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Boston in quotes

A

ajhenderson

Surely not news to those here, but...

===
BTR Buys Boston Area Station
Business TalkRadio Network has agreed to purchase News/Talk WBET/Brockton, MA from KJI Broadcasting. BTRN also owns WGCH/Stamford-Norwalk, CT, and operates WLIE-AM/Long Island, NY via an LMA. The company also owns and operates the Business TalkRadio and Lifestyle TalkRadio Networks that provide programming to a reported 1100 affiliates nationwide.
===

A lot of financial business happening in Boston, but how many fifth-string suburban business (unless they're running Roex) stations does one market need?
 
Salem, Quincy, and now Brockton

> Surely not news to those here, but...
>
> ===
> BTR Buys Boston Area Station
> Business TalkRadio Network has agreed to purchase
> News/Talk WBET/Brockton, MA from KJI Broadcasting. BTRN also
> owns WGCH/Stamford-Norwalk, CT, and operates WLIE-AM/Long
> Island, NY via an LMA. The company also owns and operates
> the Business TalkRadio and Lifestyle TalkRadio Networks that
> provide programming to a reported 1100 affiliates
> nationwide.
> ===
>
> A lot of financial business happening in Boston, but how
> many fifth-string suburban business (unless they're running
> Roex) stations does one market need?
>

Wow, this is sure turning into a bad year for local radio. First 1300 WJDA and 1230 WESX, and now 1460 WBET. I guess WATD will have to pick up the slack for them now too. They already were broadcasting some of the Brockton Rox baseball games, maybe now they'll have them all. Last year, for some games there were three stations running completely seperate broadcasts of the games. 95.9 WATD, 1300 WJDA, and 1460 WBET (which ran all of the games). Now probably by the start of the season, two of those stations will be gone.
 
WATD's Ed Perry Profile in The Patriot Ledger

Nice profile on WATD's owner Ed Perry in Tuesday's Patriot Ledger.
Noted how he has given many reporters their first start even as interns.
There was an earlier mention, maybe here, that Perry and WATD would pick up the slack left by the departure of WJDA. In fact, WJDA hasn't been much of a local presence in Quincy and the South Shore for more than 10 years. Jay Asher, the son of the founder, James D. Asher [W] JDA, sold out to syndicated music and paid programming years ago.

To the contrary, Ed Perry has made local, community programming prosper from WATD. Here's hoping he expands to cover more of the South Shore.



> > Surely not news to those here, but...
> >
> > ===
> > BTR Buys Boston Area Station
> > Business TalkRadio Network has agreed to purchase
> > News/Talk WBET/Brockton, MA from KJI Broadcasting. BTRN
> also
> > owns WGCH/Stamford-Norwalk, CT, and operates WLIE-AM/Long
> > Island, NY via an LMA. The company also owns and operates
> > the Business TalkRadio and Lifestyle TalkRadio Networks
> that
> > provide programming to a reported 1100 affiliates
> > nationwide.
> > ===
> >
> > A lot of financial business happening in Boston, but how
> > many fifth-string suburban business (unless they're
> running
> > Roex) stations does one market need?
> >
>
> Wow, this is sure turning into a bad year for local radio.
> First 1300 WJDA and 1230 WESX, and now 1460 WBET. I guess
> WATD will have to pick up the slack for them now too. They
> already were broadcasting some of the Brockton Rox baseball
> games, maybe now they'll have them all. Last year, for some
> games there were three stations running completely seperate
> broadcasts of the games. 95.9 WATD, 1300 WJDA, and 1460 WBET
> (which ran all of the games). Now probably by the start of
> the season, two of those stations will be gone.
>
 
Re: Salem, Quincy, and now Brockton

> > BTR Buys Boston Area Station
> > Business TalkRadio Network has agreed to purchase
> > News/Talk WBET/Brockton, MA from KJI Broadcasting.
>
> Wow, this is sure turning into a bad year for local radio.
> First 1300 WJDA and 1230 WESX, and now 1460 WBET.

I hope this doesn't mean the end of the "Ed The Detective" country oldies show 2-4 PM on Sunday afternoons. He had to switch over from the old WCAV 97.7 when it became WBOT.
 
> BTR Buys Boston Area Station
> Business TalkRadio Network has agreed to purchase
> News/Talk WBET/Brockton, MA from KJI Broadcasting. BTRN also
> owns WGCH/Stamford-Norwalk, CT, and operates WLIE-AM/Long
> Island, NY via an LMA. The company also owns and operates
> the Business TalkRadio and Lifestyle TalkRadio Networks that
> provide programming to a reported 1100 affiliates
> nationwide.

