Boston's Black Radio War !

[DanStrassberg]

Obviously, the price is still too high. There are dozens of groups who would like to buy it. There are a couple groups who would like it to be all-gospel, local talk for black community, Spanish, out of town religious groups in English and/or in Spanish. A lot of groups have their eye on it waiting for a price reduction. WILD still has a lot of value... just not as much as what R-One thinks it has.

WILD will always be a daytimer BUT, a move across the street to the WEZE sticks (and probably the addition of one more tower midway between the existing pair) would allow a huge power increase--quite possibly all the way to 50 kW--even during critical hours. And with THREE directional patterns, WILD could have substantial power during the half hour (in most months) between Boston sunset and Baltimore sunset. And it might be possible to use the post-sunset pattern for some portion of the pre-sunrise period. Altogether, you'd still have an AM daytimer but one with pretty damned good coverage. Possibly, though, WBIX's CP for 50 kW-D from Sewell St would put a damper on this idea, but I'm not so sure, because WILD's patterns would have to restrict radiation to the west, with the result that the coverage toward Ashland and Natick would not change much but the signal in NH, southern ME, the South Shore, Cape Cod, the North Shore, and Boston proper would improve A LOT.

 

[Don Juan]

Yes, daytime status is a problem.

I always thought that a financial/business format was perfect for a daytimer. Heavy stock market emphasis.
The market open after sign-on, and--in the winter--it closes 15 minutes before 4:15 (earliest) sign-off.

Hmmm...there's an interesting thought.

But, do you think, that financial radio depends heavily on doing some money making programming in the off hours?

 

[Eli Polonsky]

They would also have to do whatever's necessary to make the airchain sound half-decent again. Has anyone noticed how poor their sound quality is when they play "Classic Soul" music nowadays? At one time years ago, WILD was in wideband analog C-Quam AM stereo, and it sounded just about as good as an AM could sound. Then, around the time that they put WILD-FM on 97.7 and they thought they were going to make a go of their stations for a short time, 1090 was briefly in HD! That didn't last long.

Nowadays, they don't even send both stereo channels of their music programming into their mono signal. I'm often hearing many songs completely missing certain vocals, instruments... and it's all muffled and muddy, I doubt if there's any audio above about 2k. Even some AM pirates have better sound quality.

WILD will always be a daytimer BUT, a move across the street to the WEZE sticks (and probably the addition of one more tower midway between the existing pair) would allow a huge power increase--quite possibly all the way to 50 kW--even during critical hours. And with THREE directional patterns, WILD could have substantial power during the half hour (in most months) between Boston sunset and Baltimore sunset. And it might be possible to use the post-sunset pattern for some portion of the pre-sunrise period. Altogether, you'd still have an AM daytimer but one with pretty damned good coverage. Possibly, though, WBIX's CP for 50 kW-D from Sewell St would put a damper on this idea, but I'm not so sure, because WILD's patterns would have to restrict radiation to the west, with the result that the coverage toward Ashland and Natick would not change much but the signal in NH, southern ME, the South Shore, Cape Cod, the North Shore, and Boston proper would improve A LOT.

 

[DanStrassberg]

They would also have to do whatever's necessary to make the airchain sound half-decent again.

Presumably, any new owner that could and would spend the big $$$ for the power increase I described would have the smarts to hire Grady Moates as contract engineer. Grady was responsible for WILD's great sound--when it had a great sound.

 

[aerie]

I have a solution (giggle). Take WILD dark and move WTIC from Hartford to Boston

 

[DanStrassberg]

I have a solution (giggle). Take WILD dark and move WTIC from Hartford to Boston

Can't do that anymore--WBIX is very much in the way. But believe it or not, back in the early 20s when WTIC was built, the original plan was for it to be in Boston. The FRC (the predecessor of today's FCC--I think it was them) turned thumbs down because too many radio stations would be concentrated in Massachusetts and not enough in Connecticut.

 

[blackgold]

Memo to DJtotheJ: Your suggesting that WILD be sold to Brother Stair is a unique concept. That way, he could blast his angry voice all over the Boston area during the daytime-and at sunset, he'd tell everybody to listen to him on the Overcomer web site. Or it could be sold to Harold Camping and his Family Radio outlet.

 

[MarcB]

Sell it to WRBB and let WBOQ get a bigger singal with 104.9 to itself.

 

[rapking]

Sell it to WRBB and let WBOQ get a bigger singal with 104.9 to itself.

I like the opposite ( 104.9 WRBB bigger singal ).

 

[MarcB]

Haven't been to Boston in years (since a 6th grade field trip in 93 or 94) so I don't know how the reception is in the city, but how about someone buy 99.1 out of Plymouth and have it be the station playing the Urban Music?

 

[rapking]

Haven't been to Boston in years (since a 6th grade field trip in 93 or 94) so I don't know how the reception is in the city, but how about someone buy 99.1 out of Plymouth and have it be the station playing the Urban Music?

Top of the hour...99.1 W I L D-FM Plymouth, Providence, Boston.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Haven't been to Boston in years (since a 6th grade field trip in 93 or 94) so I don't know how the reception is in the city, but how about someone buy 99.1 out of Plymouth and have it be the station playing the Urban Music?

