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WBCN THE ROCK OF BOSTON?
- Thread starter jgalt
- Start date
As far as I'm concerned, I held my wake for WBCN twenty years ago.
The station, it's jocks will certainly hold a place in radio/ Boston history, yet in the end became just another 'sign of the times', like the Boston Globe.
As was previously stated, what were they in the end??.....just another generic rock station, and a f-a-r cry from the good ol' days of Dwayne Glascock, and doing things differently than their counterparts....that's what gave them their appeal in the 1st place....WBCN R.I.P.
The station, it's jocks will certainly hold a place in radio/ Boston history, yet in the end became just another 'sign of the times', like the Boston Globe.
As was previously stated, what were they in the end??.....just another generic rock station, and a f-a-r cry from the good ol' days of Dwayne Glascock, and doing things differently than their counterparts....that's what gave them their appeal in the 1st place....WBCN R.I.P.
J
JoshuaC
Guest
ssetta said:
104.1 has a good degree more punch in the city. Throw your money-making AC station in there and be guaranteed more building penetration for the "listen at work" crowd. Since you can get 104.5 pretty well in the north suburbs, you may as well focus your efforts on the city.
The problem, of course, are the preset-junkies. Listeners don't like change and you are risking not only panic from people listening on their 104.1 preset but also now for people listening on their 98.5 preset. The long time between announcement and implementation is probably to overcome that. I'm sure there will be a lot of announcements on both stations as to the upcoming change and stunting will probably occur well before August 13.
I agree it is odd that you've got 104.1 and 104.5 broadcasting such similar formats now.
As for the FM/AM format schism... while you are right that AM is best suited for talk formats due to the lower fidelity of audio, the fact is that AM has begun it's drift towards oblivion (indeed, it probably really started this drift years ago). The ruling allowing for AM Stations to broadcast on FM Translators is yet another nail in the coffin. If you read the Order allowing for that, you'll see the FCC essentially admitting that AM broadcast as a technology is simply no longer all that effective. You're seeing a lot of maneuvering of Sports and Talk to FM nationwide (and if the performance royalty crowd gets their way, you'll see a lot more of this). Better quality of audio. Less susceptible to interference. Somewhat less engineering-intensive to run. Better quality of service.
Yeah, it's interesting that all of the trades are so into the concept that the 104.1 signal is "better" because it has more punch in the city. Okay, but the Boston metro has expanded so far outward and a very high percentage of the market's listeners (particularly those with money to spend) live in the suburbs. In fact, it's one of the smallest center cities (by population) to anchor a large market. I think that only Washington is smaller.
The fact that seems to be missed here is that the majority of listeners to the new WBZ-FM will be based in the suburbs and will get the signal perfectly well on 98.5. In fact, the 98.5 signal has a larger potential listenership than 104.1 does. With it, you get a great signal along most of the 128-495 belt. Even in Brighton/Allston, it's debatable whether 104.1 or 98.5 is better - by Newton it's definitely the latter. Only the northeastern suburban areas (Peabody, Ipswich, Newbury, etc.) get a little better signal out of 104.1. And it's not that much better to make a real difference.
We're all too hung up on the "being downtown" thing. The ratings and listening patters really don't show that much of a correlation. More people commute suburb to suburb now than commute downtown. It's not 1965 anymore.
The fact that seems to be missed here is that the majority of listeners to the new WBZ-FM will be based in the suburbs and will get the signal perfectly well on 98.5. In fact, the 98.5 signal has a larger potential listenership than 104.1 does. With it, you get a great signal along most of the 128-495 belt. Even in Brighton/Allston, it's debatable whether 104.1 or 98.5 is better - by Newton it's definitely the latter. Only the northeastern suburban areas (Peabody, Ipswich, Newbury, etc.) get a little better signal out of 104.1. And it's not that much better to make a real difference.
We're all too hung up on the "being downtown" thing. The ratings and listening patters really don't show that much of a correlation. More people commute suburb to suburb now than commute downtown. It's not 1965 anymore.
J
JoshuaC
Guest
BRNout said:
A good point that I did not touch on. With that extra 100 m or so HAAT, 98.5 does get great suburban coverage, including a bit more westerly than 104.1. I know a lot of AC formatted stations put a lot of emphasis on the "listen at work" branding, which is probably why the attention is being put on 104.1's greater ERP and assuming superior building penetration.
Out in the suburbs, 9 kW of 98.5 is going to be more than enough to reach into your kitchen or back porch to listen to the game while grilling.
