Re: Re: WVCA then? WJIB now whats the difference?

["Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@mediaone.net>]

12 years ago Simon got his money and continued with the rest of his life.

We can argue the assignment of 104.9 to Northeastern until the cows come
home, but the end result was Josiah Spaulding purchased that license for
under market value. However Geller was allowed to walk away with something
and as far as we know he was satisified with the final sale.

My original point has been lost in this exchange.

What Geller was doing back then was unheard of, running a station out of his
apartment.

Now in the year 2000, we have ( using Boston as an example) cases that
callers to WEEI tell them they are OFF THE AIR.........which means the
people in the studio monitor the line output, but NOT the over the air
signal.

Bob runs WJIB using cassette tapes that for the most part run without
problems, yet I'm sure he wakes up every morning and sighs happily that he
is still on the air.

My point was simple, was what Geller doing 10-20 years ago any different
than what is allowed today? Under the rules we have now, Simon could have
gone to bed but still offered taped programming all night.

Way back when ( 1967-8) the infamous Northeastern carrier AM station WNEU
( 560 on campus), used to broadcast 24 hours a day thanks to a reel to reel
system known as "Moose"..........it was clunky but it worked, and back then
it was pushing the envelope. WNEU served the NE community well, but it also
for reasons nobody really knew also put a decent signal into the St Lawrence
Valley of upstate NY and Southern Ontario. The station got mail and phone
calls from that area and nobody could understand why.

Funny thing is "Moose" proved to a new generation that taped programming
would fly........ and transmitters could behave all night without being
babysit. I remember quite well that for $500 you could go to a "school" in
Florida, and walk away with an FCC FIRST CLASS LICENSE, and that assured
anyone they could at worse be an overnight jock at any directional station
in the US. That is simply the way it was.

Everything changed in the early 1970's, and with the advent of satellites in
1980 the future of broadcasting was defined. The AM powehouse stations
survived, but regional and local AM's simply could not compete. FM ruled.
Now broadcasters are being challenged again, by forces such as digital cable
and internet radio. The ironic factor is, the powerhouse AM's still do well
overall. Just look at the history of some of the FM stations in the Boston
market ( 92.9 is a PRIME example), but on AM 680, 850 and 1030 are doing
just fine.

It is a crazy biz.