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Changes at WBZ

It's hard to say.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if the hours between 10 A.M. and 6 P M. on Saturdays and between 12 Noon and 6 P.M. on Sundays get eventually converted from all-news to paid programming.

I also wouldn't be surprised if WBZ-1030 gets an FM simulcast in the not-too-distant future.
 
WBZ has been on WXKS-FM HD2 for years now. There is no reason to blow up an FM or literally make anoter AM worthless. Buy a new car! At home say "Alexia WBZ1030"!
 
One thing I notice about iHeart is they are more committed to their AM stations than many other of the big operators. It doesn't hurt that they own many of the big ones that cover their markets well. My point being is I don't see them rushing to give up an FM revenue to stream to simulcast WBZ. Where that has happened with other operators (or iHeart) it seems more about taking a poorly performing FM and with lack of having any better ideas simulcasting an AM that is still doing ok on its own. For those stations it would be interesting to see how much the FM simulcast actually helps ratings and/or demographics or if it is more about perception for ad buyers. For an unscientific example, WBBM-AM in Chicago was frequently at the top of the 12+ ratings AM only (aka #1) - in the last book they were #4 with the FM simulcast going for a few years now.

WINS-AM now simulcasting on 92.3 - WINS remained successful AM only. 92.3 FM never recovered from losing the Stern show and Audacy could come up with nothing better to do with it. Looking 12+ as far back as I find online WINS seems pretty steady both before and after adding the FM.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
It's hard to say.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if the hours between 10 A.M. and 6 P M. on Saturdays and between 12 Noon and 6 P.M. on Sundays get eventually converted from all-news to paid programming.

I also wouldn't be surprised if WBZ-1030 gets an FM simulcast in the not-too-distant future.
Click to expand...

It would probably happen now if someone came along offering enough money.
 
johnster said:
WBZ has been on WXKS-FM HD2 for years now. There is no reason to blow up an FM or literally make anoter AM worthless. Buy a new car! At home say "Alexia WBZ1030"!
Click to expand...
Where I agree with your final conclusion, I disagree with the "it's on HD2" as a viable reason. The answer isn't to tell the audience to go out and buy a new car at XX,000s of dollars just to hear WBZ 1030. I don't think iHeart will wait for the number of HD Radios on the road to increase, to naturally resolve the issue. But I agree, HD2 is one place (although not being an equal response to "we want it on FM), and your assessment of streaming is more spot on. Telling the majority of listeners to download an app that's available for free on a device that they most likely own is more sound than "go buy a new car." With that, I don't see it being sound to blow up Jamin or The Bull, to broadcast WBZ on FM. I know Kiss isn't going away, and where Rumba might have lower numbers overall, I don't know about it's billing; as well as, I would hypothesize that they wouldn't bring WBZ 1030 to FM just to put it on 97.7.
 
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I was kidding that Joseph should go get a new car. I think about half the cars out there in the Boston market have HD radios now. Every day there is more. Ask your friends.
 
johnster said:
I was kidding that Joseph should go get a new car. I think about half the cars out there in the Boston market have HD radios now. Every day there is more. Ask your friends.
Click to expand...
Honestly, only my sister-in-law has one in her 2022 Honda Pilot. By brother has 2021 Ram, and I don't think he has it (or has it enabled). I have a 2019 Honda Ridgeline, at a lower trim. The trim I have doesn't have it. My mother has a 2022 Rav 4, and I helped her save her FM stations and SiriusXM channels. I don't remember seeing options for HD stations; however, I'm not 100% on that. Everyone else I know all has older cars, so I can't attest to them. That's anecdotal at best, so I don't like making declarations about everyone. I just know that HD radio isn't standard across all makes, models, and trims, the same as AM and Satellite radio isn't. So that reduces the number of possible listeners.
 
sacredcod said:
Thoughts?
Click to expand...

My thoughts is that it's nice they promoted a 35 year veteran of the station to the top job. That doesn't always happen.

