As an update, I added the code placement macros throughout a particular file as mentioned in my previous post and that fixed the problem, or so I thought.... Then I started adding the same macros throughout another file, but when I compiled now it is saying RAM overflowed by xyz bytes...?
So I went back to mspgcc-20120406-p20120911 and added the same code placement macros, and everything seems to be compiling, linking, loading and debugging fine. I think I will continue down this path until the new RedHat MSPGCC matures and better (any) documentation is released.