Last gasps of WQEW (Was Re: [Fwd: WQEW make your move])

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Joe Ross relayed a posting from elsewhere by Robert L. Herman:
>Last evening while I was listening to my radio I noticed an announcement on
>WQEW concerning the format change.
>
>The announcement stated that afrer the last song is played that all
>listeners
>could continue listening to their favorite music on 540 AM WLUX which plays
>the
>music of your life. The announcement also gave the listening areas which
>included newjersey and other places.
<snip>

        It's starting to sound like the entire remaining spot load on WQEW
is a few Christmas-Eve retail ads and ads by about six other radio stations
trolling for the audience. In addition to WLUX, there's WBBR; the 1160 in
N.J.; WHLI, the 1100 daytimer on Long Island; the 1580 on Long Island; WNYC
with different ads promoting its FM as a place for many things, including
the type of music WQEW plays, and its AM as a news and talk source for
people who don't like the food-fight/insult talk formats; and now WFUV, the
Fordham University station famous for having the years-long feud about
putting up a higher tower.
        This last one features a guy who apparently has had or has a show
on the weekend on WQEW (I'm not familiar with him). He says that his
weekend shows that you used to hear on WQEW now can be heard on WFUV. Is it
possible the WFUV is not a paid ad, maybe, but the Times doing some little
bit of penance?
        Some of the ads, especially WLUX, explicitly mention the impending
end of WQEW. It's ironic that the ads are doing this, while the DJs have
the gag order and are continuing to comment about Christmas and read the
liner cards as if everything were normal. They're even still using the same
old promos with taped phone calls from listeners saying how much they enjoy
the station and drop-ins by artists like Tony Bennett promoting the
station.  (I'd like to hear what Tony Bennett thinks about WQEW this week!)
It all makes for strange radio.

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Have you patronized the skywave signal of an AM Class A station today?

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