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News "reports" on WBZ

Boston news: How WBZ NewsRadio Matt Shearer stands out on TikTok


I know the Globe is behind a paywall but this excerpt sums up why they’re going in this direction.

“As newsrooms everywhere grapple with declines in audience and their underlying business models, Shearer has managed to give a legacy news outlet an especially lively and popular digital presence. While he’s not covering everything — viewers would be hard-pressed to find many political or crime-themed videos — Shearer has helped introduce the station to a new, younger audience.”
 
DavidZ said:
Boston news: How WBZ NewsRadio Matt Shearer stands out on TikTok


I know the Globe is behind a paywall but this excerpt sums up why they’re going in this direction.

“As newsrooms everywhere grapple with declines in audience and their underlying business models, Shearer has managed to give a legacy news outlet an especially lively and popular digital presence. While he’s not covering everything — viewers would be hard-pressed to find many political or crime-themed videos — Shearer has helped introduce the station to a new, younger audience.”
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I read both the article and the comments. Several others feel about WBZ as I do, that, for the most part, "The Spirit of New England" is no longer with us.
 
nowradioguy said:
I read both the article and the comments. Several others feel about WBZ as I do, that, for the most part, "The Spirit of New England" is no longer with us.
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I’m thinking we’re around the same age demographic and I’m just happy iHeart has kept WBZ news focused. They could have made many more changes which would have driven all of their longtime listeners away.

As for some of their new reporters and less hard news reporting, I’ll take it because it beats not having WBZ at all. And if it attracts some new listeners and advertisers, it’s a win!
 
DavidZ said:
I’m thinking we’re around the same age demographic and I’m just happy iHeart has kept WBZ news focused. They could have made many more changes which would have driven all of their longtime listeners away.
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They could have done what Audacy has done to KRLD in Dallas. At one time, that station was all news during the day, just like BZ. But last year, they began adding conservative talk shows during the day. Chad Benson, Will Cain, and Dave Ramsey. Ratings for the station plummeted. Imagine if Audacy still owned WBZ.
 
TheBigA said:
They could have done what Audacy has done to KRLD in Dallas. At one time, that station was all news during the day, just like BZ. But last year, they began adding conservative talk shows during the day. Chad Benson, Will Cain, and Dave Ramsey. Ratings for the station plummeted. Imagine if Audacy still owned WBZ.
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Does Dallas/Ft. Worth have a 24/7 all news station? If not for a market that size that would be sad...
 
DavidZ said:
I’m thinking we’re around the same age demographic and I’m just happy iHeart has kept WBZ news focused. They could have made many more changes which would have driven all of their longtime listeners away.

As for some of their new reporters and less hard news reporting, I’ll take it because it beats not having WBZ at all. And if it attracts some new listeners and advertisers, it’s a win!
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Time moves on.

I look back on when WBZ dropped music and daytime talk and went all-news during the day, and it may feel recent, but it was 33 years ago. A listener who was just entering our prime 35-54 demo back then is now closing on on 70 years old.
 
spt87 said:
I have an hour of Christmas eve 1993 recorded of WBZ in stereo from Buffalo NY it sounds amazing.
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I "hear" both you and Eli re the "old" (read, "Westinghouse") WBZ, but there are those on this Forum who either never knew that WBZ, or did know of it and accuse us of being unreasonably nostalgic and not grasping the realities of radio today. Hey, our opinions are still our opinions.
 
nowradioguy said:
I "hear" both you and Eli re the "old" (read, "Westinghouse") WBZ, but there are those on this Forum who either never knew that WBZ, or did know of it and accuse us of being unreasonably nostalgic and not grasping the realities of radio today. Hey, our opinions are still our opinions.
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Westinghouse merged with CBS in 1995. That's 30 years ago. Then they changed their name to the CBS Corporation. Then sold to Viacom in 2000.
 
nowradioguy said:
I "hear" both you and Eli re the "old" (read, "Westinghouse") WBZ, but there are those on this Forum who either never knew that WBZ, or did know of it and accuse us of being unreasonably nostalgic and not grasping the realities of radio today. Hey, our opinions are still our opinions.
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I think the key is defend your opinion, listen to other’s opinions and adjust your coordinates from there. They need to do the same.
 
nowradioguy said:
I "hear" both you and Eli re the "old" (read, "Westinghouse") WBZ, but there are those on this Forum who either never knew that WBZ, or did know of it and accuse us of being unreasonably nostalgic and not grasping the realities of radio today. Hey, our opinions are still our opinions.
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I realize that there's practically no reason to spend money on AM stereo nowadays. WBZ doesn't play music anymore, and except for a few local oldies niche stations for older listeners (like me) and ethnic programming, music on AM is dead.

A few decades ago, about a dozen AM stereo stations could be heard in greater Boston. There's one left, 740 WJIB, and new owner John Garabedian says he's going to keep it AM stereo when it raises power and moves to 720 soon.

I believe there are still two small independent AM stereo stations left in RI and CT, no others in New England.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
I realize that there's practically no reason to spend money on AM stereo nowadays. WBZ doesn't play music anymore, and except for a few local oldies niche stations for older listeners (like me) and ethnic programming, music on AM is dead.
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Agree, Eli. Music, and even, speech, sounds so compressed and frequency-limited on AM, more so now than ever. I don't mind the compression, for it makes for consistency, but bandlimiting to less than 5 KHz is a real buzz kill, even for speech.

Back in the 70s, didn't WGN 720 Chicago have permission to extend out to 15 KHz?
Eli Polonsky said:
A few decades ago, about a dozen AM stereo stations could be heard in greater Boston. There's one left, 740 WJIB, and new owner John Garabedian says he's going to keep it AM stereo when it raises power and moves to 720 soon.

I believe there are still two small independent AM stereo stations left in RI and CT, no others in New England.
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Since HD hasn't caught fire as expected, maybe AM stereo for those few remaining music stations might be a somewhat reasonable alternative.
 


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