>> it will mean (less Rock and Roll) music!!!!
For the 113th time, please: radio is a business. What sells advertising makes the folks on
Guest St. (Ent. Boston) and in Bala Cynwyd PA (Ent. corporate HQ) smile. WAAF and its
sister station WKAF get good ratings and make money. Believe me if it were not so,
you would be hearing "Country 97.7" or "Progressive Talk 107.3". You would be hearing
WRKO-FM 97.7 with Kuhner, Howie et al while AM 680 would run syndie shows like
Ingraham, Savage, Red Eye Radio, or whatever else is currently not on in Boston.
You would be hearing La Mega 97.7 instead of WAAF rock if Entercom believed it would
make money. And you would still be hearing Mike on 93.7 if they didn't need that freq for
WEEI sports talk.
What you or I want is one thing, but this is a mass appeal business. If CBS didn't think
CHR would sell on 103.3 they would be running, what, oldies? Classic country? Religion?
You may wish for "less rock and roll music" but there are many people out there who
DO want it. It's the will of the people. Popularity and what they feel will make them money.
Sure, if I were PD of the Entercom cluster here I could say (with permission from
the corporate folks) "we're moving WRKO to 97.7 and 680 will be, I dunno, Old Time Radio.
Listen for Jeff Kuhner on 97.7 and 'Yours Truly Johnny Dollar'* on 680!"
Then the formats would flop and I would be subject to losing my job. The very presence
of Kuhner in morning drive is evidence of popularity. Mich & Todd weren't doing too well
and a bunch of listeners called, e-mailed, texted, etc. saying they wanted Jeff (not Santos,
not Katz) and they're giving him a shot.
Further, despite having trouble to the west, WRKO's signal is solid enough on the Ancient
Modulation band to justify them keeping it on 680. They did what they could to help
Howie with these earlier sunsets by getting WCRN in Worc to run it. By day, they should do
fine on 680 with Kuhner, Fin. Exchange, Rush, and Howie. When the sun goes down they
do syndie with a signal that goes mostly north-south but post 7 pm isn't so much a concern
as morning and evening drive. (Though I will say they will have Kuhner doing election coverage.
After all, wouldn't more people want a local person on ELECTION NIGHT? They wouldn't just go to Levin and delayed Doyle. That being said, MOST nights they prefer to go syndie.
And they save money--I don't know what salary Kuhner gets but they now have only one
morning host not two. Less expenditures, more profit. :
*--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yours_Truly,_Johnny_Dollar
>>Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was so familiar to CBS Radio's listeners that the network's resident comedians, Bob and Ray, occasionally satirized it. Their version, "Ace Willoughby, International Detective," followed the Johnny Dollar format of exotic locales, continental officials, cool villains, and tense confrontations, with Ray Goulding doing a letter-perfect imitation of Bob Bailey's delivery. In the comedy version, however, the detective usually gave up on the case after being beaten up incessantly.