Re: 1999 Lowell Folk Festival

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

Mark Watson replies
>     As I had posted earlier,WCCM will be there Sat. and Sun.
broadcasting
> from JFK and Boarding House.I don't know who they will have on scene
> anchoring their coverage,although it's almost safe to say that Frank
> Sunday(Messina) will be there.Bob Ellis will be away in Pittsfield
for
> Spinners games Friday and Sat.nights.

I hope so.  As a WCAP utility fielder, I was most disheartened when
WLLH became focused away from local service to the English speaking
community.  (Sadder that that statement sounds politically incorrect,
but I remain!)  WCCM gunning after some Lowell ad dollars has only
benefitted WCAP, IMO, with an increased impetus to get inventory
(which has increased significantly over the past QTR.  I also think
that advertisers within Lowell, previously tossed between one station
or the other (LLH/CAP) may be _more_ apt to split their ad buy between
Lowell and Lawrence, so long as WCCM lives up to its Lowell
committment.  I wish them well!

> > WCAP (980 Lowell).  Planning all day/eve Sat & Sun. live from the
JFK
> > Plaza (at City Hall).  Sticking with one location this year.  I
will
> > be anchoring the Sunday leg of the event (around 1 pm til finish).
>
>    Wow!!! A Lowell station actually at the festival!!!<g>.We'll have
to try
> to get over there and see you in that 70's mobile studio!!

A 1974 GMC mobile home, to be exact.  A twin to the former WHDH mobile
studio that was in service until the late 80s.  I would doubt it has
more than 30k miles on it.  Has levelers on all quarters and
(occasionally) is air conditioned (if there is enough service at the
AC drop.  There are 4 massive horn speakers atop the unit driven by a
Bogen that can sand blast a brick building 3 blocks away (after "2" on
the volume setting, it becomes intrusive.)  Pretty much just an old 4
pot board, generator, a couple of Martis (low & high), Motorola bus.
band radio.  Even has a couple of relic TTs that are long since
unused.  The green floral benches are finally back in style (but no
less challenging to the eye.)  The bottom line is, as Dave Letterman
would say, "It's just darn big!" so when it is at a remote, it isn't
missed.  The late Ike Cohen once told me that they purchased the
vehicle new in 1974 at about the time they anticipated the (then) 1 kW
D station to be authorized the current 5 kW DA-2.  As legal snafus
would have it, that authorization was delayed until 1980.

Ike also said that the first year or two he owned the mobile studio,
he loaned it to WHDH whose studio had some engine trouble.  I guess
they tossed banners over the WCAP calls and went from there.   I
wonder if that spirit of sharing is still alive and well in the
industry today.  Could make for an interesting string, as I have
always been impressed by what appeared to be a sub-culture within the
engineering side of the business (for want of a better term) that is
not present among, say, the advertising sides of the house.   (I could
tell of a story of a non-commercial station that loaned a Marti hop to
another station for a remote, but unauthorized use of a licensed RPU
by another station is not allowed.)

Bill O'Neill

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