Re: AM radio is NOT dead!!

[ssmyth@tiac.net (Sean P. Smyth)]

On 11 June 1997 at 9:58 a.m., you wrote:

>I think another thing that did in WADN in the end was, ironically
>enough, too LITTLE community involvement.  I approached Dick
>Pleasants back in 1991 about developing local news on Walden, suggesting
>a two-person news department that would be very heavy on local events
>in the towns Walden focused on (Concord, Carlisle, Lexington, Weston,
>etc.) -- an area where people are rabidly interested in local
>politics, and at the time (and for that matter currently) had no
>source of town news on the radio.
>
>It would have cost Walden very little; radio newspeople then and now
>tend to be available for shockingly low salaries (now it can be told:
>I slaved away for Ike and Maurice Cohen for all of $5 an hour at WCAP :-),
>and a local newscast that draws the kind of affluent listeners who would
>want local news in those towns should easily be able to sell at least
>a $5 spot an hour.  I doubt it would have driven away any of the folkies
>(and yes, I was one of them -- I had a button set on 1120 in my car the
>whole time I lived in Waltham), and it might have attracted a lot of
>listeners who otherwise would have had nothing to do with Walden.

Bingo. My whole point always about that station was that it did not do
enough to reach out to the non-folk audience which it could have served
through newscasts, high school sports broadcasts, et al. Their newscasts,
from what I am gathering, were more internationally, nationally-based.
That's all well and good, but you also need to hook in the local listener
which that market sees not being served. In other words, be as local as
possible in promotion and news, and people will eventually find you.

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sean Smyth
Smyth Sports Enterprises
10 Linley Terrace
South Boston, Mass. 02127
617/268-7012
Metropolitan Boston's leader in local sports broadcasting
ssmyth@tiac.net

------------------------------