WWZN / Celtics - Bill Griffith Column

[DonKelley@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/30/2004 11:13:21 AM Eastern Daylight Time, hmadjid@yahoo.com writes:

> It's probably not so much the out of town landlords
> (let's face it most of the major stations in Boston
> are owned by the major media conglomerates none of
> which are head quartered here) as that WWZN's owners
> happen to be in dire straights financially.


Why did the Celtics sell WEEI?  They realized that they're not broadcasters and didn't know how to run a radio station.

In point of fact, Of the top 15 stations in Boston only two are Owned by Clear Channel.  Five are owned by Infinity, two are owned by Entercom.  That's nine.

As far as local ownership goes, five are owned by Greater Media, based in Braintree; one is owned by Charles River Broadcasting, based in Waltham. 

The problems are threefold: 
1) Basketball is not a good radio sport.  Neither is hockey.  There are not enough natural pauses for descrpitive surposes.  Baseball and football are excellent radio sports.
2)  The Celtics ain't what they used to be.  The team that sold out 500 straight games at the Garden is a memory.
3)  No matter what you put on 1510AM it won't do well.  Awful signal, and it's on the wrong end of the wrong band.  As Bruce Springsteen said in My Hometown..."seems like there ain't nobody wants to go down here no more."