They have been AOR/ROCK for 50 years since March, 1970...
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
WAAF sold to EMF....
- Thread starter Time Traveler
- Start date
The writing was on the wall for the station for a while. Even the ratings and audience were eroding to the point it became the weakest performer in the Entercom Boston cluster.
And so passes current rock from the Boston commercial radio scene. It's a rhythmic world, and rockers are only living in it.
That just pi$$ed off the entire New England region. The end of an unbelievable era at 107.3 mhz. What's sad is the fact that a rock station in Boston MA is 0.8 in the ratings. How the mighty have fallen.
Doubt they'll do any better under a K-Love affiliation. But sad to see one of Boston's finest stations go off the air at the end of the week, replaced with a robotic satellite feed (which lately has just been BEGGING for money during their fundraiser...'can you donate? can you donate? 3 spots left! $50 donation!') and the only thing local...'You're listening to Boston's Positive Encouraging K-LOVE, 107.3 WAAF, Westborough/Boston" at the TOH.
Doubt they'll do any better under a K-Love affiliation. But sad to see one of Boston's finest stations go off the air at the end of the week, replaced with a robotic satellite feed (which lately has just been BEGGING for money during their fundraiser...'can you donate? can you donate? 3 spots left! $50 donation!') and the only thing local...'You're listening to Boston's Positive Encouraging K-LOVE, 107.3 WAAF, Westborough/Boston" at the TOH.
The Christian radio iHeart.
YO! ENTERCOM!! Take the money and buy WBZ-AM !!!!!!!!!!
So, no Contemporary Rock, no Alternative, you would want to hope that WXRV sticks around. It appears to be the last one standing.
Don't blame it on radio. Blame it on the music. It just doesn't attract audiences any more.
Very unlikely. Terrible profit margin. No growth in the format or the band.
50 years is not a metric that radio can use and sell.
5 or 6 months is enough for advertisers to decide whether to use a station or not.
5 or 6 songs in enough for listeners to decide if the format is of interest.
Heritage is only of value if today's programming is attractive and appealing to a large audience. WAAF does not qualify on this criteria.
No it didn't. If it did, the station would be higher than 0.8.
Mainstream rock is still alive and well in Seattle (at KISW) and Yakima (at KATS), at least in the NW United States. I guess when the demos are younger and/or more diverse (36% don't speak English, 20% are Hispanic, 22% African American) the oldie but goodie formats like rock don't get an audience. 100.7 seems to do fine, I wonder if they will tweak the format a little.
I can go on with conspiracy theories or irrational yelling, but it will do no good. Fact is, Entercom left it on autopilot long before they bought WILD and flipped it to WKAF. There's enough listenership for rock in this "rhythmic world", but regurgitated 90s hits aren't going to cut it anymore. Sad day, but I've planned for this for a long time. FM wanted to go in a different direction? Fine, then I won't support FM. I got myself covered between SiriusXM, Podcasts, internet stations, and music saved into my phone. Should someone from FM decide to embrace something other than the status quo, then I'll be back.
Not enough current hits to fill a format. Current rock fits better in the on-demand streaming world.
Rock has lost a significant portion of the younger white, English-speaking, non-Hispanic, suburban audience to more rhythmic genres over the past 20 years, especially hip-hop. I'm sure the erosion is taking place even in Seattle.
Remember that English language rock has been popular in much of the world since the 50's.
Yes, there are differences in what songs and groups are the biggest, but in general a hit is a hit.
At one point when I was programming in Lima (Peru, not Ohio) in the 80's, there were 17 or 18 FMs that only played English language CHR and rock and AC and oldies.
The real issue is that non-rhythmic pop is at about its lowest point ever in the US and in nations where US CHR music is popular.
And Boston is not a young-leaning market. The median age for the MSA is about a year older than that for the Seattle MSA.
And the Boston MSA is 11% Hispanic, not 20% and it is 7.5% Black, not 22%.
Last edited:
KISW's playlist looks similar to WAAF's with loads of classic rock from the 70s and 80s. But they still get a 4 share.
The WAAF 65 dbu only covers 1.2 million in a market that has 5 million (And much of the WAAF signal is over the separate Worcester market that has little revenue.
Most of "New England" can't and does not listen to WAAF... there are nearly 17 million in the 6 states.
WAAF's cume over the last part of 2019 was less than 250,000 in its full coverage area... about 1% of New England's population. This was a dead station walking.
Last edited:
- Status