WBOQ

[Bob Nelson <bobonradio@yahoo.com>]

Once upon a time, there was a radio station licensed
to Gloucester at 104.9 MHz; a man named Simon Geller
ran it by himself. It was WVCA ("Voice of Cape Ann")
and played classical music. Then, Mr. Geller sold
the station to Tanger Broadcasting (or was it Marlin?)
which kept the classical format, moved the studios to
North Beverly, and re-dubbed it "W-BACH".

But little by little, classicial music gave way to
standards and jazz. A friend of mine who listens to
them told me, "You know, they don't even call
themselves W-BACH anymore... since they don't
have any more classical music."

I just went to http://www.wbach.com and found they 
have a new logo which includes the phrase "The
North Shore's Radio Station" (funny, I thought
the North Shore also had stations in Salem,
Lynn, Beverly... you mean there's only one? :) )
They post the local weather forecast, etc.

OK, so they _do_ still carry some classical--
the Met Opera (I'm trying to picture Mo Vaughn 
singing... oops, not THAT type of Met!) but a quick
look at their online schedule points out that
Beethoven has rolled over and made way for 
"One O'Clock Jump", "The Jazz Brunch", "Best of
Broadway", and "Sounds of Sinatra". (Of course this
may not be news to some of us, and I, too, noticed the
slow switchover... but my friend's observation about
them not calling themselves "W-BACH" anymore only
accents the fact that classical is long gone there.)

Maybe they figured WCRB had the classical market
around here all wrapped up... or they wanted to
present themselves as a) serving the North Shore,
and b) an interesting blend of jazz, swing, and
what Ron Della Chiesa calls "the Great American
Songbook".

Actually, I would prefer that sort of stuff to
classical anyway, and I'm glad they seem to be avidly
serving the North Shore (unlike some stations which
may be licensed to Framingham, Lowell, or Lawrence
but would have you believe they're a Boston station...)

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