Re: Boston's Newsradio Void

["'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

On Sun, 14 Jun 1998 TVHD@aol.com wrote:

> First of all, when the City of Boston declared a state of
> emergency, a station that regularly declares, "If it's happening
> out there, you're hearing it here," should be held to task for its 
> promise. I realize, however, such are empty promises that hold 
> little or no integrity, and serve only as marketing statements. 
> That doesn't make it right or proper. The station was unwilling
> to fulfill its self-proclaimed charter and interrupt its regular
> programming. At the time of the worst portion of the crisis
> (around 5PM) there were only half-hour updates from the ONLY 
> "Newsradio" formatted station in town.

Is anyone sending these comments to WBZ, or do you only want to preach to
the choir? 

> On today's "Let's Talk About Radio", Bob Bittner cited it as having
> declined to an all-time low of around fifteen percent. You think that's
> because of all the modern alternatives? Well I beg to differ. I think
> it's because of the LACK of alternatives within the Radio medium. Radio
> is selling itself down the river. And the financial suicide that you're
> suggesting will come by diverting from the program, I believe instead is
> being willfully commited by the profiteering swine who crush the
> creativity, vision and diversity from a once-thriving business and art. 

As I've pointed out before around here, the same sort of thing happened in
baseball around the end of the 19th Century.  The National League took
over its competition, the American Association, and, in those days before
anti-trust laws, the team owners in the league formed a classic cartel.
They conspired to hold down players' salaries, and in 1899 dropped three
teams from the league (all former AA teams), so that the National League
became the same 8 teams in the same 8 cities until 1953.

For awhile, they even had a practice whereby some team owners owned more
than one team in the league (sound familiar?).  This meant that an owner
would treat one team as the "championship" team and other teams as "farm"
teams, even though they were major league clubs.  This made team
competition very dull and predictable (as much as can be in baseball), and
the fans showed their displeasure by not coming to the games.  The owners
did manage to adopt a rule against multiple team ownerships, but baseball
was losing fans at the turn of the century.

What happened was the sudden arrival of an upstart by the name of Ban
Johnson.  Johnson got control of a minor league called the Western League
and changed its name to the American League, resolutely denying, whenever
asked, that he was trying to start a new major league.  Then in 1901, he
struck.  He declared the American League a major league, put teams into
National League cities, and raided NL teams for players, offering higher
salaries.  

The AL started its 1901 season, its first as a declared major league, with
most of its players raided from the National League.  After two years of
warfare between the leagues, peace was made, and the two-league setup
familiar to us was established.  And baseball was no longer dull and no
longer losing fans.

I don't know what can come along to change the face of radio.  Maybe it's
community stations.  Maybe a shift in the economy -- no prosperity,
however strong, lasts forever.  But this, too, shall pass.

===========================================================================
 A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                         617.367.0468
 15 Court Square                                      lawyer@world.std.com
 Boston, MA 02108-2503                       http://world.std.com/~lawyer/
===========================================================================

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