Daily News from New York, New York • 80

(Dotuimttirv 3T who's talking agon AFTERNOON lOJ Aspiring teen strippers. 9 MORNING 9:00 Mat the Stewart IMag- Celebration of the color pink; planting pink 323 3S 2 Uva With Regie and Kelly. Actor Michael Chiklis; Monica Seles; musical guest B2K. 7 10:00 Roaia O'DonnaJI. Actors Kevin James, Leah Remini and Jerry Stiller.

7 11:00 Tba View. Talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael; actress Peri Gilpin; designer spring shoe fashions for half the price. 7 Jerry Springer. A woman asks her best friend to become a surrogate mother, only to learn that the friend has decided to keep the baby. 11 3KW Montel Willi in.

Betrayals lead to paternity questions. 5 8:00 Mckl Lake. Exploring the pornography industry. 9 EVENING 11:38 Late Show. Actor Charlie Sheen; latest evictee from "Survivor: music guest Paul -Westerberg.

2 Tonight Show. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, actor David Duchovny, music guests Brooks and Dunn. 4 By DAVID HINCKLEY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER As George Strait once almost said, country music radio in New York has gotten good at goodbye. WYNY (107.1 FM), the closest thing to an areawide country station in New York the last five years, is dropping the format and switching to something I else, though exactly what else and when has not been announced. WYNY deejays started saying goodbye on Friday.

The station may continue to play country without hosts for a few days until, by some reports, it will switch to a Spanish format May 5 (Cinco de Mayo). A quadrocast of four previously separate suburban stations that all had the NnwTalKRadlo i A) Tiivncc RADIO DUKE ELLINGTON: today on WKCR same frequency, WYNY switched to country in December 1996, 10 months after the old WYNY became WKTU. But Big City Radio, 100 WOOI, SPORT JACKETS 12 EMUIi $68-- SIZES 3 a BnVBVBVaVBBaVaBaaaaaVBVaaaaBaVBVaaBVBVBaBaaV amBBVnVnvaBBaaaBBM JUST ARRIVED 1, OF SUITS SUITS FOR Co) PORTLY SUITS I NOW ONLY TnSIZES 36-60 country, feeling the audience, while sizeable and fiercely loyal, isn't hot enough. With so much money invested in radio stations today, the big players want a station that can create buzz for promotional and advertising purposes. Ironically, a major component of country listenership is women from the suburbs who are a major reason pop-and-rock WPLJ has thrived for many years.

Listeners jammed the WYNY phone lines all weekend to say goodbye and ask what they could do next. "My friends and I are country dancers and are very concerned about the future of country in the area," says listener Fran Hecht "We need help in keeping it alive." "I was extremely disappointed to hear the format is changing," says listener Dawn Gavenas. "What will it take to bring a country station to New York? Do I have to move down South?" HELP WANTED: The Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers are inducting the late Frankie Crocker into their Hall of Fame on May 21. They've been in touch with Crocker's mother, who lives near Atlanta, but they need financial help to bring her to Buffalo for the ceremony. They're at 716-845-7028.

AROUND THE DIAL: WKCR (89.9 FM) plays all Duke Ellington today, to mark his Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg discuss workplace injuries and health care costs today on "Building Bridges" over WBAI (99.5 FM) at 2 p.m.... Curtis Stigers is the guest tomorrow morning at 7:30 with Scott Shannon and Todd Pettengill on WPLJ (95.5 Leonard Lopate talks with baseball authors today at noon on WNYC, and tomorrow he talks with Norman Roger Hendricks Simon, who produces radio plays, tonight is doing "Bard at the Bar," marking Shakespeare's birthday, at 7 o'clock at the West End Theatre Bar, 291 1 Broadway at 1 14th St. which owns WYNY, fo-v 4 cuses on Hispanic me dia, so there had been rumors for years it would eventually change YNY to a Spanish format particularly since Big City is in big financial trouble. Last year it had to sell stations to raise cash. Still, some sources in the company say the final decision to change the WYNY format wasn't made until about a year ago, around the time Big City decided not to keep Jim Kerr as the morning host.

Several other jocks have left in the last year, including J. Cruze and Amy Paige, and some timeslots have run without hosts. Morning host Ray Rossi and midday host Eric James said goodbye on Friday, while program directorafternoon host Marty Mitchell was not on the air. Brian Britain said goodbye on his "Saturday Night Dance Party." Hosts played some requests, some personal favorites and a few tongue-in-cheek sets like Merle Haggard's "Big City" followed by Johnny Paycheck's "Take This Job and Shove It." WYNY had signal problems for much of its country life, with many areas unable to receive it clearly. That's considered a major reason the station didn't match the listener-ship of the previous WYNY, whose clear signal drew more than a million listeners a week.

The current WYNY has averaged about 400,000 listeners a week in the New York i area, and about 650,000 counting outly-' ing counties. Ironically, that was still enough so several smaller suburban stations dropped country during its run, and now the area has only one country station: WKMB (1070 AM) in Stirling, which has great music, but a limited signal. It also only operates in the daytime. Major radio companies that own large city stations have shown little interest in 3 SHIRTS 3 TIES FREE i ALL "WOOL rxAXXAJsr wool. SUITS SIZES 36-62 3 FOR 100WOOL SUITS SIZES 36-62 52 FOR 2 Shirts 2 Ties FREE SUITS SIZES 36-62 3 Shirts 3 Ties FREE UV(2) 3 Shirts 3 Ties FREE I See What Everyone Is Talking About! CROSSlNr OVBR EDWARD.

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