Fun with rimshotters...

[Scott Fybush <scott@fybush.com>]

So I get this e-mail today from a marketing type at a Boston-market FM 
station, which will remain nameless, asking me to stop referring to his 
station in NERW as "WXXX Rimshot City" and instead to refer to it as "WXXX 
Boston."

I replied, politely of course, telling him that I'd be happy to do so as 
soon as the FCC changes his station's city of license. <g>

(I also explained that it's a style issue, and that I use legal calls and 
city of license to identify every station mentioned in NERW, and not to 
take it personally. Further, I added, I think the present allocations 
system is a mess and would gladly support metro-area licensing if the FCC 
were amenable. But I digress...)

Garrett and I were discussing the topic, and the question came up about 
what sort of service WXXX would have to provide these days to Rimshot City, 
anyway. The main studio can legally be - and is - within Boston city 
limits, as is the public file. Ascertainment requirements (remember those?) 
are pretty much a thing of the past, as is any meaningful public service 
programming requirement.

That leaves us with just two items: the appropriate signal level over 
Rimshot City (a requirement the station in question meets without breaking 
a sweat) and a toll-free phone number in the Rimshot City phone book.

And so I ask those of you in the Rimshot Cities of eastern Massachusetts to 
take a look at your most recent Verizon directories. There are, by my 
count, four "Boston" FMs that could be my mystery station. If you're in one 
of those cities - Framingham, Lawrence, Lowell or Worcester [*] - open up 
that "W" section in the book (or the "Radio Stations and Broadcasting 
Companies" category in the Yellow Pages, if you prefer) and share what's 
listed for the appropriate station, won't you?

-s(tickler for FCC accuracy!)

[* - Yes, WBOS technically counts as a "rimshotter," too, but the Brookline 
phone book pretty much *is* the Boston phone book, unless Verizon still 
puts out that silly little community phone book, and in any case we know 
that it's a toll-free call anyway from the Brookline exchanges to the 
Greater Media studioplex in Dorchester. And WXRV and WPLM both maintain 
actual studios in their actual communities of license, as does WFNX.]