Another loss for minorities in Boston

[ciao99]

Now that Radio One has sold WILD-FM, you'll see all the pundits debating the numbers for the new WAAF simulcast and even pondering the Red Sox coming to FM. What you won't hear from all the self appointed experts is how this is yet another blow to the minority community in Boston. Last year it was the Hispanic community which lost their station, now it's the Black community. WILD-FM's number were respectable and they did in fact beat WBCN in a few books. So you can't discredit the format. While the rest of the country is embracing the new demographics of America, Boston is taking a big step backwards. Blacks and Hispanics are simply an afterthought in this market.

 

[radiodouble]

Now that Radio One has sold WILD-FM, you'll see all the pundits debating the numbers for the new WAAF simulcast and even pondering the Red Sox coming to FM. What you won't hear from all the self appointed experts is how this is yet another blow to the minority community in Boston. Last year it was the Hispanic community which lost their station, now it's the Black community. WILD-FM's number were respectable and they did in fact beat WBCN in a few books. So you can't discredit the format. While the rest of the country is embracing the new demographics of America, Boston is taking a big step backwards. Blacks and Hispanics are simply an afterthought in this market.

before you get carried away blaming red sox fans for wanting sox on fm, it was liggins and radio one who sold out, not -boston-. it was minority-owned company that didn't want to keep presence here. facts are facts.

 

[ciao99]

Now that Radio One has sold WILD-FM, you'll see all the pundits debating the numbers for the new WAAF simulcast and even pondering the Red Sox coming to FM. What you won't hear from all the self appointed experts is how this is yet another blow to the minority community in Boston. Last year it was the Hispanic community which lost their station, now it's the Black community. WILD-FM's number were respectable and they did in fact beat WBCN in a few books. So you can't discredit the format. While the rest of the country is embracing the new demographics of America, Boston is taking a big step backwards. Blacks and Hispanics are simply an afterthought in this market.

before you get carried away blaming red sox fans for wanting sox on fm, it was liggins and radio one who sold out, not -boston-. it was minority-owned company that didn't want to keep presence here. facts are facts.

And facts are that the Hispanic audience did much better than any numbers you've seen from ESPN 890. And facts are that WILD-FM did better numbers than WBCN, supposedly one of Boston's premiere stations. Funny how when a white station bombs in the ratings, no one considers changing the format (WFNX, WBCN, WBOS, etc etc etc). But a station that serves audiences of color pulls decent numbers and for Boston it's still not good enough. It's always the minority community in Boston that has to make way for everyone else no matter how well they perform.

 

[odomski]

[EDIT]

On the Boston board, Ciao with the Minorities Being Screwed Over crap. Yeah, the "black community" really got screwed that WILD is no more. : Puh-leez. If you want to listen to that gangsta rap garbage that promotes violence, drug dealing, gang banging, and raping white women, listen to 94.5 FM.

On the Philly board, the racist there is OHara (aka RockIntern and RunWithScissors) who has to bring the Race Card into every discussion. Some of his discussions about racist radio stations such as WURD and WHAT are legit. However, he goes overboard sometimes.

Not every discussion has to do with race. The format change of WILD-FM has NOTHING to do with race. Give up the Race Card cop outs. It's really getting old. Let's talk about the REAL reasons why Entercom bought the station and changed the format.

[EDIT=name calling]

 

[e-dawg]

Geez.....I thougth WILD-FM format is URBAN AC.......How can WILD-FM = RAP MUSIC. Urban AC format don't play RAP music. It usually R&B and Soul music.

 

[Neanderpaul]

[EDIT]

On the Boston board, Ciao with the Minorities Being Screwed Over crap. Yeah, the "black community" really got screwed that WILD is no more. : Puh-leez. If you want to listen to that gangsta rap garbage that promotes violence, drug dealing, gang banging, and raping white women, listen to 94.5 FM.

On the Philly board, the racist there is OHara (aka RockIntern and RunWithScissors) who has to bring the Race Card into every discussion. Some of his discussions about racist radio stations such as WURD and WHAT are legit. However, he goes overboard sometimes.

Not every discussion has to do with race. The format change of WILD-FM has NOTHING to do with race. Give up the Race Card cop outs. It's really getting old. Let's talk about the REAL reasons why Entercom bought the station and changed the format.

[EDIT=name calling]

Well Shawn?

What you've done is rip two posters and contribute nothing.

Except expose yourself as relatively intolerant.

What Entercom did was spend $30 million to improve the performance of one of its top radio stations, in the largest market that the company owns properties in. As I don't have any inner working knowledge of what the plan is, I'd be pretty stoked were I in that building. They have addressed the signal issues with a real potential solution. Obviously, someone made a mistake in calculation wth the tower move. Now, they have to make people aware. Which will take some $$$ I don't know what route they'd take but!!!

Here's what I'd do in this situation: (assuming money is not an option)

Move WAAF to 93.7
Put Mike on 107.3 & 97.7

'AAF gets a full signal in the metro, and imagine the ad campaign for Mike; "Mike lives in Metro-West on 107.3!" "Mike lives on the South Shore at 97.7!"

