bye bye Boston's progressive talk

[Donna Halper]

>Bob N wrote--
>(Though I am hearing
>that attractive advertisers has been a problem, which is one reason
>Clear Channel
>has turned at least some of their prog. talk stations to sports,
>feeling it would make
>more profits.)

Umm, over 500 people showed up for a rally in Madison WI-- they had 
to turn people away.  Many many advertisers showed up, telling the 
local newspaper that it was a myth that progressive talk didn't 
work-- these advertisers said that the station (92.1 the Mic) got 
great results for them.  In certain dayparts, the station was also in 
the top 3.  Yet Clear Channel pulled the plug on it anyway.  As for 
sponsors in other cities, there has been a widely publicised boycott 
list of corporations that refuse to air their commecials on 
progressive talk stations.  And alas, in Boston there was not a lot 
of energy put into making the format work-- no full-time staff, and 
one sales guy; and with signal problems and no budget for local 
hosts, the station was treated like a poor stepchild.  The guy doing 
the assistant PD job tried really hard but he got minimal support 
from anyone, based on what I've seen.  Whether one is a rightie or a 
leftie, most listeners still appreciate good local radio and local 
input to go along with the national hosts.  The Boston station seldom 
had that local presence, and that's a shame.