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PAT MONTEITH, GET RID OF YOUR MUSIC MIX!

blackgold

blackgold

Let's face it. I admire Pat Monteith for her starting WUMB and bringing folk music to the Boston area. However, when she changed it to "NPR's Public Music Mix," the station started taking a nosedive. It's nothing personal; I still like her. But the direction that the station's gone has been a catastrophe. I want Ms. Monteith to restore WUMB's folk/roots format and get rid of its music mix! We don't need no clunkers on that station!
 
I liked listening to "something pleasantly different" myself.
Sad they changed it to this unexciting stuff.
Their ratings don't matter if they are fund-raising well.
Anyone know how they are doing in that area since the switch ?
 
Smells like a consultant
Somebody convinced her the music that built their audience wasn't the right mix to ensure future growth. At some point you have to replace the aging hippies who have always supported the station.
 
Speaking of WUMB, does any know the status of their CP at 91.7 in the South Shore and 88.7 in Southern NH? Also, they dont list WAVM 91.7 in Maynard which they time-share on their web site.
 
mgpt6 said:
Speaking of WUMB, does any know the status of their CP at 91.7 in the South Shore and 88.7 in Southern NH? Also, they dont list WAVM 91.7 in Maynard which they time-share on their web site.
Click to expand...

Apparently, they got a separate new license for WAVM for their simulcast times.

When it rebroadcasts WUMB, it ID's as "WUMG, Stow", though that is also not listed on their website. When Maynard HS students broadcast on it, it's still "WAVM, Maynard".

I don't know why they would license their hours as a separate station, unless perhaps they may be planning to use WUMG as a separate entity to challenge WAVM's license for only broadcasting as WAVM seven hours a day on school year weekdays only, and then take over the facility 24/7. Purely speculation.
 
I'm not a consultant for anybody! I don't work for any radio station groups. I'm a former employee who worked for the station and enjoyed its eclectic folk music mix. Those were the times when you could play anything you wanted and get away with it. With these NPR consultants(and I'm NOT one of them), you can't do anything anymore.
 
blackgold said:
I'm not a consultant for anybody! I don't work for any radio station groups. I'm a former employee who worked for the station and enjoyed its eclectic folk music mix. Those were the times when you could play anything you wanted and get away with it. With these NPR consultants(and I'm NOT one of them), you can't do anything anymore.
Click to expand...

WUMB? Play anything you wanted? Please! I liked the station before and I like it now, but the playlist has always been limited. It's a professional-sounding AAA/roots/folk station now, as oppose to the professional-sounding folk-and-pretty-much-only-folk station it was back in the "Folk Radio" days. There's certainly a wider selection of new music being played now.

A similar metamorphosis has taken place at Folk Radio UK, the British streaming site. The emphasis there has always been new music, but it used to be all British/Irish folk or derivatives thereof. Now it's all over the folk/blues/Celtic/AAA globe and a much more interesting listen.
 
Too bad for WUMB. I would listen to it for Folk only. Now they are trying to be hip and cool, but people are already listening to AAA on WERS and WXRV. Bye bye WUMB.
 
Jimmy128 said:
Too bad for WUMB. I would listen to it for Folk only. Now they are trying to be hip and cool, but people are already listening to AAA on WERS and WXRV. Bye bye WUMB.
Click to expand...

WUMB sounds nothing like WERS or WXRV. It still plays folk music as part of its music mix; those other stations don't and never did.
 
CTListener said:
WUMB sounds nothing like WERS or WXRV. It still plays folk music as part of its music mix; those other stations don't and never did.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say "nothing like". I'm sure that if I had the time to compare a weekday playlist for all three stations, you would see a number of frequently played artists in common. There are also some folk/folkish artists on the WUMB playlist that may not be on the other two stations, but nowadays they are playing them mixed among many others that are on the other two stations.
 
CTListener said:
WUMB sounds nothing like WERS or WXRV. It still plays folk music as part of its music mix; those other stations don't and never did.
Click to expand...

If one defines "folk" as traditional music passed from generation to generation, I hear very little of it Monday through Friday, 6am to 10pm. "WUMB Music Mix" is acoustic pop, electric pop, 60's/70's rock hits covers, lounge music, alt-country, americana and introspective singer-singwriter ballads.

The closest thing WUMB has to a "folk" music program is Sandy Sheehan's "traditional folk" - http://wumb.org/programs/SandySheehan.php - Saturday night. It's a delight to listen when Dave Palmater substitutes and is allowed to be himself.
 
notlob said:
CTListener said:
WUMB sounds nothing like WERS or WXRV. It still plays folk music as part of its music mix; those other stations don't and never did.
Click to expand...

If one defines "folk" as traditional music passed from generation to generation, I hear very little of it Monday through Friday, 6am to 10pm.
Click to expand...

That is the narrowest definition of folk, one that hasn't been applicable to what is now classified as "folk music" for at least 40 years. And that wasn't what folk was on the late, lamented folk/rock WCAS, nor on Dick Pleasants' old WADN, either. In fact, I don't recall it making up a significant part of the WUMB playlist "back in the day," either. There's no audience -- at least none with a pulse -- for Alan Lomax field recordings of West Virginia hill people singing plainsong ballads, or even for Burl Ives singing "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." Stick that sort of song between David Mallett and Lucinda Williams and you have a real trainwreck, and radios being switched over to -- yes -- WERS or WXRV. WUMB's ratings may be minuscule with the current mix, but they'd be invisible if traditional folk became the driving force behind the format.
 
Now that Monteith is out, it is time for the UMass community, the neighboring urban community and the taxpayers to look how the station is run.

WUMB is operated under license granted to UMass Boston, an educational institution, but I personally believe it is not run in the interest of the UMass students and the area "urban community."

I invite all to discuss options here and in a new Facebook open group - Occupy WUMB - https://www.facebook.com/groups/309550412463151
 
What kind of music do you think the students would put on--would there be alternative rock,
rap/R&B, specialty shows for jazz, folk, blues, etc.? (Or would they want to keep doing
what they are with non-students; and isn't 'BUR about the same thing, very little if any
student involvement?)

Local bands, etc.? It seems to me that alternative rock, local music, etc. isn't necessarily heard on public/NPR-type stations. Even some stations have dropped folk, jazz, or blues--witness
WGBH, or Pittsburgh's WDUQ

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories...boycott-of-wduq-wyep-over-jazz-change-301488/

>>Some subscribers of public radio stations WDUQ and WYEP have been canceling their memberships in a boycott over plans to reduce the amount of jazz airing on WDUQ-FM (90.5) from 100 hours each week to six.

I do notice the following on their schedule though (from WUMB site)
WUMB Blues Sun 2 am
Hosted by Various UMass Boston student hosts
 
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