Re: AM radio is NOT dead!!

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 01:58 PM 6/11/97 +0000, you wrote:

>I think another thing that did in WADN in the end was, ironically
>enough, too LITTLE community involvement.

Well, shortly before the bottom fell out and Simon ran completely out of
money, WADN did take on a news director. Don't remember his name and I never
met him, but if you thought Simon was wierd, this guy sounded about ten
times as weired. First off, he didn't have a radio voice. Can't criticize
that; neither do I. But he really sounded like he was just going through the
motions. I even hypothesized that he was one of the people to whom Simon was
indebted and he had been placed on the staff so that he had a reason for
being at the station to keep an eye on things. He seemed only to be there
during AM drive, however, and I doubt that his tenure exceeded two months. I
think he did tape some Acton town meetings and WADN broadcast excerpts on
the morning news. As bad as Pleasants was with reading copy (I assume he
suffers from dyslexia), this guy was worse. No, he didn't stumble a lot, but
the total lack of emotion coupled with slow delivery and a poor voice made
for extremely uninteresting listening. Also, there was no banter or repartee
with Pleasants, from which I concluded that they guy was humorless and wooden.

I agree with you. WADN should have been heavily locally involved. They were
in one sense, but they did not broadcast much local news, and they didn't do
any local sports until just before Simon sold out. I suppose that Pleasants
figured that if the station sounded too local, it would be a turnoff to
people who lived more than five miles from Concord. That was a mistake. I'm
not your typical radio listener, of course, but during the heyday of WGTR
(the 1-kw daytime-only version), I was a lot better informed about goings on
in Natick, Framingham, Sudbury, Wayland, Ashland, and Southboro than I was
about happenings in my own town, Arlington. Thanks to WGTR news director Jim
MacAlaster, I really felt involved with MetroWest. And by the time WGTR went
on the air, I was no longer working in Framingham; I was working in Sharon. 

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Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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