Red Sox Return to WEEI

[ArtSpooner]

WEEI is truly between a "rock and a hard place". If WEEI continues to keep things the way they are, they lose to the Sports Hub but maybe not by that much. If WEEI moves to FM, how do you make money with 850. It's a tough thing.

If 'EEI keeps putting on lineups like yesterday's Big Show..........Larry Johnson, Fred Smerlas, and hosted by Steve Buckley, it won't matter what kind of signal they have because they won't have any listeners. I thought they were having a bad Boston accent contest. I had to switch to Felger. Are they arrogant or is it just poor planning? I know it's a holiday weekend but they couldn't do better than that.

 

[BRNout]

WEEI is truly between a "rock and a hard place". If WEEI continues to keep things the way they are, they lose to the Sports Hub but maybe not by that much. If WEEI moves to FM, how do you make money with 850. It's a tough thing.

WEEI on FM could make enough money that Entercom doesn't worry about it. Fact is, 850 is fading and will further do so going forward. Given this advance by CBS, I think Entercom has to pull the trigger - on Mike. Now that BCN is gone, that's a no-brainer. WAAF has more potential than Mike. Yeah, you could put Mike on 97.7 and you'll lose a little revenue from Mike. However, Mike's basically a jukebox and is cheap to run. Entercom can then put their "signature format" on 93.7 and keep 850 in a simulcast to cover those downtown areas where 93.7 may not come in that well. They can also handle scheduling conflicts by putting the bigger draw on 93.7 and the other on 850. It'll give them more flexibility.

Doing it this way will increase revenue for the WEEI franchise, you'll lose a little on Mike and come out about even at first. But with potential for growth - something that they don't have right now. It also gives you an excellent signal in the northwestern suburbs and southern NH; places that couldn't get WEEI that well. These are higher income areas that are predominantly in the target demo. And, you may notice that Manchester and Nashua are two areas not served by the WEEI network. With 93.7, they're in and "Boston" has just doubled for WEEI (well at least counting Nashua, Lowell, etc.). Right now, they don't really have that full-market coverage going for them in Boston. Even if WEEI is growing elsewhere in New England.