RE: WVBF

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

Howard wrote:
>Whether you like country music or not, and I do, you must admit
>that CLB/KLB did the format with more energy, professionalism and style
>than its two predecessors in the format, WCOP and WBOS, and its rival,
>WBCS. Unfortunately, Boston missed the peak years of the country
>revival, 1988-1991, instead climbing aboard as the moronic "Achy Breaky
>Heart" was turning country into just another dance genre. Peter is
>right; even Loren and Wally sounded great in that format.

Without realising it, you have been defending ME.  I was the consultant to
WCLB for the first year or so of its life and got it some of its highest
ratings.  I thought Bob Christy and I did a very thorough job of creating a
country station that fit Boston.  I personally dislike country too, but I
gained a healthy respect for some of it, and later got to meet Garth Brooks
who is indeed a wonderful person and a great performer.  Boston needed a
successful country station, and whether or not this city will ever give
country the shares it got elsewhere, I am proud of how the station sounded
and I feel it did what it was supposed to do-- we even broke certain artists
here and helped their careers.  When Robert Ellis Orral's song "Boom it was
over" stiffed nationally, we made it a big hit in Boston.  Again, country
isn't my fave, but the market needed one, and I am not ashamed of how WCLB
sounded.  

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