Martz Communications Group
Martz Communications Group is an American radio broadcasting company, which operates three radio stations in the St. Lawrence River area of New York and one in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company, which also operates under the names Radio Power and Cartier Communications, is co-based in Parishville, New York and San Francisco, California,[1][2] with auxiliary offices in Reno, Nevada,[3] Burlington, Vermont and Pointe-Claire, Quebec.[4]
The company was founded in 1986 by Tim Martz, a native of Kitchener, Ontario who established a radio station in Presque Isle, Maine, taking advantage of the market across the border in New Brunswick, Canada without being required to submit to the rules of the CRTC.[4] Its scope eventually expanded to target larger Canadian markets, such as Brockville, Cornwall, Ottawa and Montreal, which lay within the broadcast range of its stations. Ironically, the website of their former modern rock subchannel in Detroit, Michigan took cheap shots at cross-border rival 89X for doing exactly the same thing,[5] yet they promoted the fact that their upstate NY stations mainly target and advertise for Montreal on the same website.[6] The Canadian company Slaight Communications is also a minority shareholder in Martz. Slaight's ownership stake in Martz was not part of that company's sale of most of its broadcasting assets to Astral Media in 2007.
Stations
- Chateaugay, New York – WYUL
- Malone, New York – WICY, WVNV
- Potsdam, New York - WSNN
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – WAMO
Martz Communications also handles advertising sales for Burlington, Vermont stations WEZF (owned by Vox Communications) and WBTZ (owned by Hall Communications).[4]
Former Stations
Stephens Media Group
The following stations were previously owned by Martz, and sold February 1, 2008 to the Stephens Media Group:
- Canton, New York – WRCD, WNCQ
- Massena, New York – WMSA
- Morristown, New York – WYSX
- Norwood, New York – WVLF
- Ogdensburg, New York – WPAC
Martz also previously programmed the HD2 and HD3 feeds of WGPR in Detroit, Michigan, which were repeated on local FM translators owned by Martz, W284BQ and W232CA. However, on January 31, 2012 Martz ceased operations of the HD feeds and the translators, due to financial and signal difficulties.[7]
Other Former Station
References
- ↑ Bloomberg Businessweek Profile: "Radio Power, Inc."
- ↑ "A second new Detroit translator station debuts: Alt-rocker "94.3 the Bone"". Radio-Info.com. April 21, 2011.
- ↑ http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db1018/DA-11-1727A1.pdf
- 1 2 3 The Suburban: "The impressive story of radio station entrepreneur Tim Martz", October 25, 2011.
- ↑ http://www.943thebone.com/
- ↑ http://www.943thebone.com/stationinfo.html
- ↑ http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/55478/detroits-bone-oasis-go-dark/#.TyiGlZiqC70