Re: WBZ-FM "Rockin' Stereo 106.7"

["Ira Apple" <iraapple@home.com>]

Peter is correct and the prime reason is reflected in a statement made by
the Chairman of the Board, Don McGannon who told us (managers, program
managers and others)  at a conference in Ft. Lauderdale, "If you have your
eye on the FM ball, you have your eye on the wrong ball!"  It was hard for
us to believe that the otherwise forward thinking leader of radio at the
time so quickly dismissed the entire FM band.

In retrospect, he may have wanted us to focus as much as possible on AM to
fight the listener erosion that was slowly taking place and to withhold the
credibility to the band that Group W would bring. In any case, FM in Boston
and in Pittsburgh was at the best just maintained for a number of years. We
played the same Classical tape library fully automated for at least three
years in the 70's. There was no attempt to sell or promote the FM stations.

Ira Apple
Ira Apple & Associates
Direct Phone:  410-526-6724
Direct Fax:       410-526-9662
E-Mail:  iraapple@home.com
----------------------------------------------------------------


----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Q. George" <radiojunkie3@yahoo.com>
To: "Kaimbridge M. GoldChild" <kaimbridge@programmer.net>; "B-R-I"
<boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 9:55 AM
Subject: WBZ-FM "Rockin' Stereo 106.7"


>      WBZ-FM was the VERY, VERY POOR stepchild of WBZ
> Radio and Television.  They figured that by having
> WBZ-FM on the air (barely), it would keep at least one
> FM frequency to be non-competitive with WBZ-AM.  They
> were the last major FM in town to embrace Stereo on
> 12/31/71 at 4:00 pm.  The automation they used was
> affectionately named "BoZo".  Look at the letters and
> you'll see why.
>      No matter what they did, WBZ-FM WOULD make
> numbers.  Imagine having a practically
> "non-commercial" continuous Top-40 in FM Stereo in the
> 6th largest radio market.  It was highly noticed by
> the younger crowd (myself included).  Clark Schmidt
> was WBZ-FM's only employee for some time.  Eventually
> Captain Ken Shelton and crew would follow suit.  The
> WBZ-FM "Boston Top-30" countdown with phoned-in intros
> from listeners was VERY popular for several years
> (254-8989).  To think that Group W (Westinghouse)
> would sell the FM for a mere $5,000,000.
>
> -Pete
> --- "Kaimbridge M. GoldChild"
> <kaimbridge@programmer.net> wrote:
> > Dave Faneuf wrote,
> >
> > > I recall that the WBZ-FM automation was not the
> > greatest and that
> > > they used to simulcast the top of the hour news
> > from WBZ-AM,  I
> > > think the news would come on exactly at the top of
> > the hour no
> > > matter what was on the air on BZ-FM
> >
> > Yup, I remember those daze!--I used to like to a/b
> > between the AM
> > and FM, noting how Gary LaP. sounded so rich and
> > booming on the AM,
> > but on the FM sounded like he was broadcasting from
> > a closet (as he
> > does now on the AM, since they began running $tereo
> > and dropped
> > the reverb and heavy compression--though, at the
> > time, I had no
> > idea what compression was, just that AM "sounded
> > better" than FM!).
> >
> >      ~Kaimbridge~
> >
> > --
> > Note:  E-Mail address has changed to
> > kaimbridge@programmer.net,
> > as Google's @my-deja.com service was terminated on
> 2001-DEC-12.
>
>
> =====
> Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
> Whitman, Massachusetts
>                            "Scanning the bands since 1967"
> radiojunkie1@yahoo.com
> radiojunkie3@yahoo.com
> ***********************************************************
>
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