WWBZ 700, WFNX 99.9 "vote for format"

[Scott Fybush]

On 5/28/2014 3:07 PM, Bob Nelson wrote:
> Was thinking of same thing..the use of "WWBZ" calls on 700 may have a
> purpose..

No.

No, no, no, no, a thousand times no.

While speculating about the meaning of the calls may fill the daily hot 
air quotient on the message boards, there is absolutely no reason to 
think that CBS is in any way involved here, and plenty of reasons to 
think it isn't.

While it's just barely within Worcester County, and thus within the 
Worcester radio market, that little AM daytimer doesn't serve enough 
population to move the ratings needle even a hair within the entire 
market. 700 might, on a good day, get 25,000 people, total, within the 5 
mV/m contour in which it's possible to draw ratings. Maybe. And that's 
in a market with 400,000+ people 12+ in the metro.

Do you really think CBS, which cumes something like 600,000-700,000 
people on a good book for WBZ-FM, is going to contract with a competitor 
to put Sports Hub programming on a signal that might perhaps add another 
1000 or 2000 listeners who aren't even in (or especially near) the 
Boston ratings market? Especially on a daytimer that can't carry most 
Bruins or Celtics games?

It doesn't make a lick of sense.

It makes much more sense to assume Silberberg grabbed the WWBZ calls 
just because he could. Maybe he was hoping CBS would cease-and-desist 
him to get a bit of publicity. But why should CBS care? Sports Hub 
doesn't even call itself "WBZ" except once, very quickly, at the top of 
the hour. And WBZ(AM) doesn't have any real reason to care about 
Worcester-market ratings, since it can't sell to most Worcester 
advertisers at Boston-market ad rates. Even if it did, any confusion 
with "WWBZ" in a diary-based market such as Worcester would probably 
fall in WBZ's favor, anyway.

If "WWBZ" means anything at all, it might mean Steve is parking calls 
that he'll use on FM as "the Buzz." But even that mild speculation is 
probably more than this story is worth.