Re: Bruins

[FMradio1@aol.com]

In a message dated 98-06-18 14:07:01 EDT, norwood@mln.lib.ma.us writes:

<< If I were a PD at a Maine radio station carrying both the Bruins and
  Celtics, I'd broadcast all home games of both teams, and whatever
  road games fit in, without conflicting with the other team at home.>>

My first commercial radio job was board-opping sports at WILI-AM Willimantic,
CT.  During the winters, we ran Uconn Basketball, the Celtics and Hartford
Whalers hockey.  With the station being so close to the Uconn campus, the
Huskies always had preference.  Next came the Celtics, and this is during the
Bird, McHale & Parish era.  We had to get premission from the Celts to pre-
empt a few games because of Uconn, and due to our circumstances, they allowed
us to.  Finally, if we had any room left, we would pick up a Whaler game. 

If you thought the Bruins had poor quality broadcasts, the Whalers were ten
times worse.  For most of their history, the games were phone-fed to the
affiliates, and the network spots were so bad, it sounded like interns put
them together.  Truly awful.

Later, when I was PD at WLIS-Old Saybrook, CT, The GM and I made the decision
to pull the Whaler games, and that station was one of their original
affiliates, dating back to the late 1970's.  At that time, we had both mens
and womens hoop from Uconn, plus some high school hoop as well.  The Whalers
called and begged for us to keep them on and air whatever games we could, even
if it was only ten or twenty out of an 84 game season.   They even offered us
loads of comp tickets to do so.  We still declined.  It was only a couple of
years later that the team finally packed up and moved to Carolina.  

Mike Thomas, WXLO & Premiere Radio Networks

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