Because there's only about $12 million worth of ad revenue in the entire Worcester market for all the stations targeting it to split up, that's why. Entercom wanted a piece of the far larger Boston pie with WAAF. The decline of current rock to a musical niche rather than a genre with mainstream appeal rendered all the effort Entercom put into positioning WAAF as a Boston station futile. No one would have paid over $100 million for WAAF at any time in its history.
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WAAF sold to EMF....
- Thread starter Time Traveler
- Start date
Because there's only about $12 million worth of ad revenue in the entire Worcester market for all the stations targeting it to split up, that's why. Entercom wanted a piece of the far larger Boston pie with WAAF. The decline of current rock to a musical niche rather than a genre with mainstream appeal rendered all the effort Entercom put into positioning WAAF as a Boston station futile. No one would have paid over $100 million for WAAF at any time in its history.
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MikaelaArsenault
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According to what I read, The Rock format will continue to operate on 104.1 WWBX-HD2 and 93.7 WEEI-HD2 and Radio.com following the sale.
"Operate" means the music only will be available there. It's just a way for Entercom to minimize negative blowback. The 12 people who own HD radios might find it if they even bother looking for it...
Will the EMF get new call letters for 107.3?
WAAF’s ratings would be better if they were on an actual Boston signal capable of covering the entire market (and then some).
they moved the tower from the mountain in Paxton, MA eastward a number of years ago to get a better signal into Boston to go after that market. I heard a big rumor that they may move the tower back there when the ownership changes to EMF. Not sure if that would even make sense cause KLove signal on 106.9 in Hartford covers Western Ma just fine
Now that would make sense if they want to relaunch, but then again if they do a new launch, new image, new music, etc. then it may be just as well that they have new calls too!
There are places north and west of Boston where the transmitter location change has helped, it's been said here, and there are certainly more ears to reach in the Boston area then out west, so that rumor doesn't make much sense to me, especially since WCCC puts a perfectly adequate signal into the Springfield area.
If we’re talking rumors, I’d heard that it was former longtime PD Ron Valeri who was the big proponent of the West Boylston signal. Supposedly wherever he lived there was a slight improvement and he was the one that insisted that it stay there. Who knows whether or not that’s true.
I agree with those who have said that move eventually lead to the station’s demise. The monster signal from Paxton, even though it didn’t contribute to revenue in the Boston market was part of AAF’s charm.
I agree with those who have said that move eventually lead to the station’s demise. The monster signal from Paxton, even though it didn’t contribute to revenue in the Boston market was part of AAF’s charm.
I'm only a listener, not in the business, but it doesn't seem plausible to me that a program director's opinion on transmitter location would be solicited or welcomed by management, especially on the technical side. I call BS on this one, but who knows, maybe the music people at some stations have more pull than I think they do.
Yup. Looks like the WAAF calls will be parked in Scranton.
Worcester is a very small market. There are a dozen Boston stations that each bill more than all the revenue in Worcester combined.
That is why WAAF moved the transmitter and COL to the part of the county that is in the Boston MSA... it qualified as a "home" station back in the diary days when they did that.
Temporarily WAAF will become WBZU. As far as the permanent calls...I guess those will come when the sale finally closes?
https://www.facebook.com/radioinsightcom/posts/2748427035255885
Naw, there has to be at least the letter K or V in their call letters. Maybe a B as well, but then Country 102.5 just might have a problem with that combo.
Am in Back Bay now.On my HD portable there's an open carrier on WZLX HD3. it's labelled K-Love.
Oddly enough, Mike Hsu was one of the jocks (and PD, I do believe) working on WBZU (The Buzz 104.7/106.5) in Richmond, VA during the mid 90's...call sign coming full circle.
Separate radio markets. But Worcester is a part of the Boston TV market. That's where some confusion can happen as TV markets are often bigger than radio markets.
Interesting, thanks for catching that. Let us know when K-Love starts on WZLX HD3. It sounds like are adding it to help the coverage area for those like me with HD radios. Maybe it will start on Saturday too.
I'm also seeing that on my HD radio here in Somerville. No audio on it.
Doesn't make much sense to me. If it's not some sort of weird error, why would EMF want K-Love to be on WZLX HD3? Especially if they have to pay iHeart for use of the channel? Wouldn't seem worth it for a subchannel.
EMF may want a full-power (analog) FM transmitter right in Boston as well as 107.3 in metro-west, but WZLX is still doing pretty well for iHeart, a lot better than WAAF was doing for Entercom. Doesn't seem like iHeart would want to sell WZLX. Perhaps one of their lesser-performing Boston FM's?
Though it's not full-power, I could see them going for 97.7 WKAF, using the old WAAF/WKAF idea of covering west and north of Boston from Boylston, and Boston proper and south of Boston from Blue Hill.
Or, could EMF be wanting to use WZLX HD3 as an over-the-air link to feed their signal to another (analog) station elsewhere in the area?
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