Re: shutting off to do transmitter work...

["A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyross.com>]

On 5 Jan 2003 at 10:44, SteveOrdinetz wrote:

> I suspect the real reason for the overnight signoff was more not wanting
> to pay someone to be there at a time when few people were listening anyway
> (and a zero spot load).  With so many stations running automated &
> unattended at night these days, savings are minimal by signing off.  Even
> as recently as 10 years ago, look at the number of small-market FMs that
> signed off at midnight that are on 24/7 now.
 
 
Well, around 1961 or so, when 93.7 (whatever it is now) first came on the air as WGHJ, it 
simulcasted daytimer WCCM and went off when WCCM went off.  At some point I called the 
station and asked why the FM didn't keep going after AM sign off.  The answer was that to 
do so would involve going out and getting advertisers for the time, and there wasn't enough of 
an FM audience yet to make that work.

Which, I've long thought, is why all the standalone FM classical stations failed.  WCRB was 
the only classical station that survived, in large measure because they had an AM signal 
until the FM audience became large enough for an FM standalone to be viable.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@attorneyross.com
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