Re: WSJZ Smooth Jazz

["A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

On 6 Sep 99,  Movie Man wrote:

This
> presented a conflict in the eyes of Peter Smythe and Don Kelley who feared
> that a successful Smooth Jazz station would hurt the ratings of the
> station that was the reason for their career's success, Magic 106.7.  As a
> result of this, WSJZ has had extremely limited support in the form of
> promotional and advertising dollars from its parent company while its
> sister stations have had extensive TV, print and billboard campaigns.  It
> should be noted that during the one period that the station was
> advertising on TV, its ratings were the highest in its history.
> 
> It should also be noted that in addition to being the Operations Manager
> for the Boston Group, Mr. Kelley is also the Program Director of WMJX. 
> His compensation is directly tied to that station and he has used his
> position as Operations Manager to keep down the ratings of the others in
> the group. Mr. Kelley, according to sources around the station, has been
> quoted as saying that Smooth Jazz is "a format that has no more than 10
> listeners at a time" and the station as being "death by sax".  He has made
> a habit of placing trade and press articles critical of the Smooth Jazz
> format in the mailboxes of the WSJZ air and management staff as a form of
> psychological warfare against the station.
 
This reminds me of what used to happen in the late 19th Century, when 
major league baseball owners could own more than one team in the league.  
It made for very dull baseball, fans were losing interest, and eventually, 
the rules were changed.


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 A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                 617.367.0468
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