Re: WCCM and CJAD fight it out in Lowell

["Bill O'Neill" <billo@erols.com>]

> However it is going to make it very hard to keep their audience in
Lowell
> during games.........
> (I suggested WCAP, but Maurice didn't want Ellis.....so)

One's _gotta_ think by now that there is more to _that_ story.....  If
one still thinks it's all about a preferred announcer, um...

What no one would admit "on the record" at the home opener last night
(and I refer to elected Lowell officials on hand) is how many feel the
owner of the Spinners "sold out" to an agressive out-of-city company
for broadcast rights.  Also buzzing-about is the opinion that Costa
Eagle's WCCM (800, Lawrence) and it's attempts to become more "Lowell"
is a thinly veiled street level attempt (signal pun unintended) to
enter their (greater Lawrence ADI) Eagle Tribune newspaper in Lowell
to go up against the (established) Lowell Sun, as the primary
objective.  (For out of towners, it had been pretty much impossible to
find a Lawrence paper anywhere in Lowell.)

I guess you could say the scenerio is a lot more about selling
newspapers and increasing Lowell area ad revenue share than it is
about radio.  And the relationship with the Spinners may be simply a
side-effect to that and unimportant (e.g., Lowell's 5 kW DA-2 WCAP not
getting this year's Spinner's deal allegedly over a choice of talent).
Word is that (Costa Eagle/Tribune's) WCCM hopes to open a remote
studio in Lowell around the corner from WCAP to build more of a Lowell
presence. One has to wonder if that would also make for a good place
to display the current edition of..the Eagle Tribune?   Although it is
tough for me to stay impartial on this one (I frequently work at WCAP)
we do know that "percention" can win out for a time.  But, in radio,
it ultimately becomes time to drop towel.  CJAD will only get louder
once July's, then Augusts earlier and earlier night patterns take over
and more of the 7:00 games are under the looming skywave.

Perhaps this was not what the Spinners had on their minds at the time.

Bill O'Neill

------------------------------