Re: WILD sold

[mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Norm Rosen wrote:
>It would certainly make sense for the next logical steps to be taken by Radio
>One, and that is for signal improvements, and format development on WBOT
>97.7.

        I'm unclear on the reference to signal improvements. Which station,
WILD or WBOT? WILD has an excellent signal already, except, of course, at
night :).

>Also, to turn WILD 1090 to an urban talk format.
>This format does very well in DC with WOL 1450,WOLB 1360 Baltimore, WLIB New
>York 1190, and WHAT Philadelphia.
>WILD has already started moving in that direction during middays.

        I tend to bet with the others who have suggested an older-skewing
music format, maybe with some talk elements. WILD already skews older than
what they're doing on WBOT. All the markets you name have much, much larger
relative (and in absolute numbers) African-American populations than the
Boston market. They're very different markets when it comes to this
segment.

        I chuckled over the post about 1150 having started a little bit to
make a ripple in the ratings when it ran the satellite urban/soul gold
format. Wasn't that format on there only about a year or so, with basically
no outside promotion? It also was totally non-local, and it still made a
little ripple. That was not even any kind of fair trial for what that type
of format might do, and it still moved the needle a little.

        And, just for discussion purposes: How about the idea that WBOT
might just go ahead and simulcast, or flip WILD to something completely
non-competitive with itself, like brokered foreign language. To make this
argument, you'd say it bought the AM station basically just to eliminate
the competition. The African-American oriented radio niche in the Boston
market isn't that large. Why put on a format that would even slightly
compete with your own, for listeners or advertisers?
        On the simulcasting idea, I'm not even familiar enough with WBOT's
signal to know how well it covers the market. Would WILD, during the part
of the day that it's on, augment the WBOT coverage area of the market?