Shutdown of boston-radio-interest list

[Garrett Wollman]

Hi, all,

This mailing-list was originally created in 1997, at a time when both
radio and the Internet were in a very different situation than they
are now.  Broadcasting was experiencing paroxysms of consolidation,
which has largely now ended, but was still quite vibrant and the
medium through which many if not most people were exposed to news, new
music, and political views.  In the Internet, it was still reasonably
possible for anyone to operate public services like web and mail
servers on pretty much any machine that had a full-time network
connection.

We no longer live in that world, and people no longer view
mailing-lists like this one as an easy and low-effort way to exchange
news and views.  So too has local radio largely gone by the wayside,
as consolidation has led to more national programming and a continuous
push to cut expenses like staffing (both on-air and behind the
scenes).  Many of the industry pros who joined this list have retired;
several are deceased, including Bob Bittner, whose "Let's Talk About
Radio" show was one of the inspirations for this list.  Traffic here
has dwindled to a trickle, with six months this year seeing no
legitimate submissions at all.  It's time to hang up the cans.

The archives will remain publicly accessible on bostonradio.org for as
long as I'm able to keep it going, but this mailing-list, which
depends on the unmaintained GNU Mailman 2.x, will be shut down on
December 31, 2023.  I am sending this advance notice to allow those
who wish to post any final words or reminiscences.  It's been nice
knowing you all; do keep in touch.

-GAWollman