55+ (was: Boxford pirate's coax cable cut)

[markwa1ion@aol.com]

<<
What station in Boston, or the suburbs, serves the 55+ year old demo 
the
media dead people?  "Yeah, but they don't have a license".

Mike
>>

Good point Mike.  I guess by day maybe WJIB-740 qualifies for some, 
though at night - with the lower power and co-channel Toronto's 
interference, the area WJIB serves becomes vanishingly small.  We used 
to have 1430 and 1230 and 1300 serving up big bands, Broadway, 
standards, and the like.  No longer ... guess I'd better be learning 
more Spanish.  There's still 1450 out of Newburyport which has some 
daytime usability north of 128 and east of Route 3.  But with 1430 
running IBOC, 1450 is now a rather hissy-sounding mess now in the 
high-traffic 128 / 93 junction area (Woburn / Reading) where it had 
once been an easily-listenable signal in the car on the open highway 
away from power lines.  WLLH-1400 Lowell once ran a similar format (up 
to the late '90s anyway) until various permutations of Spanish and 
sports were tried and failed - now 1400 is vacated, just leaving a weak 
signal from WVAE (Biddeford, ME) behind here in the northern suburbs.  
1120 and 1390 insert some older music including Sinatra occasionally 
but mostly they're business talkers.  1390 isn't really that usable 
north of Boston except maybe right at the shore (in Beverly, etc.).  It 
gets crushed by WEGP-ME at night.

Of course "55+" listeners are not a monolithic block in terms of 
musical taste any more than in political affiliation.  There are as 
many who like Frank Zappa and Led Zeppelin as those who like Jo 
Stafford and "Tessie" Brewer. (I must be weird since I actually like 
all of the above ... try programming to that !)

The big-time commercial so-called "oldies" FM stations abandoned the 
1950's long ago, even stalwart performers such as Elvis Presley and 
Buddy Holly, let alone anything verging on the obscure such as doo-wop 
songs that might have only made it to #38 on Billboard but are still 
respected by those in the know.  Now the '60s, except perhaps for one 
or two Beatles and Motown songs, are about to roll off the dock and 
into the dumpster according to what I've been reading about 103.3.

What's interesting is that every few years a movie comes out which 
revives interest in older music, even interest among young people who 
were not around during World War II for instance (or, for that matter, 
the Vietnam war).  The same can be said for movies reviving "niche" 
music types whether old or new, e.g. "Cold Mountain" reviving bluegrass 
thanks to Alison Krauss and other performers.

People, young and old, have to discover or rediscover a lot of great 
music totally without any influence by radio.  Terrestrial radio 
considering certain demographics 'marginal' and therefore not worth 
serving, even large (and often prosperous) groups such as 55+, has 
driven more to seek out Internet radio, satellite radio, and other ways 
to hear music (and talk) that they want.  When those who grew up on 
"regular" radio go away, many will not return.

North of Boston WCAP-980 (Lowell) does run a credible oldies format at 
night but even here on the southern end of Billerica - about 12 miles 
south of WCAP's transmitter - there is substantial interference from 
WOFX (Fox Sports - Troy, NY) some nights.  This requires special 
positioning of the radio for clear listening to the oldies and to Dick 
Summer's always-interesting "Goodnight" podcast show at midnight.

South of the city, there's WATD Marshfield on 95.9: it has a good 
oldies program on Saturday night.  And I think WRCA-1330 runs Danny 
Stiles' show out of NY sometimes.  I suppose there are some other 
treats to be found periodically in the 88-92 MHz non-commercial segment.

Cape Cod proper, a huge 55+ market, has very little going for it on 
local radio, maybe even less than metro-Boston.  Bob Bittner should add 
1240 to his roster I guess.  No reason that it couldn't be commercial, 
or some combo of commercial and listener-supported.  Other idea would 
be to jump on an HD subcarrier of an FM station with a WJIB-like format 
if HD radios ever move beyond the niche domain.

Generally speaking, the offerings for 55+ are more like crumbs tossed 
out to the birds than a full meal.  Little segments of broadcasting 
time on little stations.  Meanwhile we've had 4 or 5 fulltime big-power 
stations at the same time stumbling over each other to present various 
flavors of sports.  I guess we have to be thankful for what we get.  Or 
maybe surf Web radio instead, order some tunes from Collectors Choice / 
Time-Life / iTunes / Amazon, and shut the old radio off for the last 
time.

Mark Connelly - Billerica, MA
(Arlington High Class of '67)