Re: Minor league radio update

["Mark Watson" <markwats@attbi.com>]

      Kevin Vahey wrote:

> > Latest Spinners rumor has them winding up at WWZN but Webers trying to
> > buy an unnamed station in the Merrimac Valley.

   WWZN doesn't put much of a usable signal into Lowell at night. Daytime
signal is decent however. If this rumor is true at least the Spinners can
claim their games are on a Boston station.

   Sean Smyth wrote:

> Let's see what's available that would actually put a signal into Lowell at
> night: WCCM, nope. WCAP, nope. WLLH? Bingo. Now, will Mega get the $1 mil
or
> so out of it that they paid for it in the first place?

   There have been rumors in the past that Mega had WLLH up for sale, my
guess is they would only sell to Drew Weber (or anyone else) that will pay
no less than the $866,000 ( that was the price IIRC) that Mega paid Arnold
Lerner and company a few years back. Of course I thought back then that Mega
paid a bit too much for WLLH.

   And let's say Drew Weber does buy WLLH. What will he do for a format? I
don't know if he would go with a live and local format, or find some
birdfeed programming. Since WCCM dumped the Music Of Your Life that may be
something he would grab. Of course, I thought WCAP should have gone with an
adult standards format when WLLH flipped to Spanish a few years back. I
recall hearing that  longtime WLLH jock/sales person Frank Sunday (Messina)
went to see Maurice Cohen to pitch the format to him after the sale to Mega
was announced, but Maurice wasn't interested in the format.I think Maurice
should have made the change to music, IMHO it would be better than some of
the birdfeed talk shows he's carrying, and would be easier to sell to
advertisers,especially if he had taken Messina aboard. Even if he picked up
birdfeed MOYL or ran automated or locally voice tracked music, it would be
well received by many in the Merrimack Valley. WCCM tried and didn't do a
good job with MOYL.

     As far as Weber goes, if he did indeed buy WLLH (or another station),
he would hopefully hire someone with radio management experience to run the
station. I'm sure Bob Ellis will be one of his first, if not the first
person hired.

    And another station to add to the list of actually putting a signal into
Lowell at night: WSMN (1590 Nashua). They do come in a bit better in Lowell
at night, and have for many years now since WQQW (Waterbury CT) went dark.
Of course, I do think that WSMN's directional pattern is a bit out of whack,
and has been for a few years now. Many years ago, they never put a usable
signal into Lowell, day or night. I recall checking the directional pattern
on the Kodis site and it didn't appear to show their signal aimed to the
northeast, unless they received FCC approval to modify their pattern in the
last few years and Kodis isn't updated.

Mark Watson