Red Sox TV and Radio ratings tanking

[markwa1ion@aol.com]

To me it almost makes more sense to test this oldies experiment on 
1510, a station that would seem to need any "Hail Mary pass" that could 
be thrown.  The dial position has the WMEX heritage behind it.  20 or 
so years back Little Walter did an oldies stint there.  Even if its 
signal can be a bit dodgy at night here 4 miles beyond 128 and the 
Burlington Mall, I would listen, especially if they played the core 
period of my junior high and high school years (1961-1967), something 
that 103.3 has not done for some time now.  After all, when I was a 
kid, I would listen to stations from NYC, Albany, Buffalo, and beyond - 
even with the occasional selective fade "crunch" and summer static 
crash - because the music and PERSONALITIES were sometimes different 
and better than what was being offered locally on WMEX, WBZ, et al.  
Yes, live personalities with a sense of humor and knowledge of music 
history and the LOCAL area audience have to be part of the plan.  They 
should not look at you like a deer in the headlights if they hear 
old-time Boston terms such as MTA, Norumbega Park, Paragon Park, 
Pleasure Island, Scollay Square, etc.  They should know about the great 
mid-'60s garage era and local bands like the Barbarians, the Lost, 
Teddy & the Pandas, Barry & the Remains, and the Ramrods.  There are 
probably retired radio personalities who'd put a few hours a week in on 
this without expecting superstar wages.  I enjoy what WCAP and WJIB are 
doing in their own ways with older music but neither gives the full 
"bells-and-whistles" loony-top-40 effect of Arnie Ginsberg or Eddy 
Mitchell at their '61-era best or the intimate / poetic listener 
involvements of a Dick Summer or Jefferson Kaye circa '65.  
Furthermore, 1510 (or 680 as suggested before) would deliver a beefier 
signal than either 740 or 980 over the region's most populated areas.  
But with the negative view of programmers towards anyone over 50, the 
whole idea is likely dead-on-arrival.

WRKO must be getting some kind of numbers with Carr, Savage, etc.  A 
possible play, if WEEI's format is deemed to have the potentially 
larger listener base, would be to flip 850 and 680 programming-wise as 
680 has an arguably better signal at any distance more than 30 miles 
north or south of the city.  (They both stink to the west of course but 
if Worcester on 830 acts as a fill in for 680, then you've got a 
modicum of coverage all along 495 and anywhere inside it.)

In the above scenario, would WHDH have any future as an all-talkshow 
station when you have 96.9 and 1200 in the game?  (Or 'RKO all sports 
with 98.5 to contend?)  Are these guys going to wind up with 
dollar-a-holler preaching in Portuguese, Creole, or Spanish, complete 
with the obligatory pirate-station-like hum and overcompression?

One thing I wouldn't mind (but it won't happen) is that WBZ-AM moves 
all the night talkshows over to somewhere like 850 and goes 24 hours 
news, weather, and traffic with a reasonable amount of sports and 
business coverage in the mix.  There are times going to an airport or 
somewhere at "zero dark thirty" (wee hours of the morning) that I would 
like to have a radio news option beyond listening to WCBS NYC 880 
through slop from thoroughly-useless WAMG 890.

The long view on the Sox is that they will wind up somewhere on FM 
before long in the metro area.  Not just rimshotters like 103.7 RI or 
104.9 Gloucester which cannot be heard at Fenway but from someone with 
a stick on the Pru, i.e. within close enough range to come in on dental 
fillings.

Mark Connelly
Billerica (Pinehurst), MA

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Subject: Red Sox TV and Radio ratings tanking

On 7/27/2010 12:00 PM, Garrett Wollman wrote:
> I don't think you could possibly bill enough to pay the rent.
> -GAWollman
>
The only way that could work would be getting some 'names' behind the
mic and not get thwarted by the urge not to bring on the news, traffic,
wx, etc. in drive time. With solely music as a reason to listen, no 
rent
check. With the whole package, something an entire generation is
clueless about, and a sales force who actually 'listens' to the station
and 'believes' in it, there's your one shot.

Bill O'Neill
>>