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George Knight To Join WERS For 6-10am

Mark my words: Within a year, WERS-88.9 will have an all-professional airstaff and be a full-fledged "Triple-A" (Adult Album Alternative) formatted public radio station.

And there will be no Emerson students on-air anymore.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Mark my words: Within a year, WERS-88.9 will have an all-professional airstaff and be a full-fledged "Triple-A" (Adult Album Alternative) formatted public radio station.

And there will be no Emerson students on-air anymore.
Click to expand...

Non-comm or not it is still a business.
 
I remember WERS in the late 70s as having a lot of really good student talent

Wayne Larivee, who has done NFL pbp for the Packers and Bears, among others, did both sports and news, as did Rob Rudnick, longtime Northeastern Voice and WNTN arbiter of foreign language broadcasts. and Jackie Gael, who did a masterful jazz show, was a fixture on WBCN for years

Emerson has a history of bonehead moves (cf. Let's Move to..... Lawrence!!!! Oh. Let's not)

A communications school that tossses practical experience aside in favor of in-house internships makes a mockery of its mission.
 
As a former Emerson College grad student (1979-80) - I would have to say this is a HUGE MISTAKE,
on Emerson's part - especially, when you have a school that really only has 3 major fields of study
(communications disorders, acting/drama, and broadcasting/media). College radio is the place to make
your mistakes, and to learn/train. I would not be a bit surprised if the alumni go ballistic over this
(much like when they squelched the proposed move to Lawrence).

Bad move Emerson. You dropped the ball, big-time!
 
WLYNgm said:
As a former Emerson College grad student (1979-80) - I would have to say this is a HUGE MISTAKE,
on Emerson's part - especially, when you have a school that really only has 3 major fields of study
(communications disorders, acting/drama, and broadcasting/media). College radio is the place to make
your mistakes, and to learn/train. I would not be a bit surprised if the alumni go ballistic over this
(much like when they squelched the proposed move to Lawrence).

Bad move Emerson. You dropped the ball, big-time!
Click to expand...

It would cost them but they could do what other schools do. That is add an HD channel and put the students on the HD channel.
 
MickeyD said:
It would cost them but they could do what other schools do. That is add an HD channel and put the students on the HD channel.
Click to expand...

They already have an HD2 channel, it's called "Standing Room Only", Broadway and off-Broadway show music.

Emerson has an all-student run and programmed internet-only station called WECB. They could put that on an HD3 of WERS.
 
Just heard a George Knight break on WERS. Sounds... like George Knight doing a break. It fits, although he had to stop himself from talking over the intro to an Adele song.

Eli--believe it or not, as someone who commutes from the Boston area to the South Shore, 92.5 WXRV actually had a decent signal once south about the East Milton exit on the Expressway all the way to the Bridgewater/Brockton area. Much farther south, especially on 95 past Foxboro, 92PRO-FM beats it up.

Jacko
 
It also appears that WERS now has new imaging. Just heard a TOH ID that's completely different, and about 5 minutes late. Also, the playlist seems a bit more "focused."

Jacko
 
Nobody has explained the word "co-hosting" in the original post. That means there'll be someone else in the studio with Knight. Again, student or another pro?
 
A co-host would mean more talking, less music. So far haven't heard a co-host on the air with him.

Also, WXRV has nothing to worry about here. As long as the rest of the day is students, evenings and weekends are a complete mess of unrelated programming (reggae, showtunes, hip-hop, KIDS MUSIC, a-capella) this is only 20 hours a week that's going to be "professional".

If they were to flush all the other crap out and go full time AAA with a pro staff 6a-7p then it might be somewhat more competition.
 
Jacko said:
Eli--believe it or not, as someone who commutes from the Boston area to the South Shore, 92.5 WXRV actually had a decent signal once south about the East Milton exit on the Expressway all the way to the Bridgewater/Brockton area. Much farther south, especially on 95 past Foxboro, 92PRO-FM beats it up.
Click to expand...

Yes, but you're talking about on a good quality car stereo, on the road. For lesser quality radios like many portables, desk radios, clock radios, etc... WXRV has problems in Boston proper due to intermodulation interference from the Pru, and it's hard to get to the south on such radios. WERS, with its transmitter right in downtown Boston, cuts through that interference in the city on those lesser quality radios, and is on a less crowded area of the dial for those radios with poor selectivity to the south.
 
