Re: Big Four AMs - or not

[ASchinella <ASchinella@aol.com>]

To start, I never mentioned WEZE. My original post, which you were responding
to was about NO TALK PROGRAMMING in Boston during a major political event! The
stations I did mention was WBZ (which was airing Bruins), WRKO (which was
airing Celtics) and WEEI (a sports station that used to have balanced
programming doing talk, which was airing the Red Sox). I followed that with
"Why doesn't ARS air the Sox or Celtics on WNFT," because that signal IS DOING
NOTHING! 

I don't live on the South Shore, so I will apologize for my ignorance
regarding signal size of smaller, suburban AM stations. The point I was trying
to make is that there are other choices for sports if you can't tune in sports
on the flagships in Boston. NERW recently published all the Sox affiliates...
do you get any in your area other than WEEI or WRKO? When I lived in NH, I
never listened to the Sox on WRKO or the bigger AM stations out of Boston, I
listened to WGIR in Manchester, which was (is) the local affiliate for the
Sox. 

My opinion, and I speak for no one else, is to question the level of
importance regarding sports programming on radio vs. community/talk/etc.
programming... especially during major political events, especially these days
during such consolidation and silence of voices...  I am sorry that I am so
very concerned about this and it seems to bother some of you out here. (btw, I
am not the only one concerned about this in the talk business, privately, and
publicly in some settings, there is great frustration with what is going on
here in Boston...)

Is there a need for sports on radio, sure. Should it be available, sure. Do I
listen to sports radio, no, not often, especially when I can watch games on
television. But the fact that a major political event was unable to be
discussed on the air FOR HOURS because of these games is deplorable! And
totally unnecessary when a 5K watt signal WNFT is just sitting there wasting
away. Especially, one with such a history of unique programming. Hey, maybe
ARS should've aired WRKO's regular programming on WNFT, whatever. But that was
my point and I stand by it. 

As far as the Red Sox are concerned, I don't disagree with you; if it were my
team, I would want them on at least one station. But, again, as you see from
the NERW, the Sox are everywhere and are sometimes, cross-covered in some
markets. Is it necessary for the Sox to be on a clear-channel? No, it isn't.


In a message dated 98-04-11 19:07:57 EDT, mwaters@wesleyan.edu writes:

<< 
         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>.) >>

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