As for the northeastern area... probably better served by the umteen baby 'EEIs. I guess it would lend for speculation that if Entercom was going to flip one of their Stations to Sports Talk than it would be WMKK.
mcamp said:
Yup, a sad day for Boston but as you wrote it hasn't been BCN since the mid to late 80's. I had the station with me wherever I went during the 70's and 80's. Dwayne Ingalls Glascock, haha! I used to get up every Saturday morning just to listen to Charles's alter ego, I remember them during the American Revolution days, back in 68-69 although they were difficult to get in Millbury with the equipment of that time. A sad end for a great historical station. 70's BCN was the highlight of my radio listening and I will never forget it, Parenteau and Laquidera were both first calibre funny entertaining DJ's, the best were also great, too many to mention from back then, nothing has been anywhere near as good since, those were the days. WBCN will always hold a special place in my heart.
ssetta said:
That's dated thinking in the land of 1000 channels, uncountable numbers of websites, and newer, fancier wireless devices debuting every month. Of the two bands of terrestrial radio, it's AM that's taking it in the shorts the most--and its FM that's usually supported (if at all) in the latest devices.
Speaking only as a Southie kid...another piece of my childhood has died.
Boston has changed so much. Some call it growth..others homogenization. I'm sad only in that WBCN was one of the first. I learned so much about music from them. Was exposed to so much "new wave" & "alternative" before they even had names for it.
My musical tastes were more in line with WAAF growing up...but WBCN was a very special place.
So much talent...So many funny moments ("Frankie Goes to Hollywood are the biggest thing from England since the Beatles" - Ken Shelton....I think)
I feel lucky to have worked there...albeit briefly. Thanks for the memories....
Boston has changed so much. Some call it growth..others homogenization. I'm sad only in that WBCN was one of the first. I learned so much about music from them. Was exposed to so much "new wave" & "alternative" before they even had names for it.
My musical tastes were more in line with WAAF growing up...but WBCN was a very special place.
So much talent...So many funny moments ("Frankie Goes to Hollywood are the biggest thing from England since the Beatles" - Ken Shelton....I think)
I feel lucky to have worked there...albeit briefly. Thanks for the memories....
B
beantownradio25
Guest
jlehmann said:
Hopefully not! I've always found that station hard to listen to.
scooty430 said:
I moved out of Boston to Burlington VT in 1995, came back three years later, first station I listened to when i got in range was WBCN. I thought this is not WBCN, What happened to my station? I was prfoundly disappointed although probably not as much as I am now because it's finally really going to be gone. R.I.P WBCN You were a great One, Goodbye to my old friends, Marc, Ken, Matty, Charles, Jim Parry overnight, Peter Wolf, Maxann, The Cosmic Muffin, the list goes on and on and it's a shame its dying, well actually it's going be on WBCN HD-2 and if that ain't dying I don't know what is? Is that beyond dying maybe, doing a show for 5 listeners?
Is it any coincidence that WBCN started rocking 40 years ago, just about the same time Neil Armstrong first stepped on moon rock?
I got an idea...Put a dance station that sound alot better than the former Star 93.7 and without the crappy rap music.
If you put real dance, freestyle and disco together, you have one tough station.
As for the mixshows.....they need to be really good in order to attract an audience.
If you put real dance, freestyle and disco together, you have one tough station.
As for the mixshows.....they need to be really good in order to attract an audience.
WBIMDJ said:
encarta95 said:
This info also available at the following link: http://www.wbcn.com/pages/4816334.php
pjc1961 said:
SOOOOOOO, does this mean that they are going to move the current jocks also to 98.5 HD-2 !?
Seriously, though....since WBCN is strictly going to be a subcarrier of WBZ-FM and on the Internet, anyone in town could potentially grab the REAL WBCN call-letters! I guarantee, however, that CBS will do a "WNEW" and move the REAL WBCN call-letters to some has-been station in someplace like Xenia, Ohio. It's called "warehousing".Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:SOOOOOOO, does this mean that they are going to move the current jocks also to 98.5 HD-2 !?
Somebody could grab the WBCN call letters if they aren't stored on an obscure AM somewhere, but with CBS holding onto the intellectual property of the station through WBCN.com and 98.5 HD-2, any station that tries to reinvent itself as "the" WBCN would quickly receive a cease-and-desist from CBS. Unlike WNEW, storing the calls doesn't seem a complete certainty to me, but it is probably quite likely.
From what I've read CBS took a good Rock station and first eliminated everything about it that worked, created an overused playlist,put a bean counter in charge of musical selection and then when the inevitable happened decided it was much better to complete the destruction of a long standing station rich in history and followers. Hmmm. How could I know all this? Well there was this little off the beaten path radio station known for it's originality and diversity and Infinity/Viacom/CBS bought it and first eliminated everything about it that worked.....I feel for all the fans of WBCN,I've been putting up with 4 years of CBS nonsense with the remnants of WHFS being slapped on this HD2 and that stream and a couple other frequencies and who knows whats next....maybe it'll be the calls for a traffic repeater next week....
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