Of course this probably pretty expensive from a marketing and engineering standpoint, and the company did just drop 30 mil on the station, and ton more to pick up 4 more markets, so this might not be possible.

 

[raccoonradio]

>>I thougth WILD-FM format is URBAN AC.

I was under the impression that during the day, it was softer (by comparison)--ballads, some oldies, etc.;
at night, more hard-edged and rap, and then it was supposed to be rhythmic oldies in the mix in the wee
wee hours, etc. Kind of a blend of different stuff

from today's Globe:"In radio industry language, a station with an urban music format is one that primarily appeals to a black audience. One station doing well with that format is WJMN-FM , or JAM'N, said vice president Mark Fratrik of BIA Financial Network , a Virginia company that tracks the radio industry.
Calls to JAM'N, owned by radio giant Clear Channel Communications , were not returned.

"With the end of WILD-FM, JAM'N will be the only big local commercial station with an urban music format, Fratrik said. Demographics may partly explain why. If Greater Boston is defined as everything within about 40 miles of the city, 6.4 percent of the Greater Boston radio market is African-American, Fratrik said, compared with 26.4 percent for the Washington, D.C., radio market, which has three big urban FM music stations."

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/08/22/entercom_to_buy_bostons_wild_fm_for_30_million/

 

[HHH]

Minority Company Sold It!

Radiodouble is 100% correct.

"Minorities getting screwed" does NOT pertain to this sale.

WILD-FM was sold by Radio One ---listen now--- an AFRICAN-AMERICAN CONTROLLED COMPANY.

They didn't HAVE to sell the station....but they DID. And they didn't sell to ANOTHER MINORITY COMPANY, now did they?

 

[ciao99]

"Raping white women"

[EDIT]

On the Boston board, Ciao with the Minorities Being Screwed Over crap. Yeah, the "black community" really got screwed that WILD is no more. : Puh-leez. If you want to listen to that gangsta rap garbage that promotes violence, drug dealing, gang banging, and raping white women, listen to 94.5 FM.


[EDIT=name calling]

Please tell me the name of the song you heard on WILD-FM that encouraged raping white women.

 

[ciao99]

[EDIT]

On the Boston board, Ciao with the Minorities Being Screwed Over crap. Yeah, the "black community" really got screwed that WILD is no more. : Puh-leez. If you want to listen to that gangsta rap garbage that promotes violence, drug dealing, gang banging, and raping white women, listen to 94.5 FM.

On the Philly board, the racist there is OHara (aka RockIntern and RunWithScissors) who has to bring the Race Card into every discussion. Some of his discussions about racist radio stations such as WURD and WHAT are legit. However, he goes overboard sometimes.

Not every discussion has to do with race. The format change of WILD-FM has NOTHING to do with race. Give up the Race Card cop outs. It's really getting old. Let's talk about the REAL reasons why Entercom bought the station and changed the format.


[EDIT=name calling]

Well Shawn?

What you've done is rip two posters and contribute nothing.

Except expose yourself as relatively intolerant.

What Entercom did was spend $30 million to improve the performance of one of its top radio stations, in the largest market that the company owns properties in. As I don't have any inner working knowledge of what the plan is, I'd be pretty stoked were I in that building. They have addressed the signal issues with a real potential solution. Obviously, someone made a mistake in calculation wth the tower move. Now, they have to make people aware. Which will take some $$$ I don't know what route they'd take but!!!

Here's what I'd do in this situation: (assuming money is not an option)

Move WAAF to 93.7
Put Mike on 107.3 & 97.7

'AAF gets a full signal in the metro, and imagine the ad campaign for Mike; "Mike lives in Metro-West on 107.3!" "Mike lives on the South Shore at 97.7!"

Of course this probably pretty expensive from a marketing and engineering standpoint, and the company did just drop 30 mil on the station, and ton more to pick up 4 more markets, so this might not be possible.

Not for nothing but there was only one tenth of a rating point difference in the performance of WILD-FM and WAAF in the ratings that came out today. That's a stretch to claim that one rating is worth expanding and the other is worth abandoning when there is so little difference.

 

[MUGrad]

Not for nothing but there was only one tenth of a rating point difference in the performance of WILD-FM and WAAF in the ratings that came out today. That's a stretch to claim that one rating is worth expanding and the other is worth abandoning when there is so little difference.

Not for nothing, but I don't think the ratings played any role in the sale at all. Entercom was buying the signal for the signal, not for the ratings it garnered under its previous format. They've been trying to improve WAAF's signal into downtown for years and years. The tower move hasn't done the trick, so they're doing the next best thing...simulcasting. Why not? It's working for WEEI. Entercom bought the 97.7 signal with the express intent of simulcasting content they were already producing...they have no interest in adding another station's worth of staff to their expenses. If they were, the flip wouldn't have come so quickly after the sale was finalized, don't you think?

 

[jane grant]

I don't think they'll take Neanderpaul's advice, though it is an interesting concept.
Neanderpaul, why put MIKE on 2 signals?

How many stations can a company own in one major city (forgive my ignorance),
and is WAAF considered "Worcester" so Entercom gets to pick up another?

I do believe that losing WILD is a blow to minorities - even though it was clearly a business, not a racist, move. Still, the former owner isn't a huge conglomerate (maybe somewhere in between? Enlighten me please), it's not as if Bob Bittner owned the station. Still, I liked having a change of pace on the FM dial.

Not as bad as L.A. losing Country radio for...Rick Dees!

 

[e-dawg]

Hmmm..... a company can owned up to 5FM's and (8 total AM/FM total) radio stations per market.

Entercom Owns.

WEEI - Sports 850AM
WRKO - News/Talk 680AM
WMKK - Adult Hits 93.7FM
WAAF - Active Rock 107.3FM

So Entercom can purchase 97.7 frequency because Entercom is within the ownership cap limits.

 

[Garrett]

Re: Minority Company Sold It!

Radiodouble is 100% correct.

"Minorities getting screwed" does NOT pertain to this sale.

WILD-FM was sold by Radio One ---listen now--- an AFRICAN-AMERICAN CONTROLLED COMPANY.

They didn't HAVE to sell the station....but they DID. And they didn't sell to ANOTHER MINORITY COMPANY, now did they?

Where is it written that they need to sell to a minority?
Radio is a business, deal with it.

 

[ciao99]

Re: Minority Company Sold It!

Radiodouble is 100% correct.

"Minorities getting screwed" does NOT pertain to this sale.

WILD-FM was sold by Radio One ---listen now--- an AFRICAN-AMERICAN CONTROLLED COMPANY.

They didn't HAVE to sell the station....but they DID. And they didn't sell to ANOTHER MINORITY COMPANY, now did they?

Where is it written that they need to sell to a minority?
Radio is a business, deal with it.

That's a good call out. Lots of non-minority companies program Urban contemporary radio stations, like Clear Channel, Cox, and Emmis.

 

[ba70]

I tuned into 1090 AM this morning to listen to Jimmy Myers, and there was Tom Joyner and knew something was wrong. I then turned the dial to 97.7 and heard the countdown...

Another loss for Boston radio. This one is a loss on allot of levels.

I typically listened to Jimmy Myers on 1090 AM each morning on my drive to work. I'm sure he didn't get big ratings, but as someone who listens to tremendous amounts of radio, Jimmy was one of the better things going on the AM dial in the morning slot. Although most of the topics did center around the minority community, Jimmy's talent made him hard to turn off, even for someone who is not a minority. It was quite obvoius by listening to his show that he was a real voice and focal point for the community.

On the FM dial, 97.7 was a nice altenative to 94.5, which had an extremely narrow playlist - obviously totally driven by market research. 97.7 had a much more diverse playlist, with a good balance of older soul and current hip hop. Now the station is gone, leaving one less format on the FM dial.

The state of radio on both FM and AM is really disappointing. The likes of Entercom have done nothing good for the dial. Being a radio addict, I don't find allot of appeal in scrolling down the AM dial and hearing a half dozen stations with ESPN radio or four stations playing Michael Savage or some other syndicated show.

On the FM side, I haven't found allot to get excited about in years. I considered WILD 97.7 one of the few reasons to listen to FM, and now they are gone.

There's less and less local radio and that's a shame.

Seems like another win for satellite radio...

 

[SonicOverload]

Jimmy Myers always deserved a better deal than he got in Boston...

 

[odomski]

Paul: Yes, I am intolerant. I am intolerant to idiots who always have to cry that the Black Man is getting screwed over all the time...no matter what the situation is. The format change of the station is not racist against the Black Man or whatever. I get sick and tired of people bringing the Race Card into every situation possible. The sale and format change has nothing to do with race. Get over it.

Radio is a business, and not racially motivated. The sale and format change was a business decision between the Radio One people and the Entercom folks. Deal with it and move on.

If you want so-called "black music," listen to 94.5 FM. End of story.

 

[HD_Ready]

Why not put the old "WILD-FM" on 97.7 HD-2!

 

[ciao99]

Paul: Yes, I am intolerant. I am intolerant to idiots who always have to cry that the Black Man is getting screwed over all the time...no matter what the situation is. The format change of the station is not racist against the Black Man or whatever. I get sick and tired of people bringing the Race Card into every situation possible. The sale and format change has nothing to do with race. Get over it.

Radio is a business, and not racially motivated. The sale and format change was a business decision between the Radio One people and the Entercom folks. Deal with it and move on.

If you want so-called "black music," listen to 94.5 FM. End of story.

Sorry but jammin 94.5 is not a station aimed at Black listeners. And please don't shrug off black music as simply gangsta rap. Familiarize yourself with jazz, soul, old school, gospel. WILD-FM was not hip hop.

And yes there is a racial element to all this. Minority stations in Boston are put to different standards than radio stations that target white folks. Yesterday the ratings came out and WILD-FM did better than a host of rock stations, including WBCN, WBOS and WFNX. The former Mega 890 had done better than it's ESPN replacement.

How is WBCN considered a powerhouse in this market yet WILD-FM's format is not worth keeping when it does better? That's the hypocrisy of Boston radio.