RI Radioguy asked:
> With multiple stations broadcasting Providence Bruins games
> in RI this season, why is there not one carrying the Boston
> Bruins?
It is puzzling, especially in light of the fact that their top farm team is in Providence.
Several possible reasons:
(1) Bruins' radio flagship WBZ-1030 is a 50,000-watt station whose signal is strong throughout Rhode Island. Many Providence-area radio stations may think that picking-up the Bruins' broadcasts would be futile, for most fans would still listen to the games on WBZ. If anyone else in Boston had the radio rights to the Bruins, there might well be a Providence station carrying the games, for the flagship's signal probably wouldn't cover all or much of the Providence market.
(2) The NHL has just started-up after missing the full 2004/2005 season due to a labor dispute. Although the league's total attendance for all 30 teams for the first month of the season (October 5th-31st) was the highest-ever total attendance for October, the league still has a long way to go towards winning back the "casual" fan.
(3) In Rhode Island, the big sport during the Winter months is Providence College men's basketball (with URI men's hoop getting a little interest, especially if they appear headed to an NCAA berth). There probably isn't much interest in any other sports team in Rhode Island that time of year.
Even here in Boston of late, this has become a "one-and-a-half sports" city: The one sport is baseball (Red Sox), the half is football (Patriots, who do attract sellout crowds and huge TV audiences for their games, but who do not command the kind of off-season attention from fans that the Red Sox do). In recent years, the Bruins and Celtics have both struggled for attention from the media and fans.
