WBIX

[Dan Strassberg]

Night two (9/28-9/29): WBIX was on continuously from local sunset (7:00 PM)
until local sunrise this morning (6:30 AM). OK, I didn't have the radio on
continuously, but every time I tuned in, the signal was there. On night two,
WBIX appeared to be running Bruce Williams continuously until the start of
regular programming at 6:00 AM, and it sounded as if what was playing was a
loop of one hour of William's show from the day before. (I even caught the
tail end of a day-old USA Network newscast.) I don't know whether permission
to go on the air with enough power to be heard in many parts of the market
took station management by susprise and that that's why they hadn't put
together something a bit more creative, or whether the essentially
content-free "programming" indicates the station's plans for the future.

There are a lot of good syndicated talk shows in the evenings and overnight
that aren't heard in the Boston market. Of these, my favorites are Phil
Hendrie (Premiere), David Lawrence (Salem), and Joey Reynolds (WOR). None of
these qualifies as a financial show, but Tom Martino is not heard in this
market (except on WCAP, which isn't really a Boston-market station), and I'm
sure the program could be rerun at a time WBIX found convenient. In my
opinion, WBIX would not hurt its reputation as Boston's financial talk
station if it ran non-financial talk in the evenings and overnights.

A year ago, WBIX had announced plans to carry (IIRC) Harvard hockey but
wasn't able to do it because the night signal didn't make it to the air. The
brokered PBP was heard instead on WROL 950 and WSRO 650.

This year, WBIX's new ownership has apparently decided on a very cautious
approach to publicizing the 24/7 operation. Other than an archive of photos
dating back to last winter showing the construction at the Ashland night
site, I've seen nothing on the station's Web site and heard nothing on the
air since the conclusion of tests of the night signal during daylight hours
that mentions the new full-time service.


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