in eight of the company's ten smallest markets. News Corp. will retain 26 stations in 17 markets, including Minneapolis. (6/15/2007)
IOWA:
Longtime Eastern Iowa TV anchor/reporter Liz Mathis is leaving KCRG-TV/9 (Cedar Rapids) on June 22. She is taking a public relations job with a local non-profit group. Mathis has co-anchored the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts at KCRG since 1998, and before that worked at KWWL/7 (Waterloo) for 16 years. She also worked at the market's third TV news operation, WMT-TV/2 (now KGAN Cedar Rapids), during her college years. (6/15/2007)
MINNESOTA:
Radio One is selling "B96" (KTTB/96.3 Glencoe-Minneapolis) to Northern Lights Broadcasting, LLC, for about $28 million. Northern Lights is a subsidiary of a Pohlad family company, headed by KTTB general manager Steve Woodbury. Carl Pohlad's other holdings include the Minnesota Twins. The new owners said no changes are planned to the station's Rhythmic Hits format or its staff. Radio One CEO and President Alfred C. Liggins, III, said that while KTTB is very profitable, Radio One decided to sell it because of the Twin Cities' "very small" African-American population. (6/14/2007)
WISCONSIN/ILLINOIS:
The FCC has rejected petitions to deny the license renewal of 11 TV stations in the Milwaukee market and 8 in Chicago because of concerns about election coverage. Chicago Media Action and the Milwaukee Public Interest Media Coalition filed the petitions based on a study of 10 of the 19 stations by the Center for Media and Public Affairs. It found news and public affairs programs in the four weeks before the November 2004 election devoted little time to coverage of non-federal races, and that half of the coverage was not about issues. The FCC said it has "very little authority to interfere with a licensee's selection and presentation of news and editorial programming" because of the First Amendment and a federal law that prohibits the FCC from regulating programming. It found the petitioners did not provide evidence that the licensees exercised their editorial discretion in bad faith. (6/14/2007)
WISCONSIN:
Tim Noonan reports on Radio/DX Information from Wisconsin that silent WJTI/1460 (Racine) was on the air Wednesday afternoon (6/13) with an apparent test. (6/14/2007)
WISCONSIN:
Christ Bauer, former chief engineer of WHBL/1330 (Sheboygan), died Sunday, June 10, at age 92. Bauer retired from WHBL in the early 1980's after working for the station for forty years, a period that saw four transmitter moves. Bauer contacted 359 countries as an amateur radio operator and was granted the four-letter callsign W9RF. More details are here. (6/13/2007)
MANITOBA:
Rogers Broadcasting has agreed to buy CTVglobemedia's five "Citytv" stations, including CHMI/13 (Portage la Prairie-Winnipeg), for approximately $375 million. This new deal replaces one announced in April which was to have included CBC affiliate CKX-TV/5 (Brandon), six "A Channel" outlets in southern Ontario and British Columbia, and three cable/satellite networks. The larger divestiture was needed for CTVglobemedia to win regulatory approval of its purchase of CHUM Limited. Rogers also owns CITI-FM/92.1 and CKY-FM/102.3 in Winnipeg. The CTVgm/CHUM deal will also mean a new cross-ownership of CTV's CKY-TV/7 and CHUM's CFRW/1290, CHIQ/94.3, and CFWM/99.9. (6/12/2007)
NORTH DAKOTA/MINNESOTA:
(Updated) James Ingstad's Radio Fargo Moorhead announced Monday (6/11) it's buying KKAG/740 (Fargo), and would move FAN Network and FOX Sports Radio programming to 740 from KVOX/1280 (Moorhead). Radio Fargo Moorhead will pay Jeffrey G. Dress $850,000 for KKAG, a new station which has been reported on the air intermittently with Classic Country music. The station uses 50kW daytime, but must drop to 7.5kW in the hours after sunrise and before sunset, and to 940W at night, though all three power levels provide a strong signal to the Fargo-Moorhead area (click here for maps). Radio Fargo Moorhead is also selling KVOX to the Voice of Reason Radio, a Catholic group, for $200,000. VRR will provide Ingstad with a receipt noting a $1.23 million charitable donation, representing the difference between the purchase price and the fair market value of KVOX. Radio Fargo Moorhead also agreed to donate $100,000 in advertising time to VRR. (6/11/2007, updated 6/12)
WISCONSIN:
Zoe Communcations' "King Country 106.3" (WPLT Spooner) has applied to move its transmitter south, improving its signal to Rice Lake and Cumberland. The move would include a community of license change to Sarona, with sister station WGMO/95.3 changing its community of license from Shell Lake to Spooner to keep a radio license in that city. The actual WGMO facility would not change. (Zoe's WCSW/940 would remain licensed to Shell Lake.) Sarona is an unicorporated town, but does have its own post office. WPLT would broadcast from the existing WGMO tower south of Shell Lake with 3.4kW/134m (class A). (6/6/2007)
NEBRASKA:
The FCC has issued a proposed fine of $10,000 to KSNB/4 (FOX, Superior) for "failing to publicize the existence and location of its Children's Television Programming Reports." The station's license renewal application stated that the requirement had not been met up until December 2005. KSNB is licensed to Colins Broadcasting and operated by Pappas Telecasting. Colins has thirty days to either pay the fine or ask for a reduction or cancellation. (6/6/2007)
ONTARIO:
AM is dead in Thunder Bay: Dougall Media's CKPR/580 moved to 91.5 FM on Monday (6/4), joining all of the city's other stations on the FM band. CKPR continues its News/Adult Contemporary format on 91.5. 580 will leave the air after three months of simulcasting, leaving only fringe and skywave signals on the AM band in Thunder Bay. The low-frequency 5kW AM signal enjoys a large fringe coverage area across the Lake Superior region that even the new 100kW FM signal cannot duplicate. (6/5/2007)
NEW NON-COMMERCIAL FM STATIONS GRANTED: