How the New CBS Sports Radio affects Boston

[James Duffy]

I appreciate your insight very much.

"Some say Spanish on 101.7, some say conservative talk. Would they do
cons talk on 101.7 and Fox Sports on 1200? Or would they keep cons.
talk on both? Would they dare
run prog. talk (Ed Schultz supposedly says he will wind up on a bigger
station in Boston) on the AM maybe?"

Before these two new sports networks were announced, I thought it wouldn't
be that far fetched for CC to program a more adult leaning urban format
similar to WDAS in Philli.  WILD on 97.7 still got more of a 12+ rating than
WFNX, all be it in the diary days and 97.7 did not have the strongest signal
in WILD's target neighborhoods.  My thinking was based on the fact that the
101.7 facilities signal is a little easier to hear in WILD's original target
neighborhoods than that of 97.7's.  Harping on the premise of CC being a
cheap consollidater; They could easily get away with running Tom Joiner in
the morning, Michael Baisden in the afternoon and perhaps one local
personality in either mid day or evenings.  Throw in some additional public
affairs/news programming targeting the "urban" audience and they would be
serving the community 10 times as much as  Jam'n does now.  I believe Gwen
Blackburn still does the Minority Counter Point show for Kiss108 on Sunday
mornings so they could easily tap her as a resource.  I know the argument
will persist that advertisers will not be there, but I am not quite ready to
believe that Boston cannot sustain one full time radio outlet that provides
service to the black community.  On the other hand, CC was already burned by
failure when they tried Rumba on FM in Philli and that was with a
full-market facility.
"Would ESPN want the 1510"
They not only pulled the plug on EEI four months before 890 went on the air,
they lived with 890 for four years.  I was privileged enough to have a
conversation with an ESPN employee during that four years who told me the
network was strongly considering buying 890 outright.  In myopinion, for all
its weeknesses, the 1510 signal is extremely superior to 890 and 1400
combined.  
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Nelson [mailto:raccoonradio@gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2012 5:24 PM
To: James Duffy
Cc: boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org
Subject: Re: How the New CBS Sports Radio affects Boston

As of now I would think WEEI would continue to simulcast on 850 for
ratings reasons but interesting ideas. The talk shows, etc. aren't
till January (sports updates begin in Sept.)


> That brings us to recent developments with Clear channel and a new
> possibility for speculation.  Does CC install FSR, which essentially
> is their in-house offering, on 101.7 or 1200?

Some say Spanish on 101.7, some say conservative talk. Would they do
cons talk on 101.7 and Fox Sports on 1200? Or would they keep cons.
talk on both? Would they dare
run prog. talk (Ed Schultz supposedly says he will wind up on a bigger
station in Boston) on the AM maybe?

  'EEI/Entercom could easily turn around and clear their sports
> network 24-7 in exchange for securing the play-by-play package for a
> long time to come.  Is Kraft still thinking of buying 1510 and leasing
> it to ESPN 24-7?  As much as the consollidators are desperate for
> cheap in-house programming, I just do not see how 5 national radio
> sports networks survive.

All interesting points. Would ESPN want the 1510 (they do have
93.7/850 overnights...
1510 would be a bit of a letdown from that, unless it ran on all of
them...) The World
Series on...1510 (only)??!? I can't see it.