It appears 101.7 will become WHBA

[Bob Nelson]

The call letters have raised speculation about nicknames like The
Harbor or The Bay and some folks have registered domain names relating
to them, squatting on them in the hope that
CC will buy them. One such effort is the fact that someone registered
talk1017.com, predicting that format. If it should be talk, note that
CC still owns bostonsnewtalk.com (redirected to the WXKS AM page),
something they had going back to the progressive talk days, and that
could be used.

We still have no idea on the format but if it were to be talk, and if
it were to be simulcast on 1200 and 101.7, conceivably CC could
register the calls WHBA for the 1200 as well to have them match. (And
if CBS decides to, say, simulcast WBZ AM on 104.1, they could move the
WBZ-FM calls there and get WBCN for 98.5...calls currently parked in
NC)

As has been said on a messageboard, sometimes a company will tip its
hand and get scooped by a rival. WCDJ 96.9 was to flip from smooth
jazz to country...the word got out and 105.7 flipped to country before
them. (Eventually 96.9 and 105.7 each ran country under sep. ownership
before 105.7 became WROR and WCLB/WKLB moved down to 96.9 after a
sale) The word had gotten out about the upcoming 96.9 move, so..I
recall that in that year, the 105.7 flipped in Feb while 96.9 didn't
do so till May or so.

Of course sometimes word gets out and there's no counter-move by a
rival company. CBS
let it be known 98.5 would become the Sports Hub, etc. Entercom could
have scooped them by flipping 93.7 to a WEEI simulcast, thus becoming
Boston's first FM sports station. However Mike 93.7 was doing well, so
they didn't. Two years later they finally did make the move. Now, had
93.7 indeed flipped to sports would CBS then have backed down on their
plan for 98.5? Probably not...they had the Pats and the B's and seemed
well into the plan of putting sports talk on. It's like a game of
poker (don't tip your hand) and a game of chess (counter-moves)...

On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 6:35 AM, Dan.Strassberg <dan.strassberg@att.net> wrote:
> Well, CCU spelled Rumba without an H (after the R), but WHBA has all of the
> letters of Rhumba (when Rhumba is spelled correctly)