WNTIRadio said:
Also, WXRV has nothing to worry about here. As long as the rest of the day is students, evenings and weekends are a complete mess of unrelated programming (reggae, showtunes, hip-hop, KIDS MUSIC, a-capella) this is only 20 hours a week that's going to be "professional".
Click to expand...

The weekdays are professionally "AAA" playlisted all day long until the evening reggae show. The students after George's show are not selecting the music they're playing for the daytime format, and their announcing is scripted and formatted. It's not like the students are just doing "student radio" during the daytime format, they're strictly programmed by management. It's going for a strong weekday "AAA" presence in Boston that could beat WXRV in the city during the weekday workday hours and commutes due to its superior signal in the city and somewhat more adventurous, though strictly formatted, "AAA" playlist.

If this daytime format becomes as successful in the ratings as they seem to hope, then I'd watch and see if it also begins to slowly take over those evening and weekend specialty slots (they would have to bear protest from the audiences of those specialty shows) and whether or not they add more professionals, but with playlisting the music that the students play and scripting what they say, they may not need more professionals for a fairly professional sound.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Mark my words: Within a year, WERS-88.9 will have an all-professional airstaff and be a full-fledged "Triple-A" (Adult Album Alternative) formatted public radio station.

And there will be no Emerson students on-air anymore.
Click to expand...

Mark my words: you couldn't be more wrong. They might not care at some campus stations, but in this case the student body and their exorbitant-tuition-paying parents will scream bloody murder. If anything, Ol' George will be lucky to last a year with his hide and sanity intact.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
Jacko said:
Eli--believe it or not, as someone who commutes from the Boston area to the South Shore, 92.5 WXRV actually had a decent signal once south about the East Milton exit on the Expressway all the way to the Bridgewater/Brockton area. Much farther south, especially on 95 past Foxboro, 92PRO-FM beats it up.
Click to expand...

Yes, but you're talking about on a good quality car stereo, on the road. For lesser quality radios like many portables, desk radios, clock radios, etc... WXRV has problems in Boston proper due to intermodulation interference from the Pru, and it's hard to get to the south on such radios. WERS, with its transmitter right in downtown Boston, cuts through that interference in the city on those lesser quality radios, and is on a less crowded area of the dial for those radios with poor selectivity to the south.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I suppose you're right. :)
 
The weekdays are professionally "AAA" playlisted all day long until the evening reggae show. The students after George's show are not selecting the music they're playing for the daytime format, and their announcing is scripted and formatted. It's not like the students are just doing "student radio" during the daytime format, they're strictly programmed by management. It's going for a strong weekday "AAA" presence in Boston that could beat WXRV in the city during the weekday workday hours and commutes due to its superior signal in the city and somewhat more adventurous, though strictly formatted, "AAA" playlist.

If this daytime format becomes as successful in the ratings as they seem to hope, then I'd watch and see if it also begins to slowly take over those evening and weekend specialty slots (they would have to bear protest from the audiences of those specialty shows) and whether or not they add more professionals, but with playlisting the music that the students play and scripting what they say, they may not need more professionals for a fairly professional sound.
Click to expand...

Eli, I did a lot of contract work there and my fiancee is an Emerson grad who was PD/MD there... I know all about how it it works. The protest wouldn't be from the audience over most of those specialty shows--they're very low rated--it would be from the board of trustees at the college.

In the end, it's smart that the students work off a playlist. That way they learn how real radio works, the student managers learn how to use Selector and gain a lot of industry contacts. Which is what it should be.

I really don't know how I feel about this turn of events... the station should be first and foremost for training students to get jobs in the industry. There are enough professional staffers present to do that without adding a morning guy to the mix.

WXRV has a cume of almost 500k with over a 2 share. WERS hovers around 180k and a .7-.9. I don't know how much of a difference 20 hours a week is going to make.

Most car radios can handle 92.5 unless you're under the Pru. As for the cheaper radios, do that many people still run around with a portable radio??
 
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