North Shore 104.9 is now Streaming

[Retro]

I am happy about that, especially since both local oldies stations went all Christmas: Here is the link to the station:

North Shore 104.9

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

The stream sounds OK, it's a bit above dialup quality, but this is better then nothing.

When you go to the website, you get taken to this page http://stream1.wboqfm.com/WBOQ_Preroll.html where there's SUPPOSED to be an ad, but you get a "Interactive Advertising Bureau" square in the middle, then you get taken to http://stream1.wboqfm.com/WBOQ_Tuner.html where there are 4 little "Interactive Advertising Bureau" squares.

Those Interactive Advertising Bureau squares are supposed to be local ads.

 

[WEGOTTAPHONEOUTHERE]

I heard they sold WNBP Newburyport. 700k for just a license and transmitter site. Thats alot of money for just a stick. Could it be to a religious outfit?

 

[FPB]

North Shore 104.9 - yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

 

[Laurence Glavin]

The ratings for Boston-area stations go to twenty-five or more positions, including outlets with fractional numbers...but lately WBOQ has been absent from such listings. Even low-wattage AM stations like WJIB-AM 740 and WUNR-AM 1600 (during this reconstruction phase) made the cut, but not North Shore 104.9. According to alexa.com, www.northshore1049.com has a ranking of 3.6-millionth, and is lucky to get two page views per day. "Y-A-W-N" doesn't even come close to describing WBOQ's irrelevance.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

The ratings for Boston-area stations go to twenty-five or more positions, including outlets with fractional numbers...but lately WBOQ has been absent from such listings. Even low-wattage AM stations like WJIB-AM 740 and WUNR-AM 1600 (during this reconstruction phase) made the cut, but not North Shore 104.9. According to alexa.com, www.northshore1049.com has a ranking of 3.6-millionth, and is lucky to get two page views per day. "Y-A-W-N" doesn't even come close to describing WBOQ's irrelevance.

The Boston area ratings cover a wide geographic area, much more than the primary targeted listening area of WBOQ's signal. They're not competing for ratings in the entire greater Boston market. Their signal is not even listenable in downtown Boston and immediately adjacent areas due to interference from the co-channel Northeastern University station.

WBOQ targets the North Shore, and I'd imagine that if you could get ratings limited geographically to the North Shore area only, you would see numbers for them in that area. And, they have shown up with low numbers (.4 or .5) in the entire Boston market in seasons when they provide Red Sox games on FM to the North Shore.

You can't accurately judge a stations "relevance" to the smaller community that they serve by the ratings they achieve in a much larger market of which they only serve a limited geographic portion, which doesn't include the downtown area of the larger market (which WJIB and WUNR do cover because they are more centrally located and don't have an interfering station downtown), or by how many hits their website gets in worldwide competition.

I know that WBOQ can also be heard with a fair to mediocre signal on the South Shore, most of the Metro-West and the Merrimac Valley, but their prime targeted listening area is limited to the North Shore, an unrated portion of a larger market.

Also, WBOQ is "relevant" for the next month or so to anyone who likes pop oldies from the '60s, '70s and '80s who can hear their signal, because they are now the only FM station in the Boston market with that format full-time since WODS and WROR have gone all Santa Claus. There will be some oldies fans tuning in to 104.9 as an alternative, for the next few weeks anyway, until they also start adding some "holiday cheer". Perhaps not enough all over greater Boston to spike their ratings in the market, but for some oldies fans who can hear them, it will temporarily be a sanctuary.

 

[FPB]

>"Y-A-W-N" doesn't even come close to describing WBOQ's irrelevance.
>
My "Yawn" commentary has NOTHING to do with ratings or the notion that a station gleans "relevancy" from them. I was referring to the station's programing, period. They offer nothing but white bread programming 24-hours a day, playing absolutely nothing that is not played ad-infinitum everywhere else. It leaves me the question of why the hell anyone would go out of their way to pick up their streaming on line. Do they SO need to hear Sting singing "Roxanne" again and again and again?? Given their programming, if they were #1 in the ratings, it still wouldn't be reason to listen to them on line.

For myself, if they offered something different and interesting I would listen on-line even if I were the only one!

 

[Eli Polonsky]

It leaves me the question of why the hell anyone would go out of their way to pick up their streaming on line. Do they SO need to hear Sting singing "Roxanne" again and again and again?? Given their programming, if they were #1 in the ratings, it still wouldn't be reason to listen to them on line.

For myself, if they offered something different and interesting I would listen on-line even if I were the only one!

As long as people working in office parks in Danvers or Peabody (for examples) who may have listened to 104.9 in their car on their way to work, but are not permitted to have a portable radio in their cubicle or on their desktop (or working in a building in which radio signals don't penetrate well) have 104.9 and their advertisers streaming on their computer headphones, that justifies their purpose for streaming.

Their format competitors from the "big city", WODS and WROR, are also streaming, and they don't want to lose any potential office or workplace listeners to them by not providing the same service.

I'm sure they're not streaming to try to attract listeners globally who want to hear "something different and interesting". They wouldn't make any money doing that. They're streaming to be on equal footing with their local format and advertising competitors on their home turf.

 

[Retro]

>"Y-A-W-N" doesn't even come close to describing WBOQ's irrelevance.
>
My "Yawn" commentary has NOTHING to do with ratings or the notion that a station gleans "relevancy" from them. I was referring to the station's programing, period. They offer nothing but white bread programming 24-hours a day, playing absolutely nothing that is not played ad-infinitum everywhere else. It leaves me the question of why the hell anyone would go out of their way to pick up their streaming on line. Do they SO need to hear Sting singing "Roxanne" again and again and again?? Given their programming, if they were #1 in the ratings, it still wouldn't be reason to listen to them on line.

For myself, if they offered something different and interesting I would listen on-line even if I were the only one!

Are you serious? WBOQ plays songs that other stations have long forgotten. I do not think that you have listened to the station for any length of time at all.

Also, when is the last time that you heard Roxanne on the station? I would say never!

 

[FPB]

"Roxanne" just came to mind. Didn't mean it literally. But I've heard the station enough times to feel I'm familiar with it (although I can never really stand it for very long at any one time).

OK. So, what's different?

 

[Eli Polonsky]

OK. So, what's different?

Without getting into listing specific song titles, they do have a broader playlist of oldies than either of the similarly formatted Boston stations, WODS and WROR. Along with the usual hits, they also drop in some songs that neither of those stations play.

They also occasionally still play '50s or early '60s hits, an era which has been completely dropped from the other stations, and though their core is '60s and '70s, they occasionally play some songs from the '80s and even into the '90s, giving them an overall wider time frame of music than typical oldies stations.

They keep their oldies generally on the softer side, though. I've never heard them play "Roxanne" (which had somewhat of a punk identification back in the day), though I have heard them play the softer Police hits such as "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" or "Every Breath You Take", etc...