1.150 Now "Officially"(?) WTTT & Stunting w/"Danny Boy"s

[Dan Strassberg]

Since the title of the song they are playing is based on my given name, I've
thought more than a little about Salem's choice of the song. The answer to
your question, of course, is that there is no intentional connection between
the song and the format. However, the reasons for the choice do make a
certain amount of sense from Salem's "the bottom line is really all that
matters" perspective:

1. "Oh Danny Boy" is in the public domain, hence there are no royalties to
pay. (I should probably list that as reasons 1 through at least 10)
2. It's been recorded A LOT, so an assiduous collector would be likely to
have many versions by different artists.
3. Someone associated with "The Irish Hit Parade" program on sister station
WROL 950 probably is such a collector and volunteered to provide a tape of
all of the versions he has.
4. The song is well known and quite melodic, so one can listen to different
versions for a rather extended period without wanting to scream too loudly.

On the other hand:

1. There is no logical connection with the format, except maybe that the
Danny of the title is being conscripted to go to war.
2. It's a sad song.
3. It's a song about loss and the singer's (that is, Danny's father's)
likely impending death.

If you put the three just-listed negatives together, you can infer a
prediction of another war and format's demise. I can't imagine that Salem
wants the listeners to believe that the company is predicting the format's
quick demise even before its first day on the air, but based on the
stunting, we do have reason to predict that the format will be produced on
the cheap and will often not seem relevant.

Also, with 1150's almost unprecendented record of format failures, a
prediction of yet another failure doesn't seem unwarranted. If I'm not
mistaken, the only format the has succeeded on 1150 in the last three
decades was sort of an accident--the station was in receivership and the
trustee put on a satellite-delivered urban gold format. For the first time
in decades, and with the benefit of ZERO promotion, the station made a
respectable showing in the ratings. Of course, the new owners weren't
perceptive enough draw any lessons from that experience. The lesson of
couse, is that if RadioOne were able to buy or lease the station from Salem
and move WILD 60 kHz up the dial, Boston could have a successful
urban-formatted AM music station. Moreover, a format/ownership swap between
1150 and 1260 would then give the new WILD the second best AM signal (after
WBZ) in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury and would improve WMKI's signal in
the affluent northwestern suburbs.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
eFax 707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: Kevin Vahey <kvahey@tmail.com>
To: Richard Chonak <rac@gabrielmass.com>; B-R-I
<boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2003 6:18 PM
Subject: Re: 1.150 Now "Officially"(?) WTTT & Stunting w/"Danny Boy"s


> Now what exactly does Danny Boy have to do with conservative talk
> radio????
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, 1 Nov 2003 5:00PM -0500, Richard Chonak wrote:
> >
> >> they've dropped the spanish "Mega
> >>> Ocho Noventa" loop and are now stunting with different versions of
> >>> "Danny Boy"
> >
> > Your 24-hour station for the Irish-Hit Parade!
> >
> > --RC