Globe: Met Opera out at WBOQ

[Brian Vita]

>Yea, I saw the article, it's just a one-sided puff piece for the 
>station.  There's no mention of the many people displaced by the format 
>change, and no justification for why they need to change the music in order

>to get a more local focus.

What justification to they need?  They own the station.  They can do
whatever they want, regardless of marketablility.  Until they sell, or
otherwise lose the license, they could broadcast dialtone and be within
their rights.

A common misconceived thread on this list is that stations have some
obligation to serve a particular audience.  The days of the FCC considering
that a license is "held in the public trust" are gone.  Radio is strictly a
commodity at this point.  It is up to the owner to decide what they want to
do with it, regardless of how ill conceived their actions may be.  When they
can't afford to run it any longer, they will either change formats, sell the
station or lose the license for a variety of reasons.

I personally don't think that the switch was a good idea either and I think
that the idea of local focus is ridiculous.  How many folks on the North
Shore listened to them anyway and how many more will they gain with the
format switch.  At least with the old format, they had a niche in the
background clutter of the other commercial stations.

Brian T. Vita, President
Cinema Service & Supply, Inc.
77 Walnut St. - Ste 4
Peabody, MA  01960-5691 USA
+1-978-538-7575 voice
+1-978-538-7550 fax
www.cssinc.com