Re: war coverage pre-empting Bruins

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

   Steve Ordinetz wrote:

> About 15 yrs ago I worked at a station that carried both the Sox &
> Bruins.  They came close to covering the entire year's operating expenses
> with the Sox, but the Bruins were a tough sell...I'd say only half sold at
> best.

I recall when I was at WHAV (1490 Haverhill) in the mid 80's, they carried
the Bruins and Red Sox. That was when WPLM was the flagship station for both
teams. WHAV one season had only one or two Bruins sponsors, another season
had none. They had better results selling Sox sponsorships, but still not a
sell out.

While speaking hockey, the Lowell Lock Monsters games on WCAP have not been
sponsorship sell outs in their 5 seasons of existance. Saints Memorial
Medical Center has been there all 5 seasons if I'm correct, and I believe
the first 2 or 3 seasons the only sponsor. They've also had a tough time at
the box office as well, but a slight uptick this year averaging 4,100 or so
fans a game to date this season. I don't know if that factors in to WCAP's
difficulty in selling game sponsorships, or lack of effort in the sales
department. They have the AP Best Sportscast award for 2002 earned by
PD/Lock Monsters Play by Play voice Ryan Johnston that can be used as a
selling point, IMHO.

Mark Watson