Re: Fwd: Re: W-H-RB on the Internet

[lglavin@lycosmail.com]

This post sounds like a reply from a "ringer" who is
employed by WCRB to argue its case (Rob Landry uses
his real name and identifies himself as a WCRB
employee).  Now let's look at the "logic" he uses,
similar to WCRB CEO William Campbell:  unless you've 
owned or been General Manager of a radio station,
you can't criticize it;  thus no guests with Bob on
LTAR.  Would he use this same argument with regard to
restaurants?  Everyone I know is a restaurant critic
(ask Pat Whitley). Very few people who voice strong
opinions on restaurants has ever owned one;  I have
a cousin who did but he doesn't any more: it's a 
tough business.  People love to voice opinions on 
movies, but they've never produced or directed one.
Getting closer to home, most of the comments 
that have been critical of the way the radio business
has evolved post-consolidation have been made by
non-owners and nob-managers and some (like moi)
outside the business altogether.  It's a free
country with a vigorous tradtion of free speech.
 ---- you wrote: 
> PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE... STOP IT. 
> 
> WCRB has a 2 plus share... by far a HUGE cume for a classical station
> these days. Sir, honestly, until you've A) owned & operated a station and
> been responsible for the bills or B) programmed a station in a
> competitive situation... you can not fully appreciate what it means to
> have the audience share that WCRB does. 
> 
> I think I speak for more than myself when I say "ENOUGH". 
There are certain subjects that come up on this site
with great regularity.  For example, people love to
report the distant stations they receive on FM or TV 
during solar storms.  Others report the pirate stations
that pop up where they live although the signals are
faint and can't be received a few miles away.  There
are reminiscences of long-retired DJ's or 
personalities.  Do you cry a Shakespearean (or
Oxfordian if you're of that persuasion) "Enough!!"
when these subjects are brought up?  I know
that the NERW gurus don't like the mention of ratings
numbers because they're proprietary...but the summer
'99 12-and-over average was higher than you quoted
possibly because WSJZ dropped pseudo-jazz and some
of their audience perhaps opted for pseudo-classical.
WCRB's ratings "success" comes from the fact that
they're less a classical station than a background
music station like the WJIB-FM of a dozen years ago.
This is not a stretch...in those days, when the Globe 
Calendar ran a survey of Readers' Choices, the favorite
"classical" stations were WCRB (then a REAL classical
station), WGBH-FM and WJIB-FM...honest.
> BTW,  I own "works" from both Rage Against the Machine and Vivaldi... and
> imagine, I don't even posses a college degree! Heavens! Why, I like music
> and Baseball! Am I a mutant??
> 
> -Rick Ganley

Soon we all will have to undergo DNA testing and then
that question will be answered.  Until then, the
point was that the baseball tie-in was just mindless
window-dressing to a tired playlist.

> On Tue, 23 Nov 1999 19:02:48 -0500 (EST) lglavin@lycosmail.com writes:
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > WARNING:  Another WCRB pot shot (but I'm not on drugs...
> > honest.)
> > 
> > WCRB in its current configuration uses Top-40 style 
> > gimmicks to relieve the tedium.  Things like a "Top 40
> > Countdown" or baseball-oriented tie-ins at the time
> > of the Red Sox' opening day, are like sauce on pallid
> > food, designed to disguise the unremitting sameness of
> > their programming.
> > 
> > Laurence from Methuen


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