Re: WEEI and WWTM

[Mike Thomas <nostatic@earthlink.net>]

As was mentioned previously, the station was known as "Worcester's Team."  When
the ARS/CBS merger happened, it reunited WEEI and WWTM.  1440 started
simulcasting 850 from 10am to 6pm, and they dropped the "Team" slogan but not
the calls.

Early in the simulcast, the station was careful to cover all the 850 mentions.
In fact, this was around the time that ARS was considering flipping one of its
Seacoast NH AM's (then WZNN & WMYF) to a simulcast of WEEI, thereby creating a
network along with WWTM.  After six, the station does local sports talk, unless
there is a game, then it's satellite after 10pm.  They used to run Scott
Ferrall late nights.  Now it's ESPN radio on the weekends and Sportsfan during
the week.  The Sox run on WTAG since they have the better night signal, so WWTM
has the Yankee games.   WWTM also does the Celtics and the Bruins, and they do
Holy Cross football and basketball.  They occasionally do some high school
football as well.

WWTM, like WEEI for now, runs Imus, but they do it locally, not via Boston.
I'm not sure if WWTM will continue to run the I-man once he leaves WEEI.  My
guess is that they will simulcast WEEI's new morning show.

With the spinoff to Entercom, things have gotten really sloppy on 1440.  Today
they run entire stopsets from Boston, they fail to legal every now and then,
and at night there is often hours of dead air. When sister station WAAF moved
to Huntington Avenue, WWTM stayed behind in Westboro.  Rumors that I'm hearing
is that Entercom may open a sales office in Worcester, and put the WWTM studios
there.

Mike Thomas
WXLO & Mediabase 24/7

Donna Halper wrote:

> I was in Worcester today and I noticed a couple of things that puzzled me--
> perhaps somebody on the list could explain.
>
> 1.  In the afternoon (which is when I was in "the Big Woo"), WWTM was
> simulcasting WEEI-- including letting WEEI's call letters run, letting
> their 20/20 sports flashes run, and only occasionally inserting a local
> avail from the Worcester area (like WEEI, they don't seem to have many
> spots either).  Yet, WWTM was carrying WEEI on at least a 7 second delay--
> when I switched back and forth between the two stations, there was at least
> a 5 to 7 second lag between what ran on WEEI and what ran on WWTM.  If the
> stations are simulcasting, why have an extra delay?
>
> 2.  WWTM occasionally has its own ID (although at the top of the hour,
> several times, I heard the WEEI Entercom ID), but that ID does not mention
> the WEEI call letters-- it just mentions 1440 WWTM  and then mentions
> "850"-- if you are simulcasting and letting the WEEI calls be heard, why
> have an ID that suddenly doesn't say them?
>
> 3.  And maybe I am just old fashioned, but I always thought call letters
> meant something.  Wouldn't it be confusing for Worcester area listeners to
> know what station to write in their diary-- WEEI or WWTM?  Back when it was
> WEEI and WVEI, the calls were close enough so that credit could be given
> either way.  But having two such different  station calls being used at odd
> times seems strange to me.  Or am I missing something that would explain
> it?

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