BTR is the major source of programming for WBNW 1120 Concord, which is simulcast on WPLM (AM) 1390 Plymouth. What with an AM 1410 in Brockton and a directional pattern that sends most of its signal to the southeast--away from Brockton--WPLM probably doesn't do a very good job of covering Brockton, so WBET might make a certain amount of sense for BTR. OTOH, Brockton is a very blue-collar city, so it's unclear that there is much of a market for financial talk there. Maybe in Hingham. How is the 1460 signal in Hingham?

One would think that if BTR were serious about buying an AM in the Boston market, they'd want WBIX, but presumably Alex Langer wants more money than BTR could hope to raise. I think BTR either owns or LMAs WLIE 540 Islip LI. WLIE has an absolutely incredible daytime signal. (I've heard the station clearly in the Berkshires and in most of New Jersey. It's local near Trenton.) Moreover, WLIE holds a CP to almost double its daytime power yet again. It's currently 2500W--up from 1100W and before that 250W. The CP is for 4600W, I believe.
 
WBET/1460 coverage area (Re: Boston in quotes)

Speaking as one of the people who worked on "proofing" WBET's new (1990) antenna pattern in 1990, I can tell you that on the day pattern (5,000 w./non-DA), the signal is very respectable. It's pretty good. The night pattern, on the other hand, is directional (1,000 w., DA/N) toward the north-northeast protecting 1460 in Albany, NY. Due to the lower power and the strong skywave interference so prevalent on 1460, the "interference-free" coverage is somewhat limited to Brockton, Easton, Rockland, Whitman and the Bridgewaters. Hingham is kinda pushing it at night for WBET.

I'm still hoping that 'BET still runs the Brockton Rox baseball games. Hey, the new owners would not lose a thing by running the games at night.

I have nothing but fond memories of that station. If any station were to be "WKRP in Cincinnati in the flesh", WBET/WCAV-FM was it. Everybody liked each other and everybody was concerned about each other's health and welfare. Believe it or not, I had the pleasure of meeting Gary Sandy ("Andy Travis" of WKRP) while he was being interviewed on a show on WBET.

I wish all the best to the remaining folks at WBET. I can tell you that WBET (and the late WCAV) were probably one of the best locally owned and operated radio stations in the country. In spite of the extreme tightwads in the newspaper (WBET's former owners), this station really sounded good. What a time!


Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Alumni- WBET/WCAV (1982-1991)
>
> BTR is the major source of programming for WBNW 1120
> Concord, which is simulcast on WPLM (AM) 1390 Plymouth. What
> with an AM 1410 in Brockton and a directional pattern that
> sends most of its signal to the southeast--away from
> Brockton--WPLM probably doesn't do a very good job of
> covering Brockton, so WBET might make a certain amount of
> sense for BTR. OTOH, Brockton is a very blue-collar city, so
> it's unclear that there is much of a market for financial
> talk there. Maybe in Hingham. How is the 1460 signal in
> Hingham?
>
> One would think that if BTR were serious about buying an AM
> in the Boston market, they'd want WBIX, but presumably Alex
> Langer wants more money than BTR could hope to raise. I
> think BTR either owns or LMAs WLIE 540 Islip LI. WLIE has an
> absolutely incredible daytime signal. (I've heard the
> station clearly in the Berkshires and in most of New Jersey.
> It's local near Trenton.) Moreover, WLIE holds a CP to
> almost double its daytime power yet again. It's currently
> 2500W--up from 1100W and before that 250W. The CP is for
> 4600W, I believe.
> <P ID="signature">______________
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts</P>
 
Re: memories of WBET/1460

Thanks for the kind comments of WBET, Peter. Growing up in Brockton, WBET was
THE station to listen to, due to their personalities. Arthur "Doc" Jones
had the morning show. Mid days belonged to Jack Ainslie. The afternoon
drive belonged to Gene Valencourt and his "South Shore Matinee.."
Evenings were hosted by the "Jazz Man"..Forest Adams. Peter, if memory
serves me right, hosted a 6-Midnight shift after Forest departed WBET.
Sad to see local radio's demise. Even now, WBET is "local" from 5:30am
to Noon with some fill in talk shows. It is sad that these shows will,
likely, depart. I hope that they keep the local Italian shows and,
particularly, Ed the Detective's show...and the Irish Program with Jim
Larkin.. After reading about the sale of WJDA/WESX and,now, WBET,
it makes one wonder how these stations serve the local interests with
syndicated programming. WBET-FM, which became WCAV, also, became a local
hot station. Sid Tufts, Skip Maloney, Rockin Rick Howe are some of the
local talent that I remember. My question for this board....will local
stations just become some Windows driven programmed stations that just
have a local hourly ID with no local content? What is the direction of
"local" radio.


