Re: Corperate radio/Clear Channel

["Dan Billings" <dib9@gwi.net>]

I have heard a lot about J.J.'s commitment to local radio, but I have yet to
hear it on his stations.  I think people root for J.J. because of his
history (jock turned successful owner) but most of his stations currently
have less local content than most of the stations controlled by corporate
owners in Portland.  In my opinion, both "the Big Jab" and WLOB are pretty
bad radio stations.

"The Big Jab" has a local sports talk show for a couple of hours weekday
mornings (which is a horrible show IMHO) and the rest of the week is The
Sporting News Radio Network and games.  He uses up three frequencies for
this programming.  Is this a commitment to local radio?

WLOB AM & FM carries third rate talk shows off the bird and some Fox Sports
programming.  They have two different local talk shows by extreme
conservatives on Saturday mornings.  Both those shows were on the station
when Carter owned the stations.  Is this a commitment to local radio?

In contrast, Saga's WGAN has a 3 1/2 hour local talk show weekday mornings,
plus six hours of local talk on Saturdays, a local garden show on Sundays,
and a fully staffed local news department.

I don't listen to WRED so I can comment on the amount of local programming
there.

I know some people hate to let facts get in the way of their closely held
beliefs, but lets not make J.J. the champion of local radio vs. the hated
corporate broadcasters until he does something to deserve that title.

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine



----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben Gore" <bgore@gwi.net>
To: "Keith Berman" <KeithBerman@rcn.com>; <bri@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2001 12:36 PM
Subject: Re: Corperate radio/Clear Channel


>I get a big kick from
> hearing about what J.J. Jeffrey is up to. Though he made it possible by
> playing the big radio game, he seems to have the commitment to local
radio. He
> had his fingers right into it, even during the biggest corporate years. I
> think it would take someone like him to start a large scale "reinvention".