WBZ Florida

[Bill O'Neill]

> The lack of disclosure is troubling.  What if something big
> happened in
> Boston like 9/11 or the Blizzard of '78?  Would Gary pretend
> he was right
> there in the midst of it with his listeners?
>
> -- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine

What's more, if there were a major crisis in Florida, how would LaPierre explain
getting there so quickly? <g>

I sense that Gary must be a wonderful man to know.  It's as though if it weren't
LaPierre as the subject in this matter, that the tenor of the remarks from the
list would have been less gracious.  I appreciate loyalty, too.  <back-swing
mode OFF>

However...is WBZ hoping us to believe that LaPierre hosts a "show?"  Is that
what WBZ Morning News is, a show?  The morning news block, if you ask the
average WBZ listener, is, quite likely, not Gary LaPierre's program.  Is he an
icon? Yes.  Is WBZ a heritage station?  Certainly.  Did Carl deSuze, Dave
Maynard, Tom Bergeron host a morning show?  Yep.  Once all-news came in, though,
the listener was deftly restructured in their thinking by WBZ to consider the
full clock of news and info in real time.  And in provincial Boston.

Bostonians view Florider quite favorably as where tons of Bay Staters flock to
in winter and spring breaks.  It's where you go when you aren't doing what you
do.  That's a troubling image inconsistency.  Perhaps Peter Casey was right in
not filling up his airtime with unnecessary words like, from sunny Florida, I'm
Gary LaPierre, WBZ News.

Either way, I don't think most listeners will see this as a problem.  Not a huge
one for me, neither.  As I reflect on it, the very fact that big, corporate
radio is doing its best to preserve a gig for someone over THIRTY is worthy of
praise on many levels.

Bill O'Neill
Shoreham, Vt.