Re: Subject: The Future of 890.

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 03:03 PM 4/17/98 EDT, you wrote:
>
>Interesting idea.  I wonder is anyone has any other ideas for combinations of
>poor signaled AM's around Boston that would result in good coverage of the
>Greater Boston area.  Are there any natural combinations that would take two
>(or more) AM's with poor coverage areas and by combining them give them result
>in good coverage of the market?
>
Well, right now, WADN, which doesn't have a good signal anywhere, is
simulcasting most of its broadcast day on WPLM 1390 and has been
simulcasting on WARA 1320 (although the 1320 simulcast may be about to end
or may have already ended). Add Media, which owns WARA, has announced that
it will be switching WARA to leased-ethnic programming. Add has been very
successful with such programming on WRCA and WLYN. For a time, Add was
leasing WKOX from Fairbanks and leasing the leased time to ethnic
broadcasters. Does that suggest a fat profit? WADN also announced a couple
of weeks ago that it would soon be simulcasting on WDIS 1170, but so far,
that does not seem to have happened. Two hours a day (9:00 to 11:00 AM),
WADN also simulcasts on WJDA 1300 and WESX 1230. Before adding WPLM and WARA
to its netowrk, WADN simulcast the 6:30 to 9:00 AM period on WNRB 1510. That
simulcast ended when Communicom closed on the sale of WNRB to One on One Sports.

I've lost track of the stations on which Pat Whitley broadcasts his Sunday
restaurant show. Since that show originates from WRKO (brokered time), the
other stations are not on board to add coverage. Rather, it's an opportunity
for the smaller stations to pick up revenue from local eateries. I suspect
that Whitley sells the time for the affils, records the spots that run
during the programs on the affils, and takes a nice cut for his effort.

Over a year ago, when Salem was rumored to be buying WKOX and had not yet
bought 590, there was a lot of speculation about a 1260/1200 simulcast. The
two stations' coverage is nicely complementary and the adjacent dial
positions made such a simulcast seem ideal. WESX/WJDA/WADN/WDIS make a good
combo. There is very little coverage overlap. Most of the overlap is between
commonly owned WESX and WJDA. Because of the salt-water path and the TX
locations right on the water, WESX covers the South Shore nicely and WJDA
covers the North Shore even better. WCAP, WNFT, WSRO, and WPLM have coverage
that is nicely complementary, with very little overlap. As far as I know,
these stations have never simulcast anything. Another low-overlap simulcast
would be WRCA/WCAP/WSRO/WPLM.

And I mustn't forget Bob Bittner's now defunct simulcast on WJIB and WNEB.

One of the problems with simulcasts that someone has already brought up here
is that, somehow, the public seems to interpret simulcasts as a sure-fire
indicator of failing stations. Maybe that's because so many simulcasts have
involved failing stations. OTOH, maybe, as radio geeks, we know too much
about which stations are failing and we jump to conclusions about what the
public thinks. After all, who but a radio geek knows or cares whether the
station he's tuned to is on the verge of bankruptcy. 

- -------------------------------
Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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End of boston-radio-interest-digest V2 #40
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