Soxless Boss

[Scott Fybush]

Dan Strassberg wrote:
> There is no doubt whatever that, compared with 850, 680 has the better
> coverage--except in MetroWest, where a slight edge goes to 680 by day and
> 850 by night but neither station has acceptable coverage at night. WRKO is
> near local on Cape Cod and southern NH in a lot of places where WEEI is
> barely audible. 

And while that's nice from an ego point of view for Entercom, it doesn't 
do much for either ratings or Sox fans. Listeners on the Cape are 
already well served by WXTK's big FM signal, and southern NH has 
overlapping coverage from WBOQ and the WGIR network of AMs. (Do either 
of the Nashua AMs have the Sox this year? I can't remember!)

But MetroWest is right in the Boston market, with no truly useful 
overlapping coverage. (Probably the most useful signal would be WEEI-FM 
from Rhode Island, and that's decidedly a fringe signal anywhere much 
beyond the Blackstone Valley.)

WTIC isn't the answer - this time of year, WILD's still on the air well 
into most Sox night games, unless they're on a West Coast road trip.

In reality, there is no single AM solution for the entire market absent 
a deal with WBZ that's not going to happen. If the team's going to be 
heard in MetroWest, it pretty much HAS to be on an FM signal. It's too 
bad - sort of - that MetroWest never really had a "local" class A FM to 
call its own, a la WBOQ or WATD. WKOX-FM once filled that role, but it 
was moved into Boston as soon as it could be.

Leasing time on WKOX(AM) could have helped fill the gap, but if 
construction remains on schedule, 1200 won't be a Framingham signal 
anymore by the time Opening Day 2007 rolls around. WBIX's night pattern 
is so directional that it misses a lot of the territory (Westborough, 
Marlborough, Wayland, Sudbury) that falls in the gap between WEEI/WRKO 
and WTAG, too.

If I were Entercom, I'd have long since moved WAAF to 93.7 and put 
WEEI-FM on 103.7. Entercom has plenty of room under the ownership cap to 
add 99.5 to its stable, if it's determined to keep "Mike" on the air 
somewhere. (That, of course, assumes that the WCRB deal is still on 
track, which opens up a whole new avenue for speculation and rumor...)

s