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Budget Woes At WWZN-AM

L

Laurence Glavin

Guest
Recently WWZN-AM 1510 moved its studios from Burlington, MA to Quincy, MA, apparently to get out from under Route 128-area rents. Recently, I was trolling stations at 1500 kilohertz and above, and I noticed that WWZN talk shows no longer use a toll-free number. If you want to get on-the-air, you have to call a number in the 617 area code. As Howie would say: "cheap bastards." After paying a couple of million dinero for a station with little cash flow, I gues they have to economize somewhere.
 
Laurence Glavin said:
Recently WWZN-AM 1510 moved its studios from Burlington, MA to Quincy, MA, apparently to get out from under Route 128-area rents. Recently, I was trolling stations at 1500 kilohertz and above, and I noticed that WWZN talk shows no longer use a toll-free number. If you want to get on-the-air, you have to call a number in the 617 area code. After paying a couple of million dinero for a station with little cash flow, I gues they have to economize somewhere.
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raccoonradio said:
And they now have dollar-a-holler religion overnights.
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Well......They have to pay that rediculous rent for the transmitter site somehow.
 
With the one and only Brother Stare--er, Stair!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Stair

>>In 2004, Stair pled guilty to charges of assault and battery after fondling two female members of his organization...Also in 2005, Stair faced a civil suit filed by several ex-followers seeking over $177,000 in damages

Stair says television is evil and rejects modern technology. That doesn't stop him from having a...website.
Gotta raise the funds somehow. "Pass the Lord And Praise The Ammunition" (Firesign Theatre)
 
there's a two hour morning show (Lew and Mike) that's brokered. It's a trainwreck at times but I can't stand D&C and can't always get ESPN too clearly so I listen. They didn't even have phones up last week and this week it's only one line and it's a hard-to-remember phone number... like someone's home number would be... It's a non-stop rant against Theo Epstein and Terry Francona and they blow smoke, uh, I mean praise Dan Duquette. But they keep the politics out of it...

In any case, there are brokered gambling, poker and other sports shows. They even have BC High games, BU hockey and hoop... and they have promos for people to time-buy shows ("ever wanted to get into sports radio?" or something like that).

but, man, that overnight doomsday show... too freakin' much
 
You have to do what to do to keep the lights on and the bills paid. What else is going on from midnight to 6 or so anyway ? The only live talk anywhere in Boston would be on WBZ. WWNZ doesn't have much in the way of 'numbahs' anyway, and they may be making a few bucks in this dead hour timeslot. WWZN does blast into the Maritimes at night, and the brother may be wanting to reach north of the border. This "Brother" is also on some more 'prestigious' 50,000 watt AM stations, just checking out the website for curiousity. About losing the toll-free number, with cell phones, does it really matter anymore ? Even so, calling Disneyworld for reservations, it's not toll free, you still have to drop a few dimes.
 
MarcB said:
You know very well if offered the right amount of dinero, Blackstrap is gonna broker out 1510 24/7.
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Is that the actual owner name?

Blackstrapped is more like it.
 
Laurence Glavin said:
Recently WWZN-AM 1510 moved its studios from Burlington, MA to Quincy, MA, apparently to get out from under Route 128-area rents. Recently, I was trolling stations at 1500 kilohertz and above, and I noticed that WWZN talk shows no longer use a toll-free number. If you want to get on-the-air, you have to call a number in the 617 area code. As Howie would say: "cheap bastards." After paying a couple of million dinero for a station with little cash flow, I gues they have to economize somewhere.
Click to expand...

Dude, it's a station with no listeners. We've always known that. Boston is to obsessed with sports radio to face the reality that we don't need 3 full time sports stations. Particularly when so many non-sports stations have major gigs too (i.e. WBCN with the Patriots). Let's not be so surprised when WWZN isn't doing well. They could have programmed a format that would attract listeners, they've decided not to.
 
Dighton Rockhead said:
MarcB said:
You know very well if offered the right amount of dinero, Blackstrap is gonna broker out 1510 24/7.
Click to expand...

If Davidson's track record in Providence is any indication, that's exactly what will happen.
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The Davidson station in Providence I know of is full time FM Latina 100.3. It ain't brokered.
 
The owners should give up and donate the station to the WGBH Foundation, who could run it as WGBH-AM and put a lot of the talk shows on it, clearing the way for more classical on FM (like they do with WNYC AM & FM in New York), especially now that WCRB has a reduced signal.

Maybe the transmitter site owner's huge lease demands could be addressed in some kind of donation/write off based on WGBH's non-comm status? I don't know.

I just don't think that there is any way that a commercial operation can work with that huge xmtr lease, unless they just give up on Waltham,
diplex on WMKI (which would give them a killer 50Kw day signal, maybe even non-D), and take their lumps at night with a reduced night signal to the west (the reason that they moved from Squantum in the first place). This would work if they had an "urban based" format (black, latin, etc) since they would probably still be heard pretty good at night in the Boston Neighborhoods.
 
Bro Stair has gotten some other signals too, like the 1530 out of Cincy...

If talk is a poss. format obviously it could become a home to the Air America/Jones shows, but who knows
if that would turn a profit or not. While AAR just added about 11 stations it also lost quite a few
markets (Hawaii, San Diego, etc.) Certainly it's odd that it never caught on here in a bastion of
liberalism but I do acknowledge that lack of a local show/promotion/signal was a part of it--or
it could just be that a format like sports (hello Xtra Sports 1360 San Diego) "sells" better. (Around
here conservative talk also took some ratings lumps recently and we'll have to see how 'RKO does
without Howie, and if Severin picks up listeners as a result).

Me? Classic country, folks. Parton is such sweet sorrow! I'm a sucker for watching those TV ads
with Glenn Campbell or Ralph Emery selling collections of old country (not that I buy 'em but I
do buy some "best of" CDs). From Sporting News Radio to Charlie Pride singin' "Kiss An Angel Good
Mornin'"...
 
Raccoon,

San Diego, AFAIK, hasn't flipped yet, and KUMU/Honolulu is still partially progressive talk. Perhaps you're referring to one of the island stations (was there one in Kauai or Maui?).
 
HHH said:
The owners should give up and donate the station to the WGBH Foundation, who could run it as WGBH-AM and put a lot of the talk shows on it, clearing the way for more classical on FM
Click to expand...

WGBH is already running all talk/information shows on their HD3 channel, and their HD2 is all classical.
 
The 4 stations in Hawaii dropped AAR a couple weeks back and word has it San Diego's KLSD flips
on Monday. I don't know which stations in Hawaii were referred to on various messageboards.
 
What to do with 1510AM?

My plan? Air America and/or Progressive Talk !

Givn the situation, it's probably the best signal that's available to them.

And it would HAVE TO BE an improvement on their current situation!


Also, it would force WRKO to get in shape and be better with some kind of competition.
 
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