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The demise of another "local" station

D

DavidZ

Scott Fybush is reporting in this week's column that WESO-AM 970 in Southbridge is now a simulcast of Barry Armstrong's Money Matters Radio (WBNW-AM 1120 Concord).

I think morning drive was the only daily local show left on the station but there were many local specialty programs and local news cut-ins. Not sure if anything remains of the local content.

I did notice that "The Spirit 970" web site (http://www.thespirit970.com) has not been updated with the change.

http://www.fybush.com/
 
DavidZ said:
Scott Fybush is reporting in this week's column that WESO-AM 970 in Southbridge is now a simulcast of Barry Armstrong's Money Matters Radio (WBNW-AM 1120 Concord).

I think morning drive was the only daily local show left on the station but there were many local specialty programs and local news cut-ins. Not sure if anything remains of the local content.

I did notice that "The Spirit 970" web site (http://www.thespirit970.com) has not been updated with the change.

http://www.fybush.com/
Click to expand...

It's all in the family. 970 is also owned by Money Matters Radio.
 
I actually called in to the Money Matters show and spoke with the cohost Scotty Mccall. I think he and the exec producer Dave Cullinane are pulling the strings with WBNW and WESO. Armstrong I believe owns them both. I bet that format will change soon. They've been adding a different variety of programs to enhance people's view of how they view business, money and our own lifestyles. Nice play with so many people concerned about their money. What an idea!
 
Actually, unless he has become a US citizen recently, Barry's wife actually is owner of the stations as he was for many years been a citizen of Canada.
 
wavelength9 said:
Actually, unless he has become a US citizen recently, Barry's wife actually is owner of the stations as he was for many years been a citizen of Canada.
Click to expand...

If you check, I think you will find that Armstrong himself is now a US citizen and has been for several years (more than three years, I'd guess). I believe that once he became a citizen. he and his wife, Susan, transferred majority ownership of Money Matters Radio to him.
 
When you think about this, it's a smart move to get those living in the area who commute for business type jobs.

Plus, there were two country stations, 940 and 970....

However, 940 is nothing to crow at.. they're only lvie in the morning, everything else is vocietracked.... the Mid Day lady, Doreen? Hasn't updated her tracks in 5 years and she doesnt even work there anymore last I knew.

Sad state of affairs for radio these days
 
Yea, I think Armstrong is one of us...haha! And things have changed there some since that transfer of power. It's been interesting following the progression of WBNW. Hey, maybe I'll call him and see if he would advise me to invest in his station while the rest of them are failing! I wonder what he would say?
 
I know WBNW is currently simulcasting WESO and WPLM.

Rumblings are they are trying to revamp a bit and build more local talk. It's a tough market but the signal is good enough to develop some good talent. I talked with the producer about doing a show and he expressed an interest in making some changes that could certainly build the station up.
 
Greetings,

I just started at WESO doing an 12 noon show on Thursdays. The format has changed and I will admit most of the day is a simulcast from Boston but each morning we are live and then from 12-1pm we are live. I also have a Sunday morning show on WESO, WBNW, and WPLM. Things are changing at WESO but it is a slow process.
 
I used to do mornings there when the GM duties were handed over to Dick Vaughn about 4 years ago. It was horrible. In addition to busting my butt for the morning show, I was program director, production director, imaging, music director, website maintenance, I.T. support, and janitor. I was treated like crap and belittled. He made it a point to surround himself with young(er) women who wouldn't pose a threat to his "authority" and knew little to nothing about radio in general so he could mold them into how he wanted them to be. I saw through this crap, I refused to work from the Broadcaster's Guide to 1950's Radio... and he hated me for that. He claimed to be a "marketing guru"...but all he would do all day was sit and nap at his desk.
I requested an electric pencil sharpener once for my little room in the dungeon, and he said an electric pencil sharpener would chew away at pencils faster than a hand-crank one...thus requiring more money to spend on pencil supplies quicker. It's true...I couldn't make any of this stuff up! I'm not that stingy.
Live and learn, then buy luvs.
 
WESO, by the way, was the very first station owned by Greater Media. Owner Peter Bordes bought it in the early 60's.
 
richwitch said:
I used to do mornings there when the GM duties were handed over to Dick Vaughn about 4 years ago. It was horrible. In addition to busting my butt for the morning show, I was program director, production director, imaging, music director, website maintenance, I.T. support, and janitor. I was treated like crap and belittled. He made it a point to surround himself with young(er) women who wouldn't pose a threat to his "authority" and knew little to nothing about radio in general so he could mold them into how he wanted them to be. I saw through this crap, I refused to work from the Broadcaster's Guide to 1950's Radio... and he hated me for that. He claimed to be a "marketing guru"...but all he would do all day was sit and nap at his desk.
I requested an electric pencil sharpener once for my little room in the dungeon, and he said an electric pencil sharpener would chew away at pencils faster than a hand-crank one...thus requiring more money to spend on pencil supplies quicker. It's true...I couldn't make any of this stuff up! I'm not that stingy.
Live and learn, then buy luvs.
Click to expand...
Was this during the period when WESO was a country format? And wasn't there a story about when the morning show guy quit a number of years ago and left the building with the music library because it was from his personal collection? ???
 
DrPicky said:
WESO, by the way, was the very first station owned by Greater Media. Owner Peter Bordes bought it in the early 60's.
Click to expand...

