WPLM/Campbell Sports

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

On 31 July 1997 at 5:25 p.m., Kevin Vahey wrote:

>  The official was John Harrington who still lives in Westwood. Then
>Harrington who was good friends with the owner of WPLM cooked up the deal
>to move the "flagship" to WPLM-FM and somehow the Bruins wound up there as
>well.

I know that WPLM was owned by a fellow named Campbell who died in 1991 (he
also used to own a network of cable systems on the South Shore, Plymouth
one of them) and that he put together the Campbell Sports Network. I
believe WPLM was the flagship for Red Sox baseball until before the 1990
season, when WRKO went from being a lowly network affiliate to flagship and
"requested" Ken Coleman to retire. About a year later, WEEI, still about a
year before becoming all-sports and owned by the Celtics, lured the Bruins
off of 99.1.

What I can't understand is how a.) two sports teams would be dumb enough to
actually move to a station which can not be heard inside the city limits
except maybe for Dorchester and b.) how Campbell could actually afford to
pay for the rights for the two teams. WPLM-FM could definitely be useful
since the Red Sox could not sign up a Cape Cod affiliate for this season.
Maybe those ties between Harrington and the Campbell family could provide a
solution for 1998.

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

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