J
Joseph_Gallant
Guest
It will be an uphill struggle for the new sports format of what are now known as WAMG-890/WLLH-1400 (maybe the call letters will be changed, although if the calls of both are changed; WLLH would drop call letters they've had for some 70-75 years, give or take a couple of years).
Unless the new owners have very deep pockets, and are willing to spend heavily to both subsidize and promote them, they shouldn't even try to introduce any local sports talk shows. They'd likely lose a lot of money.
WEEI-850 dominates sports radio in Boston. Although there are a few hours a day of locally-produced sports talk on WWZN-1510, WWZN didn't show up (in 12-plus) in the Spring Arbitrons. Chances are that WAMG/WLLH probably won't be showing up in the Boston-area Arbitrons for a few months, and even when they do, they may only attract enough listeners to be listed in the book.
Any local sports talk shows introduced could lose a lot of money. Were they to remain 24/7 ESPN Radio, they might be able to make a profit, for their operating costs would be lower.
As far as any local play-by-play, they could look to sell airtime to independent packagers who produce play-by-play broadcasts of local collegiate sports. While Entercom has Boston College games (football on WRKO-680; men's hockey and men's basketball on WEEI-850) in a deal where Entercom pays BC rights fees and produces games themselves, there are other independent packagers who produce coverage of football, men's basketball and men's hockey for Harvard, Boston University, and Northeastern, and buy airtime. WAMG/WLLH could approach these packagers and try to make them deals selling airtime for these games.
And, if it is technically feisable for WLLH to run separate programming from WAMG, perhaps an independent packager (not me! I don't live in or close to Lowell) could be found to produce for WLLH coverage of University of Lowell men's hockey games. To the best of my recollection, ULowell hockey games have not been heard on commercial radio since Lowell got a minor league team (the Lock Monsters) some years back; I think WCAP-980 (the radio home of the Lock Monsters) had broadcast ULowell hockey games prior to that.
Unless the new owners have very, very deep pockets, I can't see the 890/1400 combination going after the Red Sox starting in the 2007 season (WEEI's contract ends after the 2006 campaign). Besides, there are nighttime signal issues: While the 890 signal appears to be good in Framingham, Natick, and most areas within the Route 128 belt, and the 1400 signal is decent in Lowell itself, there are large areas of the North and South Shores that do not get a good nighttime signal. During daylight hours, 890's signal area is a little bigger, but not much.
Were WAMG/WLLH to land the Sox, they would need to add WBET-1460 Brockton and WATD-95.9 Marshfield to the network, as well as keep WBOQ-104.9 Gloucester on the network (they joined up a few weeks ago) to insure that games could be heard on the North Shore and South Shore, especially at night.
Unless the new owners have very deep pockets, and are willing to spend heavily to both subsidize and promote them, they shouldn't even try to introduce any local sports talk shows. They'd likely lose a lot of money.
WEEI-850 dominates sports radio in Boston. Although there are a few hours a day of locally-produced sports talk on WWZN-1510, WWZN didn't show up (in 12-plus) in the Spring Arbitrons. Chances are that WAMG/WLLH probably won't be showing up in the Boston-area Arbitrons for a few months, and even when they do, they may only attract enough listeners to be listed in the book.
Any local sports talk shows introduced could lose a lot of money. Were they to remain 24/7 ESPN Radio, they might be able to make a profit, for their operating costs would be lower.
As far as any local play-by-play, they could look to sell airtime to independent packagers who produce play-by-play broadcasts of local collegiate sports. While Entercom has Boston College games (football on WRKO-680; men's hockey and men's basketball on WEEI-850) in a deal where Entercom pays BC rights fees and produces games themselves, there are other independent packagers who produce coverage of football, men's basketball and men's hockey for Harvard, Boston University, and Northeastern, and buy airtime. WAMG/WLLH could approach these packagers and try to make them deals selling airtime for these games.
And, if it is technically feisable for WLLH to run separate programming from WAMG, perhaps an independent packager (not me! I don't live in or close to Lowell) could be found to produce for WLLH coverage of University of Lowell men's hockey games. To the best of my recollection, ULowell hockey games have not been heard on commercial radio since Lowell got a minor league team (the Lock Monsters) some years back; I think WCAP-980 (the radio home of the Lock Monsters) had broadcast ULowell hockey games prior to that.
Unless the new owners have very, very deep pockets, I can't see the 890/1400 combination going after the Red Sox starting in the 2007 season (WEEI's contract ends after the 2006 campaign). Besides, there are nighttime signal issues: While the 890 signal appears to be good in Framingham, Natick, and most areas within the Route 128 belt, and the 1400 signal is decent in Lowell itself, there are large areas of the North and South Shores that do not get a good nighttime signal. During daylight hours, 890's signal area is a little bigger, but not much.
Were WAMG/WLLH to land the Sox, they would need to add WBET-1460 Brockton and WATD-95.9 Marshfield to the network, as well as keep WBOQ-104.9 Gloucester on the network (they joined up a few weeks ago) to insure that games could be heard on the North Shore and South Shore, especially at night.