Actually Peter Bordes owned WCTC in New Brunswick NJ. He used to travel up to Southbridge regularly with Anthony Morano who became the owner of WESO twice before it was finally sold to the present owner "Money Matters".
 
richwitch said:
I used to do mornings there when the GM duties were handed over to Dick Vaughn about 4 years ago. ..... He made it a point to surround himself with young(er) women who wouldn't pose a threat to his "authority" and knew little to nothing about radio in general so he could mold them into how he wanted them to be.
Click to expand...

Just before WESO, he did EXACTLY the same thing at Oldies-formatted "The Spirit 900," WSNH Nashua (now WGHM). His morning host/PD was an erstwhile ballerina, partnered with a waitress. He had a stunning blonde board op for Nashua Pride ball games who, after nearly a year on the job, was still so flummoxed by the gig that young male board ops were always dropping by during her shift to bail her out. (Can't blame 'em.)

Under his leadership, WSNH (known in earlier years as WOTW and WMVU) became a legal, financial and technical nightmare. At the time, it was owned by Balance View LLC: Principals included Bill Sheheen (husband of former governor Jeanne), John Lynch (current NH governor), and a dozen other local attorneys and Democratic politicos. Things were going so badly at the station that Bill sought the help of Gary James, then GM/morning jock at WMEX (FM) in Rochester, NH.

At that point, Vaughn was let go, WSNH morphed into WMEX-AM (except at the top of the hour), and Gary brought me in to replace the ballerina. I decided to keep the waitress because she was mature, smart, funny, hated Vaughn and was eager and able to learn. Her name was Lisa B and she became a credible broadcaster in no time. We also kept the blonde board op because the guys were doing such a good job secretly propping her up, we didn't realize she was incompetant and apathetic until baseball season was over!

We did such a good job of fine tuning the format, sorting out contractual problems and bring the station back into technical and regulatory compliance that Balance View was able to sell the place out from under us to Absolute Broadcasting, who swept everything and almost everybody aside for all-sports. (Thanks for being such good friends of the working class, Sheeheen and Company! So much for the "liberal" media!)

I could kick myself. I had worked for DV at 1250 WARE in Ware back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, so I should have expected the worst. You'd think the guy would have evolved a little in the decades in between, but...

Is he STILL at WESO? And if so, why?
 
Arguably DV's biggest success was @ WZRT / WSYB in Rutland VT.. It was under his leadership during his time there that took a underperforming, "dollar-a holler" type 50,000 watt FM, and really maximized it's potential. He had a great staff in there as well that stayed for 'the ride', though lots of other people came in and out of the turnstyle.. He's gotta be +/- 75 by now..
 
[/quote]
Was this during the period when WESO was a country format? And wasn't there a story about when the morning show guy quit a number of years ago and left the building with the music library because it was from his personal collection? ???
[/quote]
Yeah, that happened just before I got duped into working there. I did all the work to help ressurect it, but got zero credit. The only reason I think DV hired me was because I lived in Southbridge about a mile from WESO and he found my resume on the MA state broadcasting website. It certainly wasn't because I had over a decade of broadcasting experience, because I was never treated as an industry professional. I thank the gods that Carl Beane and J.P. Ellery sent over sports and news, otherwise I would have gone completely batty...moreso than I already am.
It got pretty bad, and at one point I was so fed up that I mentioned (off-air, of course) something about it being way past time for him to retire.
When I got married I was working there, I didn't get a "congratulations" or anything acknowleding my nuptuals. Instead, because the station was going down in bloody flames, I got my salary and benefits butchered. 'Nuff said.
 
Gadon said:
Arguably DV's biggest success was @ WZRT / WSYB in Rutland VT.. It was under his leadership during his time there that took a underperforming, "dollar-a holler" type 50,000 watt FM, and really maximized it's potential. .....
Click to expand...

With all due respect, how many decades ago was this? And secondly, let's not forget that a stopped clock is right twice a day. I'm sure DV has his supporters; after all, Ken R wrote a glowing puff piece about him in Radio World last year. But if you really take his entire history into account, and especially the last ten years, I think the anecdotes richwitch shared about DV are much closer to the true picture.

From my perspective, having worked for him in the late '70s and then cleaning up his mess in Nashua in 2004, I'd disagree with David Z's premise that Armstrong's recent moves signal the demise of WESO. I believe it died the day DV set up shop there, with or without an electric pencil sharpener.
 
Ha--I didn't know who this "Dick Vaughn" was but there's a fictional character named Dick Vaughn created
by Bay Area-based media collage/satirist artists Negativland. Created and voiced by band member Richard
Lyons (who also did preacher Pastor Dick and auto trivia expert Dick Goodbody), Vaughn was a smarmy
DJ who wanted to cash in on 70s nostalgia early in the 1980s. On KPFA's "Over the Edge" show, he played
70s hits on what he called "The California Superstation" and did a project called "Dick Vaughn's Moribund
Music of the 70s". The fictional character was killed off, though; he supposedly was killed in a plane crash.
The band sang "Hellbound Plane" about him (to the tune of Chuck Berry's "Downbound Train") and aired a
posthumous tape from him. "Now, you know I died in a plane crash. How did I know this? Well I made
a library of tapes just in case of various causes of death I might have..."

"Old Dick Vaughn on the airport floor/Had drank so much he could hold no more/ So Dick took his records
and with a troubled brain/ He went to catch the hellbound plane..."

Anyway, that's the _other_ Dick Vaughn in radio!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge_Vol._4:_Dick_Vaughn's_Moribund_Music_of_the_'70s
 
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