RE: WILD sold

["Paul Hopfgarten" <hopfgapr@sprynet.com>]

My feeling is there is not much area that WILD covers 'cleanly' that WBOT
doesn't cover that has any minority community to speak of. Lowell and
Lawrence, 2 "potential" areas for an urban station are somewhat far for
WILD, though with a decent radio, it might be listenable, but would be
affected by the 2-hour before sunset 'critical hours' power drop.

WBOT makes it to about Woburn when heading due North out of Boston before
the signal starts hitting some trouble (seems to be a 'line' for WINQ from
Winchedon MA that hits Woburn enough to mess with 'BOT's signal there. WBOT
actually recovers a little further north on I-93 for about 5 more miles
before it becomes unlistenable.)

IMHO, the simulcast would be tantamount to having 1090 off the air. The
leased foreign language (spanish religious, perhaps) might make sense.

-Paul Hopfgarten
Derry NH



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> [mailto:owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org]On Behalf Of Martin
> J. Waters
> Sent: Monday, May 15, 2000 8:40 PM
> To: inorm99@earthlink.net
> Cc: bri@bostonradio.org
> Subject: Re: WILD sold
>
>
> >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?
>
>