Re: WLYN

["Sean Smyth" <ssmyth@suscom.net>]

arusso@smcvt.edu wrote:
> just a brief comment as a radio enthusiast and lynn resident on the
> current status of WLYN. . .for the last twenty years, the city of
> lynn (the fifth largest in the commonwealth) has been left without a
> quality source for news, information, and local programming. though
> WFNX has been a valued member of the community, their programming has
> always targeted Boston and more recently, the New England region, and
> WLYN has taken on the LMA-brokered ethnic format in order to make
> money. as a result, lynn has been left without any source for truly
> local programming. though WESX, WNSH, and WBOQ have tried to
> incorporate lynn news over the years, it is apparent that their
> programming is predominantly focused on the salem-peabody-beverly tri-
> city region, leaving lynn as the odd city out. the only consolation
> had been that WLYN (at least) maintained a studio presence in lynn,
> but when puritan broadcasting LMA'd to arpin three years ago, all
> that was left of WLYN in lynn was the transmitter and tower.
>
> lynn is a large, vibrant, ethnically diverse community, and i think
> it is an important for our city to have a multicultural voice on
> radio. however, WLYN's programming of late has more of a canned
> quality, and as a result, any community ties to lynn have been
> severed. upon learning from this listserv that WLYN's sale to arthur
> liu's group had gone through, i contacted their corporate office in
> nyc to express my concerns and my hope that they will move the
> station back to lynn and once again focus on local programming in a
> variety of languages. i am still awaiting a return call, and
> unfortunately i don't think i will ever receive one.
>
> it seems a sad commentary that every major urban area in the
> commonwealth has a strong local radio voice, all except lynn. i
> sincerely hope that multicultural radio broadcasting will reverse
> puritan broadcasting and add radio group's longstanding apathy toward
> the lynn community, and maybe even buy the "WLYN" domain so they can
> change that bizarre website that has nothing at all to do with radio.

I disagree with your assessment. Some major well-developed areas in this
state do not have a local radio news source. Most obvious is Cambridge:
WJIB, WHRB and WMBR do their own thing and serve their audiences well, but
they do not cover the Cambridge City Council meetings, they do not report on
what's happening at CRLS, etc. The Boston papers largely ignore Cambridge,
too, unless it's a hot topic coming up at a controversial council meeting,
one of those instances where people can shout "Oy, vey! The People's
Republic!" again and again.

Doesn't Framingham proper now have around 60,000 residents? I would say the
ethnic mix in Framingham is quite similar to Lynn. I understand there's a
relatively large Hispanic community there. None of the stations based on Mt.
Wayte Avenue do anything representing news coverage in Framingham.

IIRC, Holyoke doesn't have a radio station that does tons of local news
either. It's just the state of radio nowadays.