Re: Boston's Newsradio Void

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

There is at least one full-time "news" organization in Boston radio, and if
sufficiently motivated, it ought to be able to provide round-the-clock
disaster coverage when the situation dictates. The organization to which I'm
referring is Metro Networks. Why it has not covered recent disasters must be
a matter of economics. Were Metro to decide to provide such coverage, it
could feed all of its affiliates--assuming any of them cared.

Uncle Mel has his eye so totally on his wallet that he apparently doesn't
even notice that his highly profitable New England-flagship, legacy news
station, WBZ, has utterly dropped the ball on coverage of emergencies. So I
guess we can't expect Mel to apply any pressure on emergency coverage to
Metro's only competitor, Shadow, which CBS owns (and which feeds WBZ). My
guess is that if either Metro or Shadow decided to cover emergencies, the
other would add such coverage during the first appropriate situation.

We have here an example of the free market at work in an era of
deregulation. Anyone who doesn't realize that this represents a
public-be-damned attitude is a candidate for the Rip Van Winkle award.
You're completely disconnected if you can't understand that this
short-term-profits-to-the-exclusion-of-everything-else (public service
doesn't make money) approach to radio absolutely sews the seeds of radio's
destruction. I fear that the "genius" at the helm of CBS's station group
falls (and I do mean falls) in this category. Mel, Mel, hello-o-o-o. Is
anybody in there besides your wallet? When radio offers no public service,
how does it differ from CDs? Oh, I forgot, CDs don't broadcast (and refuse
to correct) erroneous reports of the death of the mayor. CD's don't get
promoted to PM drive at the company's flagship station in America's #1
market for engaging in such shenanigans.

Of course, the public should not get a free ride on this one. I'll bet that
there are no letters in WBZ's public-inspection file on the station's shoddy
or non-existent emergency coverage. I haven't written. Have you? Would be
nice to see someone mount a credible license-renewal challenge. Of course ,
it would go nowhere. But if Mel could be convinced that it was cheaper to
provide public service than to defend his stations against petitions to
deny, he might provide public service.

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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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