Bill Flaherty will rise from News Director to Sanchez’s former role, while Jay Borselle rises to News Director. Flaherty has been with WBZ since 1987. Borselle joined WBZ in 2006 as a producer and rose to Assistant Director of News & Programming in 2018.
Click to expand...

The job of "innovation focused consultant" to me means finding new ways to monetize their content, in the way that WTOP in Washington has done it. That's the challenge for news organizations, whether it's an all-news radio station or a newspaper. Find new sources of revenue that don't involve :30 spots.
 
johnster said:
I was kidding that Joseph should go get a new car. I think about half the cars out there in the Boston market have HD radios now. Every day there is more. Ask your friends.
Click to expand...
You could also find home and portable HD radios and receivers from the ‘00’s on eBay and other resale sites. I have several that I bought new in the ‘00s. Unfortunately they have all been discontinued as new product.

The HD platform looked like it could have been promising until it was ruined by poor marketing of the receivers and practically no promotion.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
You could also find home and portable HD radios and receivers from the ‘00’s on eBay and other resale sites. I have several that I bought new in the ‘00s. Unfortunately they have all been discontinued as new product.

The HD platform looked like it could have been promising until it was ruined by poor marketing of the receivers and practically no promotion.
Click to expand...
I would add that there was greater niche programming on HD stations in the 2000s. Unfortunately, slow listener adoption and the boom of smartphones and streaming seemed to be a perfect storm.

blackgold said:
No way! Don't blow up Rumba 97.7! I happen to like the Spanish music on that station.
Click to expand...

I'm not advocating for it. I'm trying to think if WBZ 1030 was to be brought to FM, where would iHeart put it. I think Kiss is off that list, so it leaves the remaining three. Personally, out of the three, I'd say The Bull. But that's subjective, based on my disdain for country music. Logically and financially, which revenue stream is the most expendable? Then, are any of them worth being expended and replaced by putting WBZ on FM? My hypothesis would be that they aren't. If Audacy kept it, I'd suspect that it would have either gone to 103.3, or WEEI would have gone to 103.3 and it would have ended up on 93.7. But Audacy doesn't own it.
 
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Eli Polonsky said:
The HD platform looked like it could have been promising until it was ruined by poor marketing of the receivers and practically no promotion.
Click to expand...

The company that owns the patent on HD radio was sold in 2015 to a licensing company. The new owners didn't see the connection between the HD technology and actual physical radios. It was sold again to another company, and the new group seems to understand what they're selling. But I still haven't seen it translate into actual radios.
 
For many streaming audio is the way to hear WRKO, WBZ AM and WXKS AM. Apps on phones like iHeart and TuneIn.
Pair your smartphone to radios in newer cars or plug USB cable connected to phone with Android Auto or similar app for iPhones.
In my 2019 car there's bluetooth and the
Android Auto situation; latter also allows Waze or Google Maps on display.

Or connect phone to aux jack or
one of those little mini FM transmitters set to an open frequency. A portable HD radio like those $50 Insignias can do the same thing if your car doesn't have HD radio, in which case go to 100.7 HD2
100.7 HD3 or 107.9 HD2

>>slow listener adoption and the boom of smartphones
Definitely. Some companies still offer "the stations between the stations" with
decade channels, blues, smooth jazz, gay-lesbian, classic country, etc. A lot of those went away but HD does indeed offer a place for an FM signal for, say,an AM news/talk/ sports station.

FM translators have done the same as with Bloomberg 1330/106.1... places like Worcester, Portland ME and Manchester have FM translators for talk AM stations.
WFEA: 1370, 99.9
 
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raccoonradio said:
For many streaming audio is the way to hear WRKO, WBZ AM and WXKS AM. Apps on phones like iHeart and TuneIn.
Pair your smartphone to radios in newer cars or plug USB cable connected to phone with Android Auto or similar app for iPhones.
In my 2019 car there's bluetooth and the
Android Auto situation; latter also allows Waze or Google Maps on display.

