Herald: Where have you gone Air America

[Dan Strassberg]

For whatever it's worth, the "official" word from the CCU emplyee who
responds to listener questions and comments on the message board at
WKOXAM.com is that WKOX's 50-kW signal will be on the air in late summer or
early fall of 2007. Back when CCU and the Newton aldermen settled their
dispute, that was my best-case forecast. Given that, nearly a year later,
there is no visible progress at the site (based on reports here--not on any
personal observations by me), I think you should mark October 2007 on your
calendar as CCU's new super-optimisitc forecast. I think that, based on the
absence of visible progress, early fall 2007 has now become at least a
little earlier than any reasonable best-case estimate.

Also, the question answerer (who uses the screen name buckethead1) claims
that CCU will not flip WKOX to some format other than progressive talk after
the power increase. My take on that is that the flip may occur as much as a
couple of months after the higher power goes on the air. Of course, if AAR
goes into Chapter 7 bankruptcy before then (as far as I know, they aren't
even in Chapter 11 yet), the schedule could change suddenly. Maybe this
time, CCU can find an LMA partner with the resources to pay its bills, or
maybe Arthur Liu will make CCU an offer it can't refuse. I still maintain
that if WKOX drops the format, a reasonable substitute would be a simulcast
of WXKS (AM) and WAZN 1470. The two stations have adjacent dial positions
and highly complementary coverage day and night. If Liu bought 1200 and 1430
from CCU and if Air America, which Liu wound up suing in the network's
earliest days, were out of the picture, Liu might be willing to LMA 1430 and
1470 to someone who would air progressive talk--as long as he felt confident
of getting paid. My impression is that Liu has no dog in the
liberal/conservative fight.

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Garrett Wollman" <wollman@csail.mit.edu>
To: "A. Joseph Ross" <Joe@attorneyross.com>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 3:15 PM
Subject: Re: Herald: Where have you gone Air America


> <<On Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:12:14 -0400, "A. Joseph Ross"
<Joe@attorneyross.com> said:
>
> > The problem is at night.  I have trouble picking them up around
> > Brookline at night in my car, and it's impossible in my home.  Is
> > anything happening regarding the construction of a new transmitter
> > for WKOX?
>
> Last time I was down in Oak Hill, about a month ago, there was no
> evidence of any construction -- so it probably won't be done this
> year.  I never heard back from Grady when I asked him what was up.
>
> -GAWollman
>