Re: Fybush: WAVZ to sports?
Website: it is indeed going up bit by bit (no mention of calls yet but note the "New Haven Weather" bit.
As for CCR Boston's stewardship of Prog. Talk:
--signals? Probably not the best but during the day at least 1200 and 1430 do half decently
--promotion? A few billboards and taxi-tops; since ClearChannel does billboards I thought they'd do more.
BUT those who are saying "we never knew the stations were on"--well, the Globe and Herald both did
many articles on WXKS/WKOX (the Globe fawned over how great AAR was) when it got on the air and at several points later on (like when Franken and Miller did remote shows from Boston). Ch 4 aired a piece about the
station(s) as well. And if you were a "progressive", you HAD to know about the stations if you used the Net
or maybe you heard about it from word of mouth
--Admittely the local content wasn't there and you can blame CC for that: late in the game, a Sunday
afternoon talk host, Jeff Santos, was hired, but that was it. There was no daily local host. Even
conservative talker WTTT (weak signal, non-existent ratings) had a daily talk host for awhile (Don
Feder, I believe). They couldn't hire one local host--only had to rely on Franken, Schultz, etc.
Even the prog talk stations in Western MA and Brattleboro have a local host. Local is important!
--politics: The entire MA congressional delegation is Democratic, as are 95 per cent of the Legislature,
Gov., Lt Gov, Treasurer, Auditor, Secy of the Commonwealth, Atty Gen. etc. You can't ask for a more
"blue" state. And yet they get the miniscule ratings they did in such an area? (One possibility:
the powerful WBUR's news and talk shows may have drained them of possible listeners)
CC might be liable for some of the blame, but the listeners ultimately chose to not listen (...unless
it's some kind of right-wing plot to keep ratings diaries away from liberal homes!
)
>> lack of advertiser support.
That too, both in terms of local and national businesses. Low ratings would make some advertisers
think twice about spending money there. Also:
"(AIR AMERICA HOST): So yes, WalMart is very bad for America...it's all a right-wing plot! OK, we'll
be right back after these...er...public service announcements..."
