No Subject

Do I blame the ownership of WHAV (then Steve Silberberg) for the demise?
No.  He continued to put out quality local programming in AM and PM drives,
as well as weekends, to the best of his ability and budget.  Was Steven
cheap?  I prefer to call it frugal...he was running a business, a business
I'm sure he took a hit in the wallet for, all in the name of local radio.
In between that local programming, yes, I confess, it was bird feed.
Whether it was a canned oldies format or generic talk shows...WHAV was
still, primarily, a local radio station.  We still did school cancellations,
and the lunch menus, and birthday greetings, and played a special song for
the person calling from her apartment, where WHAV was her only companion.

I blame radio itself...for fragmenting listeners to the point of no return.
Further, I blame the Greater Haverhill business community for not supporting
their local radio station.  The same business community who was up in arms
when WHAV initially flipped format and went Hispanic programming.  The same
business community who, when approached, wouldn't cough up $200.00 for a
season's worth of sponsorships of Haverhill High School sports
coverage...yet ranted and raved when WHAV couldn't afford to do the
games...to the point of almost having the Boosters club paying the
announcers out of their budget, just to get the games on the air.

Maybe with this move - Bruce Arnold will move to the new 1110...at last
check he was still doing mornings on WCCM.  Although with Bruce up there in
years, maybe he's had enough of this crazy business we call radio.  Maybe
he's had enough of playing that Al Martino song for the lady in the
apartment.  I doubt it though, because Bruce (as with many others on this
list) know what radio was.  Maybe the Merrimack Valley will still have a
local news presence on 1110, because as good as WBZ (and other stations)
are, they just don't cover "local" news, sports and community events, unless
it involves Boston.

In closing, I regret the length of this message and will try not to rant
like this again.  I spent a few great years in broadcasting at 30 How
Street...consider this my eulogy for a dying breed of radio.  Thanks WHAV -
you served us well.

Marc Lemay, former News Director
WHAV - Haverhill

----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Hopfgarten <hopfgapr@sprynet.com>

> They're moving the WCCM Calls and programing to 1110AM, and 'blending' the
> 'best of' WNNW and WHAV into 1490, which will become WNNW (Bye Bye to the
> heritage WHAV Call letters).