WGBH & ME/ATC

["Aaron 'Bishop' Read" <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 12:40 AM 2/18/2002 -0500, A. Joseph Ross wrote:
>(snip)
>want to listen to.  I'd keep WGBH on in my office all the time if they
>didn't stop at 4:00 for news.  I'd probably listen to them a lot more
>anyway, but in my downtown office they're hard to tune in (I still have
>analog tuning on my office radio) and I can't get their translator at
>all.

The downtown translator is VERY specific to Beacon Hill.  I strongly 
suspect all the hoopla about that useless little thing was because there's 
probably two or three major donors that live on Beacon Hill - either that 
or they were trying to suck up to the Legislature :-)

Anyways, this email prompted a philosophical question to me...why does WGBH 
carry Morning Edition and All Things Considered at all these days?  I know 
their broadcast range is greater than WBUR's, but not by much.  And I would 
think that if you're listening to ME & ATC, you're far more interested in 
talk than music usually...and there's no question WBUR is *the* talk 
station around here if you're only listening in the non-comm band.

I suppose perhaps WBUR's reach on the Cape isn't as good?  I don't know for 
sure, really...WBUR-AM (West Yarmouth) reaches most of the Cape but damned 
if I know how *well* it reaches the far side of it.

When I was at WBUR a consultant was called in to review the 
programming.  Among the many minor tweaks one of the bigger changes that 
was made was to drop traffic reports because nobody listened to WBUR for 
traffic; if they wanted traffic they switched over to WBZ b/c WBZ had much 
longer and more detailed traffic reports than WBUR ever did.   I disagreed 
with the decision myself...I thought we should have devoted a little more 
time to give better reports than just drop it altogether...but from a 
financial standpoint I can see the logic.   Anyways, can't this logic be 
applied at a more macro level to WGBH?  I would think that if people want 
NPR talk they listen to WBUR, not WGBH.

Or are there hordes of rabid WGBH listeners that demand the 
variety?  :-)   If that's the case, why aren't they listening to WUMB 
(which has the most variety of the three, I'd argue)???

I suppose it's a greater question of why do some stations half-ass their 
mix?   If you're going to be a certain style, then just BE IT.  Don't 
candy-ass around the issue like WBOS is notorious for (hmmm...what format 
is WBOS this month? :-)    There are lots of college stations that take 
pride in their excessive variety, that's fine.   But if you're going to be 
news/talk...be news/talk.  If you're going to be music, be music.


______________________________________________
Aaron "Bishop" Read       aread@speakeasy.net
Fried Bagels Consulting   www.friedbagels.com
12 Walnut St. / Waltham, MA / 02453