Lobel , Kulhawik all done at Channel 4

[David Tomm]

If the Entercom/Nassau deal hadn't fallen apart, I firmly believe  
99.5 would have been at least simulcasting 850 by now.   Why else  
would Entercom have had any interest in WCRB?  It's certainly not  
their billing.  The latest BIA revenue estimates for Boston state  
that billings are way off since WCRB moved from 102.5 to 99.5, even  
though their market share has only dipped slightly.  Entercom would  
have had programming control over the station if the deal had gone  
through and there would have been a format flip.  Considering the  
company's eagerness to expand the WEEI brand throughout New England,  
putting WEEI on 99.5 would have been the logical move.

WEEI makes way too much money for someone in the market not to make a  
serious challenge for the sports talk listener.  There are way too  
many rock, classic hits, AC and talk stations in the region. Rhythmic  
and urban stations skew too young and don't bill well.  There's not  
enough of a hispanic population here to make a spanish language  
format profitable.   If you were running a struggling FM signal in  
this market and looking for a format hole, what would you choose?   
While knocking off WEEI head to head would be a challenge, even  
grabbing a portion of their revenue share would far exceed what you  
could generate from putting on some trendy music format.  Whether its  
WEEI or another station willing to seriously take them on, it's just  
a matter of time before sports talk lands on an FM frequency in this  
market.  The appetite for this format across the money demos is too  
strong here for it not to.

-Dave Tomm
"Mike Thomas"


On Apr 3, 2008, at 1:12 AM, Don A wrote:

>> If there is anytime for an FM sports talker to emerge, it's this   
>> year.
>
> And who was it touting that 99.5 would be sports by now?  No doubts  
> about it!