Globe: Met Opera out at WBOQ

[Mark Laurence]

On Thursday, January 1, 2004, at 09:03  PM, Kevin Vahey wrote:

> A week in Chicago showed me it is still possible to have good local 
> radio for everyone. Chicago has slipped a notch in 15 years, but the 
> dial is no cookie cutter yet.
>
> WGN AM does newstalk as well as anyone and WBBM has found the perfect 
> mix of WCBS,WINS. WSCR does sports well as does WMVP. WLS makes WABC 
> seem liberal. 1240 still is a delight. WIND owns the hispanic AM 
> audience.
> One thing of note, NYC based shows do not play well there.
>
> FM WFMT is a gem, as is WXRT.
>
> Overall Chicago maybe the last great "local" market.

Gee, I wouldn't write off Boston as a great local market.  There are at 
least a half dozen strong local morning shows, and fierce local talk 
competition in the afternoon.  WBZ programs news and talk locally 24 
hours a day, and WEEI has little use for syndicated sports talk.  The 
big music stations are almost 100% locally hosted and programmed, with 
very little voicetracking.  I could probably name 50 broadcasters who 
have been solid Boston personalities for a decade, and many of those 
have been going strong for 20 years.   Aside from Rush and Howard, even 
the biggest national names have less impact in Boston than you'll find 
in other cities.  I'm glad to hear Chicago's doing well, but it's not 
the last bastion of local radio.

Mark