The importance of local talk radio

[Dan.Strassberg]

If you look into it, though, I think you will find that, almost
coincident with the call letter and format flips, WNAC/WRKO changed
its day pattern. It had been DA-1 with the same pattern that WLAW had
used full-time before RKO-General bought the 680 license. It became
DA-2 with different day and night patterns. The new day pattern (still
in use) has a minor lobe to the west-southwest (equivalent to maybe 8
kW ND if memory serves), which greatly improved the daytime signal in
what is now known as MetroWest and should also have made a noticeable
improvement back then in daytime reception in Fitchburg and
Leominster.

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>
To: "Laurence Glavin" <lglavin@mail.com>; "Scott Fybush"
<scott@fybush.com>; "Don A" <donald_astelle@yahoo.com>
Cc: "Boston Radio Group" <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 6:03 PM
Subject: Re: The importance of local talk radio


> In my home area (Gardner-Fitchburg), WBZ has always had, by far, the
> dominant AM signal from Boston.
> When I was a kid growing up in the '60s, WNAC came in reasonably
> well during the day, but no one listened to it.  Then came 1967 and
> the big call letter-and-format switch.  It was as though 680 had
> never before existed and suddenly everyone discovered it.  WRKO blew
> 'BZ out of the water in a matter of weeks.
>
> . . . But, forty years later, you still can't get it after dark in
> Fitchburg!
>
> -Doug
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Laurence Glavin" <lglavin@mail.com>
> To: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>; "Don A"
> <donald_astelle@yahoo.com>
> Cc: "Boston Radio Group"
> <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
> Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 3:56 PM
> Subject: Re: The importance of local talk radio
>
>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Scott Fybush"
>>To: "Don A"
>>Cc: "Boston Radio Group"
>>Subject: Re: The importance of local talk radio
>>Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:36:26 -0500
>
>>
>> Old timers like me rememver when WNAC and WRKO were touted at one
>> time for their great signal.
>>
>> 50 Big Cookies! ...as Jerry Williams would say.
>>
>> In my opinion, it is the 2nd best signal on the AM dial.
>>
>> Now, it seems, all I hear are people (not only us radio geeks,
>> but hosts as well!) complain about the holes in WRKO's signal.
>
>>It's still the same signal it was in 1953 - but the market it's
>>trying to cover has changed rather dramatically.
>>I'm pretty sure the advertisers in 1960 or even 1970 didn't care
>>much about reaching Westborough or Ashland.
>>s
>
> On one occasion when I was a guest on "Let's Talk About Radio", Bob
> Bitner mentioned (before we started taping) that he once owned a
> map of Metro Boston showing the population density of the landscape.
> The color code showed that an OVERWHELMING percentage of the
> denizens
> of Greater Boston lived close to the coast.  Boston's population at
> the
> time was just over 800,000, and Cambridge and Somerville had 100,000
> +
> residents each.  That why WEEI 590, WNAC 680, WHDH 850, WCOP 1150,
> WVDA 1260 and WMEX 1510 (the major full-time signals at the time)
> seemingly cared only about hitting this area.  I often wondered
> about
> what  the owners and managers of businesses that advertised on
> Boston stations
> thought, when, if they lived in the western suburbs, a reasonable
> assumption since such people would have been affluent enough to live
> in Wellesley,
> Dover, Westwood and so forth, after they realized these signals were
> hard to get where
> they lived!  The sales reps must have used maps like the one
> described above
> to assure these people that their messages were reaching the
> intended population
> centers.
>
>
>
> -- 
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