Re: 1060, 96.9...

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

>Chuck Igo wrote:
<snip>
>  i'd like to see them take the news comments
>more seriously.  if 96.9 had a deeper, local news team to go along with the
>talented hosts they've currently got, then maybe the hosts would have the
>chance to play off of a breaking news story, as do the other talkers.
<snip>

        This is really basic. Even for the supposedly non-political type
talk / hot talk or whatever the buzz phrase is this week, you gotta have
news. Plus, 96.9 is doing some current-affairs type talk. When you start
with Imus, that's where you're going. Hell, beneath that wild and crazy
facade the guy does book reviews of serious books.
        The news on 96.9 shouldn't be the same news as WBZ. It might be
somewhat generation X news, or entertainment-heavy news, etc., etc., a
different presentation and different content. Try something different.
You've got nothing (at least in the rating book right now) to lose. But
some sort of news content and, then following with it, image and reputation
is needed. Use one of the TVs or the papers, or one of each, to really
build your name.
        The trouble with all these formats these days is you wonder if
anybody's ever in it for the long haul. You don't suddenly build a
reputation for something like news or talk in two books. WBZ has been
working on it for 80 years, WRKO for 20. IMO, music is different, The
audience moves around much faster. But the way the business is done now,
you always feel that nobody will make an investment in a format that might
take five years to pay off big. The business just doesn't do that. So, five
years from now 96.9 either will have proved me wrong by doing well without
that sort of commitment, or it will be on its third format change since
talk.