The importance of local talk radio

[Doug Drown]

I actually don't know of any small-market stations that didn't have their 
own newsrooms back in the heyday.  In most instances there would be an 
hourly network newscast followed by a three- to five-minute local broadcast 
of news, weather and sometimes sports.  The newscasts would last at least 
five minutes between 6 and 9 A.M., at noon, and at 5 P.M.; some stations 
also broadcast brief headline reports on the half-hour.  I recall that 
sometimes the DJs would do the latter, but in many instances it would be a 
news anchor.  Hard to believe, isn't it?  Oh, how times have changed . . 
. -Doug

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@gmail.com>
To: "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>
Cc: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>; "A. Joseph Ross" 
<joe@attorneyross.com>; "Mark Watson" <markwats@comcast.net>; "Boston Radio 
Group" <boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org>
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: The importance of local talk radio


> We have talked about this before but before satellite programming took
> hold New England had a baseball like farm system for radio.
>
> Bangor, Burlington, Pittsfield were class A
> Manchester, Portland, Worcester, Springfield were AA
>
> Providence and Hartford AAA  and then Boston
>
> Of course Boston became a feeder not so much for New York but Chicago.
>
> I remember Springfield having 2 great Top 40 stations WHYN and WTXL.
> Worcester WORC and WAAB, Providence WPRO and WICE and Hartford WPOP
> and WDRC.
>
> Quite a number of smaller stations also had talk shows and actual
> newsrooms. I remember in the late 60's visiting a friend at WNBP and
> the lead story was how the fire department rescued a cat from a tree.