Ms Campbell has spurned all offers for years and years. By so doing, she sat idly by as the value of her stations dropped precipitously--as did the value of virtually all US radio properties. From the prices I've seen and the reported valuations at their peak (a few years ago), it seems as though your typical station is now worth about 20% of what it was worth when the market topped out. I don't know what WPLM would fetch today; WCRB--probably the most nearly comparable property (and not all THAT comparable)--recently went to WGBH for a tad north of $14 million in what has to be characterized as a fire sale. I seriously doubt that the Lowell-licensed version of WCRB was ever worth $70 million, so maybe the 5:1 ratio is not valid. You can probably say, though, that Ms Cambell's stubbornness cost her a paper profit of $50 million, more or less. Definitely not chickenfeed! Still, the woman is probably NOT stupid and, having watched the market tank, she would almost certainly not be about to get out at (or near) the bottom.

 

[raccoonradio]

>>.99.1 W I L D-FM

If it did happen (far fetched) they should keep the current calls:
We Play Ludacris Music (B. O'Reilly's fave rapper)

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Haven't been to Boston in years (since a 6th grade field trip in 93 or 94) so I don't know how the reception is in the city, but how about someone buy 99.1 out of Plymouth and have it be the station playing the Urban Music?

WPLM-FM reception in Boston is pretty good on a high-quality home or car stereo receiver, but forget it on a boom-box, Walkman, clock radio, or most portables.

 

[carmen]

Haven't been to Boston in years (since a 6th grade field trip in 93 or 94) so I don't know how the reception is in the city, but how about someone buy 99.1 out of Plymouth and have it be the station playing the Urban Music?

probably would get splattered or perhaps even 'captured' by 98.9 in the target area by the fact that one is down the street and one is a whole 8 miles away on the pru or whatever

 

[HHH]

If there is no FM possibilities, I always thought that WJDA was the logical choice for an urban AM format.

In target areas of the city, the day signal is very good, and even the flea power night signal covers much of the black-concentrated areas, I believe.

 

[pqgeorge]

Haven't been to Boston in years (since a 6th grade field trip in 93 or 94) so I don't know how the reception is in the city, but how about someone buy 99.1 out of Plymouth and have it be the station playing the Urban Music?

Top of the hour...99.1 W I L D-FM Plymouth, Providence, Boston.

Mr. Rapking.....It AIN'T going to happen. The whole idea of WILD-FM is dead, finis, kaput. It's been off-the-air for years, now. And it's NOT coming back. It was nothing more than investment by Radio One and nothing else. I remember when the day when Mr. Liggins (sp) came to eyeball that what WAS WCAV when they bought the FM. Once they bought it, they improved the facility, got their money out of it and high-tailed it out of the market rather quickly. It AIN'T gonna come back. As for WILD/1090, they are running what's left of that station on the cheap. And with station prices dropping every day, it isn't going to get any better for 1090. And I know that Ms. Campbell is not going to dump "the family jewels" (WPLM-AM and FM) in this economy. The station is a cash cow and the family owns it outright. If you are so adamant of beating a dead horse, why don't YOU pony up, buy that station and run it YOUR WAY, yourself. I'll betcha, after a while..... you'd be back to Square One before you know it. Have a nice day.

 

[rapking]

Haven't been to Boston in years (since a 6th grade field trip in 93 or 94) so I don't know how the reception is in the city, but how about someone buy 99.1 out of Plymouth and have it be the station playing the Urban Music?

Top of the hour...99.1 W I L D-FM Plymouth, Providence, Boston.

Mr. Rapking.....It AIN'T going to happen. The whole idea of WILD-FM is dead, finis, kaput. It's been off-the-air for years, now. And it's NOT coming back. It was nothing more than investment by Radio One and nothing else. I remember when the day when Mr. Liggins (sp) came to eyeball that what WAS WCAV when they bought the FM. Once they bought it, they improved the facility, got their money out of it and high-tailed it out of the market rather quickly. It AIN'T gonna come back. As for WILD/1090, they are running what's left of that station on the cheap. And with station prices dropping every day, it isn't going to get any better for 1090. And I know that Ms. Campbell is not going to dump "the family jewels" (WPLM-AM and FM) in this economy. The station is a cash cow and the family owns it outright. If you are so adamant of beating a dead horse, why don't YOU pony up, buy that station and run it YOUR WAY, yourself. I'll betcha, after a while..... you'd be back to Square One before you know it. Have a nice day.

That was a joke when I said 99.1 WILD-FM . I guess you didnt get it. I was making a joke about a another post about having urban music on 99.1.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

If there is no FM possibilities, I always thought that WJDA was the logical choice for an urban AM format.

Even better would have been 1260. 5000 watts full-time from just across the Neponset Bridge. Though the directional signal is somewhat weak in the suburbs, it blasts right into the Boston urban neighborhoods.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Even better would have been 1260. 5000 watts full-time from just across the Neponset Bridge. Though the directional signal is somewhat weak in the suburbs, it blasts right into the Boston urban neighborhoods.

With Disney deciding that they don't really need Radio Disney on AM in a lot of medium markets (where at least one RD affiliate went dark), I have to wonder how far away we are from a purge of RD affiliates in top-10 markets. Of course, Disney owns WMKI and I don't know how many, if any, of the purged medium-market RD affiliates were Disney O&Os. Still, if WMKI loses RD, a new life for the station, focused on the inner city, where it really does have a great signal, certainly seems like a possibility.