Or connect phone to aux jack or
one of those little mini FM transmitters set to an open frequency. A portable HD radio like those $50 Insignias can do the same thing if your car doesn't have HD radio, in which case go to 100.7 HD2
100.7 HD3 or 107.9 HD2

>>slow listener adoption and the boom of smartphones
Definitely. Some companies still offer "the stations between the stations" with
decade channels, blues, smooth jazz, gay-lesbian, classic country, etc. A lot of those went away but HD does indeed offer a place for an FM signal for, say,an AM news/talk/ sports station.

FM translators have done the same as with Bloomberg 1330/106.1... places like Worcester, Portland ME and Manchester have FM translators for talk AM stations.
WFEA: 1370, 99.9
Click to expand...
I fully agree. I remember having my little portable Insignia HD Radio specificly to listen to WZLX-HD2, WBCN-HD2, and WAAF-HD2 (blues, Indie rock, and live rock respectively). Back then, these stations didn't stream. It was what made me buy the little radio. Now all stations stream. The three fore mentioned are now gone. But I do listen to other HD only stations, most notably the now HD only version of "WAAF."

The selection of unique options that are only available on HD have been widely reduced by opening streaming as an option to listen to the stations, replacing a selection of HD only stations with AM repeaters, and utilizing HD stations as the primary signal for translators. I don't think it reduces the quality of what can be found on HD. Rather, it reduces the need to have an HD Radio to listen to the product.

It's the same as satellite radio. I don't have a satellite radio in my truck. Instead, I stream the app through my truck's Bluetooth connection. I decided this option shortly after I upgraded my phone package to unlimited data. For about a month, I used Audacy and iHeart's apps to listen to out-of-market stations that carried formats that aren't available in Boston. Most notably, I listened to Alt 98.7 Los Angeles and KROQ. But I also streamed WBZ 1030 and 1010 WINS and BiN.

I don't denounce HD as a platform. I just don't see the need for a listener without it to have to adopt it. If my next car/truck has HD Radio, I'll program stations into my presets. But HD Radio will not be a deciding factor of which make, model, and trim to buy. So when Joseph predicts that WBZ will simulcast on an FM signal in the near future, and the reply is that it's on WXKS-HD2, I don't see that as a reasonable deduction. The better deduction is that there are multiple ways to listen, which include WXKS-HD2 in the car and streaming through iHeart's app (which was the point being made). Just that people on this board usually answer any statement about WBZ or WRKO on FM with "it's already on W***-HD2."
 
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raccoonradio said:
For many streaming audio is the way to hear WRKO, WBZ AM and WXKS AM. Apps on phones like iHeart and TuneIn.
Click to expand...
I often use those to listen to out-of-market stations that carry things that are not offered in Boston. Sometimes, including last night, a program will get interrupted in mid-segment and the streaming service starts playing its own ads. The show's program clock shows that the first segment goes from :06 to :17, but at :10 the ad barrage started and didn't end by :23 or so when the 2nd segment was supposed to be already underway and I got fed up and shut it off.

Sometimes by :08 the show hasn't started, and stopping/starting the app once or twice gets the ad to go away and the show comes on already in progress. It's infuriating. It would be nice if they'd get their act together.
 
There is a lag time of a minute or two between the terrestrial and streamed content, but I was talking about cases where the show was underway yet iHeart was still pushing ads about sustainable bamboo sheets, and when I finally got to hear the show it was well underway. Once in a while I've found that I could switch over to another station's iHeart stream and hear the show when the original station's incessant iHeart ad loop was still stuck. If I make station #2 the default, I inevitably end up in the same scenario and have to use #1 as the fallback, which to me seems to indicate the problem is not with the stations themselves, but with iHeart.
 
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johnster said:
It's because many of us do have cars with HD Radios and that is where we listen to them. So when someone suggests that they should get rid of another FM signal that just seems silly.
Click to expand...
Keep in mind that "many" is a subjective term that we try to use as a quantitative metric; however, it isn't. And just because it's best for you, doesn't make it applicable for the overall listener base. Companies will do what's best for themselves financially and based on objective quantitative information.
 
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