-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
- Thread starter Retro
- Start date
MassMusicMan
Banned
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
Well, Boston is a second rate city.
Well, Boston is a second rate city.
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
In this bean counter world CBS seems to be content with 'daily hires' overnight on WBZ.
It is not 'billable hours' but it throws another signal out to 35% of the USA.
In the mid 70's it was estimated that Glick was sampled by 8,000,000 people on a weekly basis.
Today I would guess WBZ is sampled by 500K every week on overnights - that is just the nature of the demise of the AM band.
WBZ has by far the strongest signal of any station in the Northeast simply because they are directional by choice. It always amazed me when I lived in Chicago that they would appear an hour before sundown and be as clear as any Chicago station.
In this bean counter world CBS seems to be content with 'daily hires' overnight on WBZ.
It is not 'billable hours' but it throws another signal out to 35% of the USA.
In the mid 70's it was estimated that Glick was sampled by 8,000,000 people on a weekly basis.
Today I would guess WBZ is sampled by 500K every week on overnights - that is just the nature of the demise of the AM band.
WBZ has by far the strongest signal of any station in the Northeast simply because they are directional by choice. It always amazed me when I lived in Chicago that they would appear an hour before sundown and be as clear as any Chicago station.
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
With 2 towers at 188. 5 deg height at 1030, and a salt-water path from Hull into Boston, it's little wonder WBZ gets out like it does at night. The array was originally designed for 990, with the towers a half-wave at that frequency. I think the spacing was a quarter- wave. Perhaps Scott Fybush or Dan Strassberg can further fill in the gaps.
With 2 towers at 188. 5 deg height at 1030, and a salt-water path from Hull into Boston, it's little wonder WBZ gets out like it does at night. The array was originally designed for 990, with the towers a half-wave at that frequency. I think the spacing was a quarter- wave. Perhaps Scott Fybush or Dan Strassberg can further fill in the gaps.
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
At one point, Westinghouse proposed moving the WBZ Tx to Provincetown and increasing the power to 500 kW. A number of Class IA stations were interested in similar upgrades (minus the salt water and mostly minus the DA). Believe it or not, though, by my not necessarily accurate calculations, despite the massive power increase, the increased distance (Boston to P-town vs Boston to Hull) would have given WBZ a somewhat less potent signal in downtown Boston. The signal on Cape Cod and Maine would have improved as would the signal inland (Worcester, for example), and the nighttime skywave would have covered all of the 48 contiguous states, although probably not Alaska and Hawaii--at least not every night in those two states.
DG02816 said:
At one point, Westinghouse proposed moving the WBZ Tx to Provincetown and increasing the power to 500 kW. A number of Class IA stations were interested in similar upgrades (minus the salt water and mostly minus the DA). Believe it or not, though, by my not necessarily accurate calculations, despite the massive power increase, the increased distance (Boston to P-town vs Boston to Hull) would have given WBZ a somewhat less potent signal in downtown Boston. The signal on Cape Cod and Maine would have improved as would the signal inland (Worcester, for example), and the nighttime skywave would have covered all of the 48 contiguous states, although probably not Alaska and Hawaii--at least not every night in those two states.
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
Many are home and can get news access via TV, comp. etc. Nightshift workers on the other hand might prefer talk rather than news all night. The "night people" that Jean Shepherd used to cater to...who might prefer conversation to hour after hour of news-weather-sports-traffic. They do cover it on hour and half hour, I think... (Or via sat. radio you can get audio portion of CNN,
Fox News, MSNBC etc--of course during prime time and overnight they wind up doing mostly
talk shows, too... anyway I remember the night of the Japan tsunami I could hear live coverage of it on my car radio via the audio portions of those news channels, on XM.)
(WBUR and WGBH meanwhile do talk/interview shows and some news overnight....)
If you have a smartphone there are many sources of news at night including the various
newspaper sites.
>>and do what you do best. News.
can be expensive to do--whereas a talk show is the host and producer, etc. Or maybe BZ
can just record a half hour newscast around midnight and re-run it all night. Yeah.... (not quite.)
Many are home and can get news access via TV, comp. etc. Nightshift workers on the other hand might prefer talk rather than news all night. The "night people" that Jean Shepherd used to cater to...who might prefer conversation to hour after hour of news-weather-sports-traffic. They do cover it on hour and half hour, I think... (Or via sat. radio you can get audio portion of CNN,
Fox News, MSNBC etc--of course during prime time and overnight they wind up doing mostly
talk shows, too... anyway I remember the night of the Japan tsunami I could hear live coverage of it on my car radio via the audio portions of those news channels, on XM.)
(WBUR and WGBH meanwhile do talk/interview shows and some news overnight....)
If you have a smartphone there are many sources of news at night including the various
newspaper sites.
