Weather Change at WBZ 4

[billohno@gmail.com]

On 3/27/2010 4:10 PM, Ron Bello wrote:
> A couple of weeks ago I was in Chicago on business.  At 10:30pm on Sunday,
> WLS-FM had 2 streams playing at the same time.  Curious, I let it play 
> to see
> how it would be before it was fixed.  Sadly, after 20 minutes I 
> couldn't take it
> any more.  Little effort was made to make "The True Oldies Channel" sound
> local in the nation's 3rd largest market.

Can't think of a better functional assessment than this to reveal the 
soft underbelly of the beast.  For those who absolutely positively must 
get their fix of any particular genre or mix of music, they are getting 
it from a medium that they completely control - MP3 player. Is there 
anyone left who actually believes listeners will want music from a 
glorified MP3 patched into a 50kW amplifier without any value-added 
services or a live voice (or lame attempt at one)?

My terrestrial radio listening in early am I find myself listening 
during segments of the all-important 6-8a hours to WDEV (96.1 
Warren/Montpelier). They put their investments, people on payroll 
(albeit modest enough to praise these guys in the booth even more) on 
the air. Okay, it's a rural state so you get dairy info, radio flea 
market, and local news that includes a WCAX-TV reporter with daily q&a 
with booth about the state house, etc. and a live q&a with local 
meteorologist.

102.9 in Burlington [disclaimer - I do man on street drops on public 
interest issues] while it is tracked, there is a strong initiative there 
to become more curious about and available to the mind of the local 
listeners and get their voices on the air throughout the clock, blending 
in with the flow of the music. Still a work in progress but what seems 
to be evolving into an interesting hybrid I've not heard before. It 
requires reckless abandon on one end, dutiful structure on the other, 
and talent in the middle.

Bill O'Neill