Would Clr Chnl take a Boston AM to talk?

[Dan.Strassberg]

Even though 1430's daytime 5kW signal is no match for 1200's 50 kW, it
does pretty well in a large part of the market, thanks to a rather
central Tx location and a nondirectional day pattern. At night,
however, 1430 is a lost cause unless you live in the CoL, Everett. The
NIF is 40+ mV/m and the combination low night power (1 kW) and a
directional pattern aimed northeast from a site a little northeast of
the center of the market makes the signal inaudble except in a few
North Shore communities (and technically, is interference-free only in
Everett). The simplest solution would be for CCU to buy WAZN 1470 from
Arthur Liu and put the two stations into a simulcast. WAZN has often
been rumored to be for sale for relatively short money, although, in
its current condition, CCU is unlikely to even be able think about
(much less be in any position to actually do) a deal that involves
spending ANY money.

The thing is, with a dial position just 40 kHz north of WXKS (AM),
higher power at night (3400W) than during the day (1400W), and a
directional pattern that covers much of the market at night (vs
relatively little--only northwestern suburbs--by day), WAZN has
facilties that almost perfectly complement WXKS's. By pairing up what
most people consider to be two dog AM signals, CCU could come up with
one "station" that, from a technical standpoint, had a shot at being a
player in the market, albeit, at best, only a second-string player. I
have often thought that if Jeff Santos's strange deal with Blackstrap
for 1510 should collapse (still seems highly likely to me), the
1430/1470 combo would be a viable alternative for the Progressive talk
format. And if Alex Langer found something better to do with 1060, the
1430/1470 combo would also be a way for Barry Armstrong to extend
WBNW's puny signal into the core of the market.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
To: <raccoonradio@mail.com>;
<boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 12:17 AM
Subject: Re: Would Clr Chnl take a Boston AM to talk?


> At 12:01 AM 1/2/2010, raccoonradio@mail.com wrote:
>
>>...Possibility of news talk format for 1430? If so what type...
>>Something to keep an eye on. Talk stations not getting best of
>>ratings lately and the demo might be seen as older, but you have to
>>wonder if a station could be put on with blend of local and syndie
>>(and think of Premiere/Clr Chnl connection). That doesn't
>>necessarily mean El Rushbo and Beck will wind up there, but...
>
> I've heard rumours for months about CC wanting to take Spanish off
> of one of those two stations-- 1430 would make more sense for them
> than 1200, I suppose, but isn't 1430 still the weaker signal, so why
> put their big guns like Limbaugh on that one?  Btw, several years
> ago, I came very close to striking a deal to bring progressive talk
> back to 1430, but it fell through for reasons I cannot discuss on
> this list.  Ultimately, progressive talk ended up on 1510 under what
> is, I believe, a lease-time agreement.  I have no idea what sort of
> format CC would choose, but yes, I've definitely heard that talk is
> on their list of possibilities.