The importance of local talk radio

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 24 Nov 2008 Dan.Strassberg wrote:

> I remember that, the first time I visited Boston (summer of 1947,
> IIRC), WLAW (licensed to Lawrence but covering Boston--though not
> MetroWest by day--just as superbly as it does today) was an ABC
> affiliate and so was WCOP 1150 (licensed to Boston). Even then, I was
> a radio geek--although the term geek had not yet been coined, and I
> wondered how many people in Boston listened to the ABC programming on
> the better signal and how many listened on what was ostensibly the
> local affiliate. Apparently, it was not all that uncommon back then
> for people in some localities to be able to hear network programming
> quite well on more than one station. I think the FCC rules in that day
> prohibited two stations licensed to the same community from being
> primary affiliates of the same radio network, but the rule said
> nothing about stations whose coverage overlapped but were licensed to
> different communities.

And that is true even today.  After all, Channel 10 in Providence 
comes in quite well in much of Boston, carrying the same NBC programs 
as channel 7.  And north of Boston, channel 9 comes in quite well 
carrying the same ABC programs as channel 5.

What I wonder about is how the Metro West area (another term not 
coined back then) got ABC programming, since the 1150 signal doesn't 
reach out there very well either.  Maybe there was another ABC 
affiliate in Worcester?

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                   617.367.0468
92 State Street, Suite 700            Fax: 617.507.7856
Boston, MA 02109-2004           http://www.attorneyross.com