Indiana RadioWatch: March 25, 2000
Northeast
Country/WBTU (93.3fm, Kendallville) is sold to Artistic Media Partners, owners of several stations in Bloomington, Lafayette and South Bend. This marks Artistic's first entry into the Ft. Wayne market.
Northcentral
David Amick departs from Country/WBYT (100.7fm, Elkhart/South Bend). Amick was the morning stunt guy ("Daredevil Dave") and did middays. He heads to Nebraska where he'll be Operations Manager, morning man, and part-owner of KUSO in
Albion, Nebraska. IRW wishes David the best of luck in the new venture.
CHR/WNDV (92.9fm, South Bend) APD/PM Drive guy Brian Bell exits. Beau Derek joins "U-93" for afternoons (Derek also earns Music Director responsibilities). Derek was previously at Rhythmic/WDRQ in Detroit, Michigan.
To add to their application in Nottingham, Great Lakes Community Broadcasting files for a station on 88.5fm, licensed to Newbury Township (near Shipshewana & Goshen), and another at 88.7fm in Kinderhook Township, Michigan
(near Angola)
Kokomo news: Pensacola Christian College files for a station at 88.1fm licensed to nearby Galveston.
Northwest
There's a void in afternoons at Hot AC/WAZY (96.5fm, Lafayette). Dave North exits for the desert southwest: He'll be Director of Operations at Millennium Media's stations in Gallup, New Mexico.
Soft AC/WSAL & AC/WLHM (1230am & 102.3fm, both Logansport) have a new News Director. Tim Makenzie arrives from Lansing, Michigan where he worked at Citadel's WFMK, WJIM(AM) & FM, and WVFN. An interesting note: Makenzie replaces Dick
Prescott, who had to leave WSAL & WLHM since he's now the Mayor of Logansport.
Eastcentral
Richmond news: Pensacola Christian College files for a station at 91.9fm, licensed to nearby Cambridge City.
Central
The big news was definitely in Indianapolis, where Maryland based Radio One purchased all of Bill Shirk's Indianapolis properties: Rhythmic/WHHH (96.3fm, Indianapolis), Rhythmic Oldies/WBKS (106.7fm, Greenwood), and Jazz/WYJZ
(100.9fm, Lebanon). The $40 million deal also included W53AV, ("WAV-TV") a low-powered TV station.
990am returns in Muncie: WLHN (formerly WERK(AM)) is now on the air. Operating with 62 watts, under an STA from the FCC, WLHN airs southern gospel music & religious programming. We hear a zoning problem has arisen concerning the
number of towers (bad pun, we know...)
Over in nearby Anderson, a big landmark disappears. The old WHBU (1240am, Anderson) Blaw-Knox Tower was removed in February. At 175 feet, the self supporting tower sat atop the six-story Union Building in downtown Anderson.
Replacing this tower is a new guyed tower on the south side of town. The upper 6 feet of the old tower, including the top beacon, will be housed in a local museum.
The Blackford County Schools station in Hartford City now has call letters: WHCI (88.1fm, Hartford City)
Now to Indianapolis, where Dana Marshall, formerly afternoons at Country/WGRL (93.9fm, Noblesville) departs for sunny Florida. Night guy Brent Lee segues to afternoons (1pm - 6pm) and Chris Clare (formerly overnights) moves to nights.
Alternative/WEDJ (107.1fm, Danville) adds Couzin Buzz (aka Tommy Mason) for nights. Mason arrives from WUZZ/Lima, Ohio, where he did mornings.
Before we leave the capital city, we'll tell you that WOOO (1520am, Shelbyville) flips calls to WKWH. This is on purpose, tho. The new owners are the electrical company for the Shelbyville metro area (and we all knew that "KWH"
stands for "KiloWatt Hour", right?)
This just in: As we write this, Classic Rock/WNAP (93.1fm, Indianapolis) is stunting with music and a "computer voice" countdown to 6am, Tuesday morning. What happens then? We speculate a change in format and the departure of the
syndicated Howard Stern morning show. We'll give all the details in our next issue.
Westcentral
CVL Broadcasting, the new owners of WVXI (106.3fm, Crawfordsville) flips format to CHR.
CHR/WMGI (100.7fm, Terre Haute) morning co-host Kolene Kaye departs. Kaye was also Music Director.
Southeast
News from Columbus: Hot AC/WRZQ (107.3fm, Greensburg) welcomes Karen Steele as their news director. She was last at WGCL/WTTS (1370am & 92.3fm, both Bloomington).
Marty Pieratt's Star Media names Devin Marsh as "Group PD" for WIKI (95.3fm, Carrollton, Kentucky), WJCP (92.7fm, Austin), WJLR (91.5fm, Seymour), and WWWY (104.9fm, Columbus).
Southcentral
The Tell City Broadcasting CP on 105.7fm now has the call letters WTCJ-FM.
Bloomington news: Pensacola Christian College files for a station on 89.9fm in nearby Whitehall
That's it for this issue! See you in two weeks...
Blaine Thompson
Indiana RadioWatch
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