Re: Big Four AMs - or not

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

>Tony Schinella wrote:
>Martin, since you are on the South Shore, you can tune in the Plymouth AM
>station to listen to Red Sox games or whatever sports they run. That was my
>main point; there are other small AM affiliates who also run sports so there
>is no need to run sports on the clear channels or bigger AMs.
<snip>

        Regarding WEZE/WRKO/WEEI/WBZ, you did not reply to my question
about what areas you find the WEZE signal bad where WRKO and WEEI are good.
        On WPLM, in Scituate, about 20 miles north of WPLM (AM), the
station has no night signal whatsoever. Forget it. The NRC night pattern
books shows that the pattern is basically straight out to sea to the
southeast, although the Cape is in the way.  That doesn't mean you can hear
it on the Cape, either, although I don't remember about that. My
recollection is that you can be driving south on Route 3 and see the towers
at night and you're not close enough yet to listen to it.
        If I were the Red Sox, I would want to be on one big Boston station
that covers the market. If I couldn't do that on AM, I would start thinking
about FM, as the NFL is doing. Another nail in the AM coffin. The general
public is using cheap clock radios mounted under their kitchen cabinets and
K-Mart imitations of a Walkman (not like people on this list, using
Yachtboys to listen to FM, as in Paul Hopfgarten's post today). Regular
folks expect to get what they get from FM -- big fat signals with no
interference, fading or other rubbish. For the Red Sox to be on some
"network" of three, four, or five lousy AM signals just to cover the Boston
area is like a neon sign flashing "small time" and "third-rate." Not what
baseball needs, as it has enough troubles losing its fan base as it is.
(Geez. How'd that soapbox sneak in under my feet. Putting it away now.
<g>.)

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