Re: those who covered the memorial

[Paul Anderson <plandrsn@ma.ultranet.com>]

On 12/11/99 7:24 PM, Sptseditor@aol.com (Sptseditor@aol.com) wrote:

> I've never heard of this station. Is WYDN a low-power, ethnic broadcaster?

WYDN Worcester is a full-power station on channel 48.  Their antenna is 
in Paxton, but I forget how much power they run.  The format is religious 
and they are run by a group in Texas.  Last night when I tuned in, there 
was a foreign-language minister holding up a UHF TV antenna for the 
congregation to see.  I'm not sure if they were worshipping it or making 
Christmas gift suggestions or what, but the minister did say "Radio 
Shack" in his talk.

Suffice it to say that this station has no Worcester content.

> What people should be more up-in-arms about is the lack of coverage by WTAG, 
> which claims it's the market's news leader. I read several posts on 
> alt.radio.broadcasting from a Worcester resident noting that WTAG had little 
> coverage in the heart of the story. Meanwhile, I noticed that WXLO was doing 
> news updates on the fire even into the middle of this week.

I listen to WTAG in the morning, and coverage of the story was good.  The 
local talk show hosts also had the fire and its aftermath as subject for 
many of their shows.  But I found the coverage on WBZ to be superior than 
WTAG's except for the day of the procession, when WTAG was on the story 
with few ads and few interruptions.  WBZ was trying to cover other news 
and had their regular features and ads.

On 12/9/99 7:05 PM, Michael Fitzpatrick (fitzradio@mail.map.com) wrote:

> You may wish to check with your cable company to make sure that they are in 
> compliance with the FCC's must carry market regs.  Here in Connecticut, 
> Fairfield County cable systems get the shaft, as Fairfield is considered 
> the NYC market for cable purposes, so our cable carries some peanut 
> stations that nobody has ever heard of in Connecticut in lieu of other 
> stations we would much rather have :(

I have no problem with must-carry in general, as I believe all stations 
in the area should be carried by cable systems.  I can imagine that a 
small station in New Jersey would have no interest in Fairfield County, 
though, so I sympathize with you.  Do the Fairfield County cable systems 
carry Hartford, New Haven and Waterbury stations, and are these covered 
by must-carry, or just the New York and New Jersey ones?

Must carry rules make less sense when in an area "between" markets.  Even 
though Barre is in Worcester County, which in the Boston market, we're on 
the edge here.  Go a few miles west and people watch Springfield TV and 
buy Springfield papers.  So although 22, 40 and 57 may not be required by 
must-carry, it would be a shame to lose them.  If my system (also 
Charter) is forced to carry WYDN (48) I wish they'd drop something else 
rather than one of the Springfield stations.

Paul