Mark, I gotta call you on the "beat an FM competitor" comment re WNYR. I worked for that FM competitor (WZKC), and it was a solid #3 25-54 in the market when the format was flipped to classic hits WKLX in Summer of 1986. WZKC performed well, with about double the share and cume of WNYR at the time. When Josephson sold WZKC to the Sconnix-financed First Valley group (Dan Wachs and Bob Dodenhoff), those new owners, having once worked at WCMF, had it in for their old alma mater and went after them. Further, during the entire 16 month history of WZKC, the GM bragged to anyone in town who would listen that we were only doing country because of a covenant with Lincoln Group that kept us from competing with WVOR. Because of that constant reinforcement, the folks at WNYR hung in there with country, waiting for ZKC to blow itself up. And, sure enough, it did. This account proves itself by the rapid deployment of adult standards on 990 once WBEE-FM was launched on the former Q92/WMJQ/WBFB. Had they been convinced that WZKC was there to stay, they would have dropped country in 1985 when WHFM went away, and WZKC would have performed at a much higher level of ratings performance. It almost seems that the fix was in from the beginning.
From what I understand, the CRTC in Canada gave special dispensation for WNYR to move to Canadian clear 990 as a favor to the powerful Rogers media empire so that they could open up the pattern of CFTR and boost its daytime power. I'm sure Mr. Fybush has that info for you.