> Speaking as one of the people who worked on "proofing"
> WBET's new (1990) antenna pattern in 1990, I can tell you
> that on the day pattern (5,000 w./non-DA), the signal is
> very respectable. It's pretty good. The night pattern, on
> the other hand, is directional (1,000 w., DA/N) toward the
> north-northeast protecting 1460 in Albany, NY. Due to the
> lower power and the strong skywave interference so prevalent
> on 1460, the "interference-free" coverage is somewhat
> limited to Brockton, Easton, Rockland, Whitman and the
> Bridgewaters. Hingham is kinda pushing it at night for
> WBET.
>
> I'm still hoping that 'BET still runs the Brockton Rox
> baseball games. Hey, the new owners would not lose a thing
> by running the games at night.
>
> I have nothing but fond memories of that station. If any
> station were to be "WKRP in Cincinnati in the flesh",
> WBET/WCAV-FM was it. Everybody liked each other and
> everybody was concerned about each other's health and
> welfare. Believe it or not, I had the pleasure of meeting
> Gary Sandy ("Andy Travis" of WKRP) while he was being
> interviewed on a show on WBET.
>
> I wish all the best to the remaining folks at WBET. I can
> tell you that WBET (and the late WCAV) were probably one of
> the best locally owned and operated radio stations in the
> country. In spite of the extreme tightwads in the newspaper
> (WBET's former owners), this station really sounded good.
> What a time!
>
>
> Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
> Alumni- WBET/WCAV (1982-1991)
> >
> > BTR is the major source of programming for WBNW 1120
> > Concord, which is simulcast on WPLM (AM) 1390 Plymouth.
> What
> > with an AM 1410 in Brockton and a directional pattern that
>
> > sends most of its signal to the southeast--away from
> > Brockton--WPLM probably doesn't do a very good job of
> > covering Brockton, so WBET might make a certain amount of
> > sense for BTR. OTOH, Brockton is a very blue-collar city,
> so
> > it's unclear that there is much of a market for financial
> > talk there. Maybe in Hingham. How is the 1460 signal in
> > Hingham?
> >
> > One would think that if BTR were serious about buying an
> AM
> > in the Boston market, they'd want WBIX, but presumably
> Alex
> > Langer wants more money than BTR could hope to raise. I
> > think BTR either owns or LMAs WLIE 540 Islip LI. WLIE has
> an
> > absolutely incredible daytime signal. (I've heard the
> > station clearly in the Berkshires and in most of New
> Jersey.
> > It's local near Trenton.) Moreover, WLIE holds a CP to
> > almost double its daytime power yet again. It's currently
> > 2500W--up from 1100W and before that 250W. The CP is for
> > 4600W, I believe.
> >
>
 
Re: WBET/1460 coverage area (Re: Boston in quotes)

A couple of years back, when my girlfriend was still living in Randolph and I was staying over her place for the weekend, I turned on the AM radio and stumbled-upon a Brockton Rox baseball game on WBET-1460 after dark. The signal was quite good and strong.

By contrast, at my home in Norwood, WBET has an excellent daytime signal, but it's almost impossible to pick-up after sunset.

One other thing that will probably vanish from WBET will be coverage of local high-school sports. Through the years, WBET broadcast a lot of Brockton and Cardinal Spellman football games, and some Brockton High boys' hockey and boys' basketball games.

But now, Brockton residents will have to hope that the local cable-access channel will be able to cover a lot of the sports events that until now had been on WBET. Likely, those games won't air live since very few local cable-access channels cover live high-school sports. And additionally, most local cable-access channels have cut back or even completely eliminated coverage of local high-school sports in recent years.

In my hometown of Norwood, the cable access channel used to cover a lot of sports during the Fall (lots of football, occassional soccer of field hockey games) and Winter (lots of ice hockey and basketball, and sometimes wrestling meets). This past Fall, they covered only a handful of football games and did not cover any Winter sports, even though Norwood's boys' hockey team made it to the South sectional finals (state semifinals) in the tournament for their division.
 
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