Re: MESSAGE ID: 1EC610858

[Mark Shneyder <mshbc@bu.edu>]

On Tue, 29 Jul 1997 NORIAC@alpha2.mln.lib.ma.us wrote:

> (3) I have also read in your posts reports about WNRBN being for sale. I think
>  this might be the ideal acquisition for CBS. They could buy WNRB, buy WNLC
>  in New London (to shut it down and turn-in the license) and also buy four
>  or five AM's in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania on 1510, likewise
>  to shut them down and turn-in the licenses. Once that were to happen,
>  the 1510 night pattern could be improved to cover much of eastern New
>  England. Were CBS to be the buyer, you'd see WBZ's talk and sports
>  programming (as well as the Patriots and bruins) move to 1510, leaving
>  WBZ as all-news, 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.
> 

Good post.
It will be interesting to see who ends up with 1510 here. Yes, the station
is now on the market. I would agree that it will probably go to a
bigger name player in town because of 1) the higher price tag(there should
be more than 1 interested party) and 2)
potential opportunities to introduce an attractive format and still end up
with a good size audience. Currently WBZ is losing out to WEEI on weekends
in the target M25-54(4.1 to 6.4) audience. At the same time Brudnoy does
quite well  against Two Chicks and Jeff Katz on WRKO in most demos. If
they introduce some sort of a hybrid  talk(Mo-Fri)/sports(weekends) format
on 1510, it probably will not be an instant success but it will keep
eating into WRKO's and WEEI's overall numbers enough to remain a pain in
ARS' behind. And who knows, in 2 years(when 'EEI deal expires) Imus could
resurface at 1510...Also, CBS has one big advantage over ARS -- a TV
station which becomes quite an effective marketing tool when one wants to
crosspromote a new format/station in town(nothing like free
publicity).[Suprisingly, they(CBS) havent done a great job of
crosspomoting  WBZ-TV with WBZ-AM and vice versa up umtil this
point, IMHO]. 

ARS could also get involved in the pursuit of 1510(gives them a station to
simulcast 680 :-) to block CBS from expanding here.

- -Mark

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