Boston mag.: WTKK to go local with McPhee

[Dan.Strassberg]

Everybody is so excited about quantity. Doesn't anybody care about 
quality? I daresay that unless you are a right-wingnut of the Bob 
Nelson stripe, you will find damned little that originates at either 
WRKO or WTKK worth listening to. WBZ is better. And nobody has 
mentioned WBUR, which certainly makes up in quality for what it lacks 
in quantity.

I fault 'BUR's Tom Ashbrook, who is currently out on medical leave, on 
stylistic grounds; he should learn how to sound a bit more relaxed 
notwithstsanding the pressures of the clock. But at least he is 
intelligent and when he isn't thoughful enough, he brings on guests 
who are. Of current Boston talk hosts, it seems to me that Dan Rea is 
the only one in the same league as Ashbrook. LeVeille's mission is to 
do light stuff and I believe he PREFERS to do light stuff although I 
think he would be quite capable (though not as happy) doing 
issue-oriented talk if the time slot permitted it, which it really 
doesn't.

Pretty much everyone else who originates a talk show from Boston is a 
clown, although I guess I would not put Doug Stephan in the clown 
category. He sometimes originates his show from his farm in Framingham 
but most of the program is not heard on any Boston area station. (WRKO 
and WBNW carry one hour of what is, I believe, a five-hour show six 
days a week.)

BTW, at Thanksgiving, I met a guy who may be Tom Finneran's only fan. 
He pleaded with me to give the show another chance. Does Finneran get 
excused from being called a clown because he can't make anyone smile, 
much less laugh?

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
To: "Bob Nelson" <raccoonradio@mail.com>
Cc: "BostonRadio Mailing List" 
<boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>; "Bill O'Neill" 
<billohno@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 4:24 PM
Subject: Re: Boston mag.: WTKK to go local with McPhee


> Bob Nelson wrote:
>
>> I think WTKK will have about 13 hours of local talk (all 
>> consecutive hours) while WRKO will have 10
>> (6 in the morning, then four hours of Howie after syndie with Rush) 
>> and WBZ has 9 hours of local talk from
>> 8 pm to 5 am (Rea, then Leveille, with Rich on Friday nights)
>
> Which adds up to 33 hours of local talk a day, which has got to put 
> Boston very much in the top tier of talk radio cities!
>
> With WABC's nearly all-syndie schedule now (Imus, Rush, Hannity, 
> Levin, etc.), and WOR as the only real talk competition in the city, 
> there's no way NYC's total adds up to anything even close, and the 
> picture in Philadelphia and DC is even more bleak. LA is worse yet.
>
> I haven't added up the numbers, but I'd guess Chicago (pretty much 
> all day local on WGN, plus strong local content on WLS) and San 
> Francisco (all local on KGO, plus some local shows on KSFO and KNEW) 
> would probably rank second and third in local talk hours, just on a 
> hunch.
>
> s