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The new AM's So Far

R

Retro

I have not listened to any real AM radio for a few years now. I was just kinda wondering how both the 2 new AM stations are doing so far, as well as the big return of WMEX also?
 
WMEX is now a much smaller station than what it was in its glory days

Ed Perry owning it means conventional wisdom goes out the window and it is run on the W.E.L. Format, (What Ed Likes)

That being said, you can bet it is run well, and from what I have heard online I like what they are doing.

Like all the Perry owned stations, they are hyper focused on the south shore communities they serve. Ed never plays the Boston rim shot station game, he is dedicated to the cities and towns in his area.
 
MRBIboredop said:
Like all the Perry owned stations, they are hyper focused on the south shore communities they serve. Ed never plays the Boston rim shot station game, he is dedicated to the cities and towns in his area.
Click to expand...

That's actually somewhat less true with WMEX than with WATD (a rimshot signal in Boston) or with WBMS (serves south of Boston only).

WMEX, with the exception of the (very well produced) South Shore Morning News program simulcast from WATD, is trying to position as the Oldies station for greater Boston (though it doesn't use the "O" word on the air, very few do anywhere anymore). There is no longer any competition for an Oldies format that can be heard on air in Boston proper, besides some of the "softer" oldies on Bob Bittner's adult standards/nostalgia WJIB.

The jingles used on WMEX through the hour (some are "Pams" from the original 1510 WMEX) all say "WMEX, Boston". The only time the new COL is mentioned is for the top of hour legal ID voiced by J.J. Wright, saying "WMEX Quincy-Boston".

Like the original WMEX transmitter from Quincy, the 10kW day signal reaches downtown Boston well (it may fade a bit among the tall buildings and all the man-made sources of AM interference that didn't exist in the original WMEX's heyday), and it's strong over the water on the North Shore. The day signal also reaches the inland suburbs within Route 128/95 fairly well. Many of the phone callers they put on the air, either for winning contests or making requests, are from the North Shore and the metro-Boston area, though more are from the South Shore where the signal is strongest, and is the nearby area where the station does the most outreach.

I think what they could use is people to do outreach and sales in those areas beyond the South Shore, such as Boston, the suburbs, and the North Shore. Most of the spots I'm hearing are South Shore based, some are packaged with WATD, and they need more overall. Most of the community events and organizations I hear announced as PSA's are also on the South Shore, that's where they're based, and I can certainly understand their staffing resources being limited. Ed spent a ton of money reviving those two AM stations back onto the air.
 
Tried tonight to hear Bob Katzen show on WMEX with talk about Jerry Williams but there were major tech glitches including repeating (on stream) the same few minutes over and over then stream went dead. Can't really pick up terrestrial signal.
Supposed to have Tolz, Elman, Jim FLaherty., Queen of Cockamamies etc on....till 9. Will try again. A shame.
 
raccoonradio said:
Tried tonight to hear Bob Katzen show on WMEX with talk about Jerry Williams but there were major tech glitches including repeating (on stream) the same few minutes over and over then stream went dead. Can't really pick up terrestrial signal.
Supposed to have Tolz, Elman, Jim FLaherty., Queen of Cockamamies etc on....till 9. Will try again. A shame.
Click to expand...
I normally get the low power (100 watt) night signal fairly well in east Somerville. The transmitter has been on with just a dead carrier for at least a couple of hours. The MeTV Music Channel network feed ('50s/'60s oldies and '70s/'80s classic pop hits) would normally be on now for the overnight.
 
Katzen show ran first hour (stream).Second hour he started to talk to Tolz and Elman and they were trying to play a clip of "the washing machine lady/sex survey".It kept cutting out so Bob said
"let's try that again". That led to a loop lasting a few minutes which ended with "let's try that again" plus some dead air.Loop happened about five times. Finally it was just silence. I
tried both the WMEXBoston site and TuneIn. On
the former if you tried to refresh it would say stream disconnected; for a second, "connected"
then back to "disconnected". TuneIn had an
error message, no stream available.

I tried a portable to see if I could get terrestrial signal but got nothing--or at least as you say,
maybe unmodulated carrier.It was said during first hour Bob was doing show from a laptop at
home while George (prod) was at studio and
for a time they lost connection with each other.
Maybe they've had that arrangement all along in the weeks or months the show has aired.
Bob may live in Marblehead; it's a heck of a drive
all the way down to Marshfield...
 
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Katzen show ran first hour (stream).Second hour he started to talk to Tolz and Elman and they were trying to play a clip of "the washing machine lady/sex survey".It kept cutting out so Bob said
"let's try that again". That led to a loop lasting a few minutes which ended with "let's try that again" plus some dead air.Loop ran about four times. Finally it was just silence. I
tried both the WMEXBoston site and TuneIn. On
the former if you tried to refresh it would say stream disconnected; for a second, "connected"
then back to "disconnected". TuneIn had an
error message, no stream available.

I tried a portable to see if I could get terrestrial signal but got nothing--or at least as you say,
maybe unmodulated carrier.It was said during first hour Bob was doing show from a laptop at
home while George (prod) was at studio and
for a time they lost connection with each other.
Maybe they've had that arrangement all along.
Bob may live in Marblehead; it's a heck of a drive
all the way down to Marshfield..
 
Last edited:
Bob Katzen said to me on facebook that yes,
the stream died but "we are gonna have Steve and Alan on again live with a new show on Sunday, January 17th at 7 p.m."
 
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