Re: WPZE / WEZE

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>On Tue, 22 Jul 1997, BUMP MARTIN wrote:
>
>> And no one knows anything about this new owner?  (Maybe no one cares!)
>> BTW...I thought someone on the list listed CBS/Westinghouse/Infinity as
>> the suitor for 1260AM.
>
Mark Shneyder wrote:

>CBS generally doesnt buy stations without an audience or/and low cashflow.
>Chairman Mel is not into fixer-uppers, Even if they were to pour a fortune
>into 1260, what do you with an AM in this town if you're a chain like CBS
>which always looks for high returns? A talk station?
>There's a good chance Boston will see the first FM talk station [and not
>where everyone would look] this fall or at least that's a strong rumor
>coming out of one of the major chains in town(not CBS). Sports? Forget
>about it. ARS has locked up the rights to 2 of the 4 franchised and will
>go strong after the 3rd in the winter. Without a sports franchise you cant
>survive as an all-sports signal in a big market. It's been proven here
>and elsewhere. Maybe 24-hour children's format(like Radio Disney or AAHS)?
>If 1150 doesnt beat them to it...:-)
>
        The nighttime signal of WPZE is very poor. It doesn't cover
anything approaching the whole market at night. You can't listen to it
driving along big chunks of 128. I'm surprised anyone but religious /
ethnic / time broker-type broadcasters would have any interest in it,
unless WXKS or WILD wanted to upgrade.
        Forty or 50 or 60 years ago, 1260 must have covered better at
night, I suppose, before who-knows-how-many interfering signals on the same
and adjacent channels were added. I found an aircheck my father made at
night in Scituate of it when it was WVDA in the mid-50s and it sounded
crystal clear. You can't pick it out of the hash there now. Perhaps its
facilities also have not been kept up to John Shepard's standards.

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