>>and do what you do best. News.
can be expensive to do--whereas a talk show is the host and producer, etc. Or maybe BZ
can just record a half hour newscast around midnight and re-run it all night. Yeah.... (not quite.)
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
...in a city much bigger than ours, though. And 1010 does it too right? (...there are eight million stories in the naked city...)
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/station/1010-wins/
>>1010 WINS invented all news radio and is the longest-running all news station in the country. For more than 45 years, 1010 WINS has been a news and information utility for the New York metropolitan area. Famous around the world for its slogan, “YOU GIVE US 22 MINUTES, WE’LL GIVE YOU THE WORLD,”...Listeners always know what they’re going to hear when they tune in 1010 on the AM radio dial: No talk shows, no sports play-by-play, no music. Only ALL NEWS, ALL THE TIME.
NYC market #1; we are #10 (and maybe I can pick up 1010 on my radio if it weren't for splashover from 1030...)
...in a city much bigger than ours, though. And 1010 does it too right? (...there are eight million stories in the naked city...)
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/station/1010-wins/
>>1010 WINS invented all news radio and is the longest-running all news station in the country. For more than 45 years, 1010 WINS has been a news and information utility for the New York metropolitan area. Famous around the world for its slogan, “YOU GIVE US 22 MINUTES, WE’LL GIVE YOU THE WORLD,”...Listeners always know what they’re going to hear when they tune in 1010 on the AM radio dial: No talk shows, no sports play-by-play, no music. Only ALL NEWS, ALL THE TIME.
NYC market #1; we are #10 (and maybe I can pick up 1010 on my radio if it weren't for splashover from 1030...)
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
Okay, so Boston is market #10. There are markets from 11 to 40 that have 24/7 all news stations.
WBZ should focus on what it does best. Why give people a chance to tune out to get news?
With the attitude of "well, we're not big" then you are going to fail, and the Yankees will triumph yet again this year. Talk about a defeatist attitude. Oh yeah, maybe the Giants will beat the Pats again in the Superbowl.
A talk show is just as expensive as doing all news. A host, screener and producer. For news there's an anchor, a producer and usually the sports etc. is "flown in" from Metro or somewhere else on a network at that hour.
Okay, so Boston is market #10. There are markets from 11 to 40 that have 24/7 all news stations.
WBZ should focus on what it does best. Why give people a chance to tune out to get news?
With the attitude of "well, we're not big" then you are going to fail, and the Yankees will triumph yet again this year. Talk about a defeatist attitude. Oh yeah, maybe the Giants will beat the Pats again in the Superbowl.
A talk show is just as expensive as doing all news. A host, screener and producer. For news there's an anchor, a producer and usually the sports etc. is "flown in" from Metro or somewhere else on a network at that hour.
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
One can always listen to radio.com on their smartphone in the car and get WCBS or WINS without any fade, splashover, or competing signals from Canadian stations at night when WBZ doesn't have news. Of course the lead on the sportscasts are Yankees or Knicks scores and the traffic report is about the Holland Tunnel or the George Washington Bridge.
One can always listen to radio.com on their smartphone in the car and get WCBS or WINS without any fade, splashover, or competing signals from Canadian stations at night when WBZ doesn't have news. Of course the lead on the sportscasts are Yankees or Knicks scores and the traffic report is about the Holland Tunnel or the George Washington Bridge.
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
BZ does have the CBS Evening News simulcast, etc.
If they think it would make more $$ than doing talk at night, they would do news. Sometimes they get bright ideas from corporate, like getting rid of David Brudnoy to put Tom Snyder on (listener protests restored the former; now both are no longer with us) or getting rid of Steve Leveille
(which they did later anyway, pretty much) in favor of Overnight America.... Maybe someday someone will decree, news all the time. (Rea, rotating talk hosts at midnight, and J. Rich/Bradley Jay etc all seem to satisfy
them. For now.)
BZ does have the CBS Evening News simulcast, etc.
If they think it would make more $$ than doing talk at night, they would do news. Sometimes they get bright ideas from corporate, like getting rid of David Brudnoy to put Tom Snyder on (listener protests restored the former; now both are no longer with us) or getting rid of Steve Leveille
(which they did later anyway, pretty much) in favor of Overnight America.... Maybe someday someone will decree, news all the time. (Rea, rotating talk hosts at midnight, and J. Rich/Bradley Jay etc all seem to satisfy
them. For now.)
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
Yes, and although IBOC and too-close-for-comfort adjacent stations have made it impossible to receive WCBS OTA in this area, thankfully we now have the ability to stream it, or its sister all-news operations, whenever we want to hear a first-rate CBS radio news outlet. I suppose we need to remember that this is Boston, all news 24x7 won't work here and we'd rather die than depart from the way things have always been. Whatever - being concerned about any AM station is like worrying about peeling paint on the Titanic.
KML-224 said:All news 24/7 (except during Yankees baseball) seems to work just fine for sister station WCBS-AM 880.
