It's not WEEI vs. WCRB - it's WEEI *and* WCRB

[David Tomm]

Entercom just bought 97.7 from Radio One not that long ago.   Why would 
they want to donate it now?  97.7 will stay as is until the market 
switches over to the Arbitron PPM.  So far rock stations have faired 
well in PPM markets, so Entercom will want to see if the WAAF simulcast 
gets a ratings boost with the new methodology.

Then the question becomes, what do you do with 850 once WEEI moves to 
99.5?  Classical is really not an option and simulcasting the FM 
doesn't make sense either.  Maybe Entercom gets the ESPN affiliation 
away from J-Sports, who reportedly has 890 on the sales block.  It 
could become ESPN 850 or WEEI-2 and carry overflow sports play by play 
and BC Athletics, and run ESPN Radio the rest of the time.  It would 
also bring the ESPN play-by-play rights (NFL, MLB, NBA) back to 
Entercom and could lock up the sports franchise in Boston.

-Dave Tomm
"Mike Thomas"


On Aug 21, 2007, at 4:06 PM, Scott Fybush wrote:
>
> It's not hard at all to imagine a scenario in which Entercom puts WEEI 
> programming on 99.5, then tries to save face with classical fans by 
> donating another signal (97.7?) to WGBH to become an all-classical 
> noncommercial outlet. Entercom would get a nice tax writeoff, and 
> pretty much everyone (except WAAF fans in Boston proper and classical 
> fans beyond the reach of 97.7) would go home happy-ish.