WGBH may buy WCRB?

[Laurence Glavin]

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Scott Fybush" 
>To: "Richard Chonak" , "(newsgroup) Boston-Radio-Interest" 
>Subject: Re: WGBH may buy WCRB?
>Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:07:31 -0400


>Though there's an update now up at fybush.com with details...

>s


Ho hum, another week, another blockbuster news story affecting Boston radio.
Of course, if WGBH follows the same practices on 99.5 as it does currently on 89.7,
this is great news for ME...but it could be a less desirable outcome for listeners
in the Metro Boston area, South Shore and the route 95 corridor towards Providence.
If ALL of the Boston Symphony Orchestra broadcasts go to 99.5, many listeners who 
count on the Friday afternoon broadcasts may be short-changed.  Classical music needs
a lot of "quieting" or a beneficial signal-to-noise ratio.  The 89.7 signal provides 
that for just about the entire metropolitan area;  99.5 does not.  This doesn't matter 
for the "Blue Danube Waltz" or "Nutcracker Suite", but it does for chamber music, and 
pieces with great dynamic contrasts (a Mahler symphony).  But to paraphrase Donald 
Rumsfeld, you must deal with the signals you have and not the ones you'd like to have.
Part of the problems with the 99.5 signal could be solved with a transmitter move closer 
to the City, taking into account the allowable spacings between WCRB and the 99.3 in
southern Maine, 99.7 near Providence, and WPLM.  Of course that would cost even
more money, and WGBH must somehow raise the cash to pull off the purchase alone.
I wonder if some other broadcaster is looking at the purchase price of just 14
million dollars and thinking "Hey, I'd like to bid more than that" ESPN peut-etre?


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