RE: Your suggestions??

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

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> > [mailto:owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org]On Behalf Of Adam
> > Rivers
> > Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 10:47 AM
> > To: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> > Subject: Your suggestions??
> >
> >
> > What do you suggest I should write in a letter to an
> > otherwise-dead local college station (WCCH) except for
> > an oldies show on Saturday night.. to see if I can get
> > on the air with my own little radio show?
> >
> > Adam
> > http://adamskewlsite.freeservers.com
> >

A google.com search turned up this contact name for WCCH
John Hardy  jhardy@hcc.mass.edu
http://www.hcc.mass.edu/html/Life_at_HCC/Student_Organizations/Student_Organizations.htm

An article from the Holyoke "Phoenix" paper (no relation to the Boston 
Phoenix I assume) mentioned that WCCH was having serious problems getting 
their transmitter to stay on the air back in December of 2001.  The weblink 
always seems to be http://www.hccphoenix.cjb.net/ regardless of the article 
so if you click that you'll probably not get the article in 
question.   Instead, go to www.google.com and search for "WCCH" and it 
should pop up - "The Phoenix (News): The Sounds of Silence from WHCC"  (WHCC??)

Anyways, I'm reluctant to generalize but from the lack of any WCCH web 
presence and a damning-by-default article like this Phoenix one (although I 
know full well how many - not all, but many - college papers take things 
WAY out of context) makes me wonder just how good WCCH is.  They might be a 
case where the college viciously guards the license against outside 
intruders but by the same token refuses to fund it within even shouting 
distance of realistically.

Still - it's worth a shot.  A year at even a crappy station won't kill you, 
and it'll give you an appreciation of better stations down the road, while 
also giving you the freedom to really suck on the air (99% of radio 
personalities do when we start out in radio...many don't get much better, 
too :-)   Anyways, you can afford to try new things and screw up and sound 
awful while you get better.

By the same token, if you're going to place that doesn't insist on much 
from you, be fully prepared to not expect much from the 
station.  Specifically, don't expect a lot, if any, listeners.   A 9-watt 
Class D isn't going to have much reach beyond campus and most college 
campuses have students that want to listen to hard rock and Top 40 - not 
stuff usually heard on the college station.


_________________________________________________________
Aaron "Bishop" Read       aread@speakeasy.net
Fried Bagels Consulting   www.friedbagels.com
AOL-IM: ReadAaron         Brighton, MA 02135
"I'm weird, but around here it's hardly noticeable."