How important is local to you?

[Skynet74]

Not as a radio station employee but as a listener. Does it matter when you tune into a show that the host is local? Does that mean you automaticly avoid all syndicated programming? Perhaps it's the other way around for you. Syndicated can be seen as more professional or more entertaining. Therefore you may like it better. So which type of person are you?

Personally, local radio isn't that important to me. I listen to be entertained. I don't care if the person is on Mars. If they are interesting to me than I'm going to stay tuned in. I get all the local content I want off the internet in 2 minutes. I don't neccessarily need some host to drone on for 4 hours about Potholes in Providence or City Counselers in Cumberland. 95 percent of that stuff is fluff that will never personally effect me anyway. It's clutter for the brain. Who needs it? Am I in the majority or in the minority. I'm curious to see.

 

[tony r]

Good local talk shows are important. We border Mass and Rhode Island, listen to Helen in the morning, buddy, dan and matt

But, it is overkill , too much each one has the same guest, Governor

But, I applaud the Governor, he does go on the shows. Our Governor, only one station will he be heard on. The Goody laughing due Egan and Braude.

But, when we get bored, now, we will have Joe Scarborough and Lou Dolbbs for some diversion when the topics and guests become redundant.

Overall, Massachusetts does need a good local talk program.

WSAR same callers, day in day out and monopolize the time.

WPRO has good callers, so does Helen, many are the same.

 

[Skynet74]

Overall, Massachusetts does need a good local talk program.

WSAR same callers, day in day out and monopolize the time.

Southeastern Mass gets screwed. Fall River and New Bedford are like being in the land of the forgotten. Cape Cod has better radio, but No local Television stations. Hyannis being 80 miles from Rhode Island and something like 70 miles from Boston, it should have it's own TV market. So basically TV viewers get screwed on Cape Cod. But Fall River and New Bedford get screwed when it comes to having good local talk radio. There isn't anything good for them. If Fun 107 ever switched to a Talk format they would probably be able to easily put WSAR out of business.

 

[Numo]

On terrestrial radio local is very important to me. I have seen the Providence market ravaged over the years from a time when it was great. 93.3, 103.7, 101.5, all deleted from my car presets.

 

[VelvetR]

Southeastern Mass gets screwed. Fall River and New Bedford are like being in the land of the forgotten. Cape Cod has better radio, but No local Television stations. Hyannis being 80 miles from Rhode Island and something like 70 miles from Boston, it should have it's own TV market. So basically TV viewers get screwed on Cape Cod. But Fall River and New Bedford get screwed when it comes to having good local talk radio. There isn't anything good for them. If Fun 107 ever switched to a Talk format they would probably be able to easily put WSAR out of business.

Some of the earliest, possibly best, talk radio in New England started with the ORIGINAL 1400-WALE in Fall River when it had just been purchased by Milt Mittler. Dick Kingman did the first show and there were a couple more who followed in later day parts. The station was 250-Watts at the time and got up to 1-kW but, around then, Kingman died and there were no decent replacements. The louder Providence stations picked up on talk and took over. Then WALE was sold to the present owners who took it ethnic so it wouldn't compete with their own WSAR. When competition dies, well, so does quality and the rest is history. Yeah, the original call letters were abandoned at the time of the sale and ended up in the sad, sad place where the quietly return to the soil today.

 

[Skynet74]

On terrestrial radio local is very important to me. I have seen the Providence market ravaged over the years from a time when it was great. 93.3, 103.7, 101.5, all deleted from my car presets.

Yeah, but it's even worse than that. Remember the great alternative music on 99.7 The Edge? GONE! Remember when 104.1 played great Rock music? GONE! Remember when 100.3 played Smooth Jazz? GONE! This used to be a town full of choices. Slowly but surely... GONE GONE GONE! So now what's left? Satellite radio where you can still get all those choices. Am I right? Internet Radio too. That's about it. It's great that we live in a day and age where we have other choices. If radio turned into this mess 20 years ago, the listeners would pretty much be screwed.

 

[Holland Cooke]

Am I vight? OR am I vight?

Am I right?

As ve say in Voe Dilun, "ven you're vight, you're vight!"

And iPhone REALLY liberates the user from the-limitations-of AM/FM.
Heck, it even makes satellite radio seem limited.
I WANT ONE.

Yesterday, I rode-in-the-car with someone who snapped his iPhone into the charger thingy and brought-it-up-on-the-dashboard-FM, and took-it-out-for-a-spin. WOW.

"Artificial intelligence" products like pandora.com and last.fm know-what-you-want-to-hear-next -- even if you don't -- because they serve-up songs-that-other-people-who-like-the-songs-you-like also-like. And no commercials.

The advantage AM/FM had...UNTIL NOW...was portability. That genie is now out-of-the-bottle.

 

[Numo]

On terrestrial radio local is very important to me. I have seen the Providence market ravaged over the years from a time when it was great. 93.3, 103.7, 101.5, all deleted from my car presets.

Yeah, but it's even worse than that. Remember the great alternative music on 99.7 The Edge? GONE! Remember when 104.1 played great Rock music? GONE! Remember when 100.3 played Smooth Jazz? GONE! This used to be a town full of choices. Slowly but surely... GONE GONE GONE! So now what's left? Satellite radio where you can still get all those choices. Am I right? Internet Radio too. That's about it. It's great that we live in a day and age where we have other choices. If radio turned into this mess 20 years ago, the listeners would pretty much be screwed.

You ask if you are right? Let me check the status of my Serius subscription......YEP! You RIGHT!

