Re: Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/21/2003 | Captain Real America

[Nostatic <nostatic@attbi.com>]

Kevin Vahey wrote:

> Interesting rumor at Veterans Stadium has Sox execs meeting with 
> Greater Media folk about a possible relationship. The Phillies are 
> very happy with Greater Media since WPEN took the games away from 
> WPHT. The Sox do have the right to cancel with Entercom at the end of 
> the season as per their sale contract.

The Sox on 96.9 would be an interesting scenario.  However with pregame 
coverage normally starting at 6:30, it would cut into the tail end of 
Jay Severin's show. With Severin being the foundation that TKK is built 
on, management may not want to tamper with that show.  In the case of 
the Philly stations, WPEN is an AM station, so there's not a lot of risk 
in moving baseball to that particular station.  Since all of GM's 
stations here in Boston are FM's, it makes the decision a bit more 
difficult.

> One thing I find odd KYW TV just bills itself as CBS3 and there is 
> very little trading on the goodwill of KYW Radio. I wonder if the 
> brains running CBS will do the same in Boston.

I go down to Philly pretty regularly since my wife's family is there. 
 KYW-TV has been struggling in the ratings for years.  Up until very 
recently, they did emphasize the KYW calls. They tried cross-promoting 
with the radio side similar to what WBZ radio/TV has done but it never 
did anything.  Philadelphians have made the distinction that KYW radio 
news is good but the TV side sucks.  It's pretty well established. 
WBZ-TV has slowly started to build itself back up after the whole "News 
4 New England" debacle from several years back that landed the station 
in the ratings basement.  I don't think the Viacom brass want to make 
that same mistake again.  However, with the recent changes in Pittsburgh 
and Philly, where the old Westinghouse logo/fonts are being jettisoned, 
I can see a change in the WBZ-TV logo coming, but I think the calls will 
remain in their identity.

Mike Thomas