The importance of local talk radio

[Doug Drown]

We of course couldn't get WLLH over in Ashburnham when I was growing up, but 
I used to listen to it on FM (now WCRB, I believe).  It was indeed a great 
little station, with as good a sound as some major market Top 40 
tations.  -Doug

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Watson" <markwats@comcast.net>
To: "Don A" <donald_astelle@yahoo.com>; "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>; 
"Laurence Glavin" <lglavin@mail.com>; "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
Cc: "Boston Radio Group" <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2008 7:22 PM
Subject: Re: The importance of local talk radio


> Don A wrote:
>
>> In the Merrimack Valley, people couldn't get WMEX after dark, but they 
>> had WLLH as a secondary Top 40 station.
>
>  WRKO's signal blankets the Merrimack Valley day & night, yet I'm sure 
> many Lowell & Lawrence area folks listened to WLLH for their top 40 fix 
> back in the day. WLLH was a great sounding top 40 for a smaller market, 
> with lots of great talent who went on to bigger places, a few names I 
> recall from the 70's: Kevin Carter, who used the air name Kevin Ryan went 
> from WLLH to Fresno, and eventually to Radio & Records where today he is 
> the CHR/Top 40 column editor. Michael Burns, who used the air name Michael 
> B. today is the overnight host at Magic 106.7 (a spot he's held for about 
> 20 years now) and is also the host of "Sunday Morning Country Oldies" on 
> WKLB. Al Freeman, who was one of their news reporters (back when both WLLH 
> & WCAP had fully staffed newsrooms) went on to the old Mutual Radio 
> Network, not sure where he want after that. And Eric Marenghi, who used 
> the air name Ben Franklin, went on to WSB in Atlanta and I believe a 
> station in Chicago as well. He also was on the staff of the short lived 
> WACQ 1150.
>
>  These folks worked at WLLH in the 70's, when there were many smaller 
> stations where talent such as the ones I've named could hone their skills 
> and make the move to the bigger markets. Today most smaller market 
> stations are either bird-fed or automated, and even major market 
> opportunities aren't as plentiful as in the past as they too are relying 
> more on voicetracking and/or longer shifts with existing staff. Just a 
> sign of the times I suppose....
>
> Mark Watson