Yes, and although IBOC and too-close-for-comfort adjacent stations have made it impossible to receive WCBS OTA in this area, thankfully we now have the ability to stream it, or its sister all-news operations, whenever we want to hear a first-rate CBS radio news outlet. I suppose we need to remember that this is Boston, all news 24x7 won't work here and we'd rather die than depart from the way things have always been. Whatever - being concerned about any AM station is like worrying about peeling paint on the Titanic.
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
Previous all news stations in Boston:
WEEI AM 590 (though they'd also have stuff like CBS Mystery Theatre, maybe talk shows)
WHUE 1150 tried it too in early 80s, as the FM (100.7 later became WZLX) kept the beautiful
music going though.
I was up in Merrimack Valley yesterday and heard 1110 WCCM "Eagle News Radio" --as in Eagle
Tribune. They had some Valley news part of one hour then were picking up a fave of Laurojrm's,
America's Radio News. Daytimer though they are also on the HD2 of 102.9 (the reg signal
// WNNW 800) and the HD2 is full time.
>>6:00A-10:00A ~ America's Radio News
12:00P-1:00P ~ Local News
2:00P-9:00P ~ America's Radio News
9:00P-6:00A ~ Various Talk Programs
http://www.1110wccmam.com
Some stations in the past simulcast CNN Headline News (CT? Maybe Rochester NH's 930--
and at one point I think they had a CP for 1700 and they were supposed to get the calls
WZNN which led me to believe they could have put the CNN simulcast there...meanwhile I
was picking up a pirate on 495 in Lawrence yesterday on 1700)
Previous all news stations in Boston:
WEEI AM 590 (though they'd also have stuff like CBS Mystery Theatre, maybe talk shows)
WHUE 1150 tried it too in early 80s, as the FM (100.7 later became WZLX) kept the beautiful
music going though.
I was up in Merrimack Valley yesterday and heard 1110 WCCM "Eagle News Radio" --as in Eagle
Tribune. They had some Valley news part of one hour then were picking up a fave of Laurojrm's,
America's Radio News. Daytimer though they are also on the HD2 of 102.9 (the reg signal
// WNNW 800) and the HD2 is full time.
>>6:00A-10:00A ~ America's Radio News
12:00P-1:00P ~ Local News
2:00P-9:00P ~ America's Radio News
9:00P-6:00A ~ Various Talk Programs
http://www.1110wccmam.com
Some stations in the past simulcast CNN Headline News (CT? Maybe Rochester NH's 930--
and at one point I think they had a CP for 1700 and they were supposed to get the calls
WZNN which led me to believe they could have put the CNN simulcast there...meanwhile I
was picking up a pirate on 495 in Lawrence yesterday on 1700)
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
RaccoonRadio is right, people just aren't going to tune into AM radio when they have 5+ news channels on TV available and countless news websites. WBZ is doing the right thing here, the profitable thing, and doing what's appropriate for this market, not blindly doing whatever NYC stations do.
Who is listening to AM radio news after dark aside from the 50+ crowd?
RaccoonRadio is right, people just aren't going to tune into AM radio when they have 5+ news channels on TV available and countless news websites. WBZ is doing the right thing here, the profitable thing, and doing what's appropriate for this market, not blindly doing whatever NYC stations do.
Who is listening to AM radio news after dark aside from the 50+ crowd?
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
5+ News Channels that give you their slant on the news, not just the facts of the news. No thanks.
I would much rather hear an "All News Radio Station". I don't buy the argumernt that Boston is not big enough but I may be in the minority on that belief.
Smoke said:
5+ News Channels that give you their slant on the news, not just the facts of the news. No thanks.
I would much rather hear an "All News Radio Station". I don't buy the argumernt that Boston is not big enough but I may be in the minority on that belief.
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
One of those TV stations is the sister station of WBZ News Radio. If Ch 4 is slanted what makes one think that all-night-Newsradio-1030 wouldn't be as well? Or for that matter if a station like
WGBH, WBUR, or WRKO were to try it (not likely)
One of those TV stations is the sister station of WBZ News Radio. If Ch 4 is slanted what makes one think that all-night-Newsradio-1030 wouldn't be as well? Or for that matter if a station like
WGBH, WBUR, or WRKO were to try it (not likely)
Re: Does WBZ's "Live Local Talk" Make The Station Sound Like Boston is 2nd Rate City
I wasn't referring to the local stations. They only have their late local newscast at 11. I was referring to the so called Cable News Outlets which just preaches their slant on the news. And I may add, 99% of the time, no local content unless the story is of national significance.
raccoonradio said:
I wasn't referring to the local stations. They only have their late local newscast at 11. I was referring to the so called Cable News Outlets which just preaches their slant on the news. And I may add, 99% of the time, no local content unless the story is of national significance.
- Status