 

[jlehmann]

Hyannis being 80 miles from Rhode Island and something like 70 miles from Boston, it should have it's own TV market. So basically TV viewers get screwed on Cape Cod.

Umm, not quite. Hyannis is just about 60 miles from both Boston and Providence.

 

[Skynet74]

Hyannis being 80 miles from Rhode Island and something like 70 miles from Boston, it should have it's own TV market. So basically TV viewers get screwed on Cape Cod.

Umm, not quite. Hyannis is just about 60 miles from both Boston and Providence.

Well you must be aware of some shortcut that nobody else knows about.

Mapquest - Providence to Hyannis 76 Miles / Boston to Hyannis 70 Miles
Bing Maps - Providence to Hyannis 75 Miles / Boston to Hyannis 70 Miles
Mapsonus - Providence to Hyannis 75 miles / Boston to Hyannis 70 Miles
Google - Providence to Hyannis 75 Miles / Boston to Hyannis 71 Miles

 

[jlehmann]

Hyannis being 80 miles from Rhode Island and something like 70 miles from Boston, it should have it's own TV market. So basically TV viewers get screwed on Cape Cod.

Umm, not quite. Hyannis is just about 60 miles from both Boston and Providence.

Well you must be aware of some shortcut that nobody else knows about.

Mapquest - Providence to Hyannis 76 Miles / Boston to Hyannis 70 Miles
Bing Maps - Providence to Hyannis 75 Miles / Boston to Hyannis 70 Miles
Mapsonus - Providence to Hyannis 75 miles / Boston to Hyannis 70 Miles
Google - Providence to Hyannis 75 Miles / Boston to Hyannis 71 Miles

You're talking about how many miles it is to drive there... signals don't travel on roads.

 

[Skynet74]

Well I was orginally talking about how far away Cape Cod residents live from Boston and Providence. So unless they all have helicopters, I'm going to stick to my distances posted.
Thanks

 

[wknd92]

Am I wrong or did neilsen change the requirements for what defines a television market? Am I missing the big station broadcasting out of Hyannis?

 

[Skynet74]

Am I wrong or did neilsen change the requirements for what defines a television market? Am I missing the big station broadcasting out of Hyannis?

Neilsen has nothing to do with the fact that Cape Cod has poor Television News coverage. Cape Cod is far enough away from Boston and Providence where I think they should have some of their own TV stations. Providence and Boston are only 45 miles apart. They each have their own set of stations. But Cape Cod is almost twice the distance and it has no TV stations at all. I'm not counting the piece of crap bankrupt ion stations. I'm talking real affiliates with real newscasts. Bottom line is that Cape Cod is poorly represented when it comes to Television News.

 

[jlehmann]

Am I wrong or did neilsen change the requirements for what defines a television market? Am I missing the big station broadcasting out of Hyannis?

Neilsen has nothing to do with the fact that Cape Cod has poor Television News coverage. Cape Cod is far enough away from Boston and Providence where I think they should have some of their own TV stations. Providence and Boston are only 45 miles apart. They each have their own set of stations. But Cape Cod is almost twice the distance and it has no TV stations at all. I'm not counting the piece of crap bankrupt ion stations. I'm talking real affiliates with real newscasts. Bottom line is that Cape Cod is poorly represented when it comes to Television News.

I think it has more to do with population. Obviously the land area of Cape Cod is much smaller than the Providence market. There's no way that a network TV station would survive down there.

 

[Skynet74]

Am I wrong or did neilsen change the requirements for what defines a television market? Am I missing the big station broadcasting out of Hyannis?

Neilsen has nothing to do with the fact that Cape Cod has poor Television News coverage. Cape Cod is far enough away from Boston and Providence where I think they should have some of their own TV stations. Providence and Boston are only 45 miles apart. They each have their own set of stations. But Cape Cod is almost twice the distance and it has no TV stations at all. I'm not counting the piece of crap bankrupt ion stations. I'm talking real affiliates with real newscasts. Bottom line is that Cape Cod is poorly represented when it comes to Television News.

I think it has more to do with population. Obviously the land area of Cape Cod is much smaller than the Providence market. There's no way that a network TV station would survive down there.

Yeah I agree. Not many people. But for those few that do live there they kind of get jipped. If you take the population between the Sagamore Bridge and Provincetown, I wonder how many people there are.

 

[ssetta]

You guys also have to remember that Cape Cod is mostly a summer place, and a lot of people who have summer homes there do not even have TV sets.

 

[McRadio]

You guys also have to remember that Cape Cod is mostly a summer place, and a lot of people who have summer homes there do not even have TV sets.

Don't have TV sets? I rather doubt that. They may not leave TV sets at their summer houses, but I'm sure they bring one with them.

 

[wknd92]

Again, I go back to the fact there is not a TV station there, nor one closer than Boston or Providence. Pretty much the same thing happens in NH where the stations are Concord or Manchester based.....

 

[Skynet74]

Again, I go back to the fact there is not a TV station there, nor one closer than Boston or Providence. Pretty much the same thing happens in NH where the stations are Concord or Manchester based.....

Yeah that's my point too. There IS NOT a TV station there. But THERE SHOULD BE. Don't you think? It kind of sucks if you live on the outer cape and have no TV station. Did you know that Provincetown is almost 120 miles from Boston and Providence? Hyannis is almost 80 miles. Cape Cod has a year-round population of about 230,000. Go look it up for yourself. That's a lot of people. A lot of people who deserve some TV stations to call their own.