Lowell Folk Festival

["Bill O'Neill" <billo@erols.com>]

Anyone catch any of the festival on radio?   Comments?

The event was Fri night, Sat noon-10pm, Sun noon-6ish, and essentially took
over all of downtown Lowell.  Featured 4 main stages, a number of smaller
musical locations, tons of food, tourists over 100K.  Good event!

Some observations:  At one point, Sat 12-6, at one of the stages, Boarding
House Park:  WGBH, WJUL, WCAP, WLLH.  (A bit much when you consider there
were many other options to broadcast at the time.)  That was the extent of
GBH, with Dick Pleasants hosting that stage event with Joe Wilson, Nat.
Council for Trad. Arts.  JUL covered 2-3 stages at a time 3 days.  LLH did
Sat. only from Boarding House Park and JFK Plaza.  CAP covered Sat & Sun
12-6 from same two stages as LLH.  

Technically, no surprise, GBH sounded crystal clear in stereo, with its own
host designated to be that particular event host during the Folk Heritage
program.  Great job, but it is the one time per year Dick P. and GBH come
off WAY too self-promoting, e.g., every break between acts, etc., he
plugged GBH's broadcast, all the while very aware that three other signals
were taking stage feed (with his voice), forcing local hosts to pot down
and talk over any band or event insights Dick had.  A generic hosting would
have shown some prof. courtesy.  (That's as close as I can possibly get to
criticizing Dick, one of the best in the biz.)

WJUL had a serious problem with left channel.  I actually wandered down to
the studio at UMass, first time in a *very* long time, (I'm an *old*
alumnus and former PD) and got the (mono) feed at least on two channels
(simply, a bad patch cord and out of balance pot on the aging McCurdy
(which is high on the replacement list along with most of the studio.)

On the commercial/AM side, WCAP covered two days versus one by WLLH (who
hyped wall-to-wall (boo)).  AM has its obvious limitations at a remote like
this, signal and otherwise.  At WCAP, their weekend bird-fed talk was
likely not missed given the local angle of the event, and it was a coup to
bring out on air staff to the public by a station with a great signal, so
chronically limited and humble in self-promotion.  WLLH is primarily music
format (nost.) but ethnic most of wknd, so probably a turn off to the niche
groups.  No familiar station voices were seen at the remote, e.g., morning
staff, and they did not broadcast Sunday, despite lots of published hype to
the contrary, going with paid ethnic.

Of all covering, GBH did the best during it's limited involvement/Sat.
afternoon slot on the overall factors of audio, stage presence (gotta give
them points for pulling off the host position).  GBH's signal was very
clean.  Would love to know how they shot from Lowell to RPU recvr, ISDN?,
etc.   

WJUL did the best overall in covering all stages (there were 4 main stages
and 2-3 smaller locations) that were essentially overlooked by all other
signals, with more 'alternative' sounds, Klesmer, Indian, acoustic, etc. 
Of the three Lowell stations, JUL's Marti shot was the best, and the FM
benefit was obvious.  JUL also did the least talking between sets, more
laid back, often just letting the local sounds fill the 'gaps' between
songs, sets, or letting the local stage hosts keep the meters moving.  No
spot breaks was an obvious benefit.  AM hosts occasioned to 'jump' onto the
tails of acts like talking down a single and to interview people while the
music was playing.  It really was a "music" event if you weren't there, as
it was the people you were avoiding by not going, not the music!

I found it interesting that in all of the congratulatory messages from the
various stages by performers, promoters, etc., little or no acknowledgement
was made about radio coverage and support of the 11th annual event.  

Lowell Telecommunications Corp./local access channel for Media One also
covered the event live throughout the event. 

Bill O'Neill

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