Re: What's JJ up to?

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Igo" <Chuckigo@worldnet.att.net>
To: "Dan Billings" <dib9@gwi.net>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2001 12:08 PM
Subject: RE: What's JJ up to?


> and do you mean to say
> that you *almost* begrudge Bob & JJ from making some money off a little
> venture they started in a trailer on the side of hill in Sabattus?

Not at all.  I'm a Republican!

However, I think J.J. is sometimes painted here as something that he is not.
I can remember when Fuller/Jeffrey were the big guys in town and they were
as profit-hungry as the corporate owners that are always being knocked on
this board.  Yes, J.J. still likes to play radio, but he can afford to do so
because he profited from a system that makes it harder for others to make a
living in the business.  I think people who knock that system, but praise
J.J., are being inconsistent.

>JJ's current operating costs are coming,
> more than likely, out his own pocket.  listening to the spot inventory on
> the air, there's not a lot of local revenue being generated.  he could
have
> taken the money and run.

Agreed.

> but he's a radio guy;  couldn't stay away.  and
> now he's trying to offer some balance and alternatives to the corporate,
> cookie-cutter radio that we in the Portland area now endure.

I wonder if that is his plan.  I think he might be trying to put together a
group that someone like Clear Channel will overpay for.

WRED does provide an alternative that no corporate operator would provide,
but I don't think the other stations do.  I like "The Big Jab," but if J.J.
wasn't doing it, one of the corporate operators would have a similiar sports
station.  WLOB's programming seems to be made up of low-cost programming
used to wharehouse the signals.

>  That particular situation (WLOB) is exactly what i meant by his being a
"David"
> versus Goliath.  our (yes, Dan and i currently work together) current
> employer ripped the rug out from under JJ on two separate fronts (Patriots
> and a couple of the talk shows).

Saga grabbed the Patriots and Jim Rome from the Big Jab and Phil Hendry and
Fox Sports from WLOB.  J.J. picked up the Portland Pirates when Saga dropped
them.

The thing that really sabotaged WLOB being a talk alternative to WGAN/WZAN
was WMTW.  There's no need for a fourth talk station in the market, and
there's not enough good barter programming available to make the station
viable, or even listenable.  If J.J. was serious about being an alternative
to the corporate operators, he would be doing something else with those
signals.

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine