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WBOS, really?

M

MoLarryMoLarry

Van Halen's Jump at 805 this morning on WBOS. Changed channels the second the first notes starting playing.

And so BOS begins to fall apart........thanks to old, outdated, program directors and their old, outdated programming philosophies once again........
 
The Wikipedia page for WBOS lists the station history including how Ron Robin of WVBF was disappointed his disco show on 105.7 was cut in half, so he left & went to BOS to do a weekly show and soon they went all disco, were briefly among the most pop. stations in town--then along came Kiss 108. Also says that in July of 83 they changed from rock to country. I remember Boston Rock magazine describing that format flip as "the day the Boss became the Hoss"
 
A simple scan of the last couple of hours, I also saw Def Leppard played. Great for Active Rock or even Hot AC, but NOT alternative in the least bit! Like I said before, I find WBOS unlistenable.
 
MoLarryMoLarry said:
Van Halen's Jump at 805 this morning on WBOS. Changed channels the second the first notes starting playing. And so BOS begins to fall apart........thanks to old, outdated, program directors and their old, outdated programming philosophies once again........
Click to expand...

As much as I hate the "No DJ's" approach, they are actually doing quite well in the last 6 months or so. People Meter helped them a bit....and it appears in the last 6 months or so they have been back in the top 10.
 
I really tried to like this station. Gave them a preset and everything. Recently whenever I tuned in it was one of the following....tired Nirvana song, tired Pearl Jam song, tired RHCP song, one of three Bob Marley tracks or Candlebox "Far Behind." Look, I understand tight playlists work and all that, but really. I think they could branch out a little bit. But I heard the Def Leppard track over the weekend and that sealed it. Now I just have to skip over that preset for awhile because I can't think of any other stations around here that would be much better.
 
The music selection really is quite strange...it's like the powers-that-be have carried the premise that PPM is more concerned with Cume than TSL to an absurd extreme. WBOS plays a lot of popular music, but it's not music that the same people like. The result is some segues like the one earlier of Stone Temple Pilots into Sugar Ray into Sublime into Offspring into Peter Gabriel. The same logic motivated the decision to add Van Halen and Def Leppard, I suspect. It's like they'd rather people tune in – even for just one song – than build up an audience that stays tuned in.

I don't get what the issue is at WBOS. Other stations (WRFF in Philly and KYSR in LA) have similar female- and PPM-friendly alternative formats and do just as well, if not better than 'BOS, yet both avoid the constant musical trainwrecks that happen every hour on 92.9 (and both, I might add, also have jocks).
 
fmradio1 said:
I really tried to like this station. Gave them a preset and everything. Recently whenever I tuned in it was one of the following....tired Nirvana song, tired Pearl Jam song, tired RHCP song, one of three Bob Marley tracks or Candlebox "Far Behind." Look, I understand tight playlists work and all that, but really. I think they could branch out a little bit.
Click to expand...

That's the problem. Tight playlists work. Stations aren't going to "branch out" if there's a significant risk that the audience could go elsewhere, especially in the brutal advertising environment radio has been in for the past few years.
 
MoLarryMoLarry said:
Van Halen's Jump at 805 this morning on WBOS...
Click to expand...

That's nothing. New York's WCBS-FM even played this song about a month ago...
 
I wish they would get smart and go back to the previous format. They could have no dj's if they insist (not that I think it's a good idea), but I miss their former music format.
 
MoLarryMoLarry said:
Van Halen's Jump at 805 this morning on WBOS. Changed channels the second the first notes starting playing.

And so BOS begins to fall apart........thanks to old, outdated, program directors and their old, outdated programming philosophies once again........
Click to expand...

Let me get this straight:
WBOS is falling apart because they played a song that you don't like?
Has it occured to you that perhpas WBOS makes survey calls on a regular basis and that song may have tested well with their audience?
Really?

That song played because of an older audience, not because of an older PD. If you don't like that song, or think it is outdated, might I suggest that you are not WBOS's target audience.
 
DToTheJ said:
That's nothing. New York's WCBS-FM even played this song about a month ago...
Click to expand...

I think Van Halen is much more out-of-place on an alternative rock station than a classic hits station.

And it's not a matter of whether or not I like the song - mind you, I'm not a huge Van Halen fan, but I think "Jump" is one of their better ones. But this brand of arena rock has no business being played next to Crash Kings, Silversun Pickups, The Temper Trap, and so forth. They must be re-assessing their target audience, because the audience they were targeting before was not looking for Van Halen.
 
In case nobody else has noticed, 92.9 has been playing a lot more "huh??" songs lately. I just heard Tracy Chapman - Give Me One Reason. Recently I've also heard Police - Every Breath You Take, Lenny Kravitz - It Ain't Over Til It's Over, and others. It almost does seem like they're slowly moving back toward the "WBOS" format.
 
raccoonradio said:
The Wikipedia page for WBOS lists the station history including how Ron Robin of WVBF was disappointed his disco show on 105.7 was cut in half, so he left & went to BOS to do a weekly show and soon they went all disco, were briefly among the most pop. stations in town--then along came Kiss 108. Also says that in July of 83 they changed from rock to country. I remember Boston Rock magazine describing that format flip as "the day the Boss became the Hoss"
Click to expand...

I was working there at the time. It was Thursday, July 14, 1983, at 3 PM when the country format debuted with "Ghost Riders in the Sky". The phones lit up with irate rock listeners and Herbert Hoffman, who then owned WBOS, took some of the calls himself.

The station had gone through several rock formats during the previous year and a half, including six months of what we would now call an adult album alternative format programmed by Clark Smidt, who was about a decade ahead of his time. In the spring of 1983 Maxanne Satori, ex-WBCN, came on board with a new wave format. She hired a lot of people who sounded like college kids; a notable exception was Bob Slavin, ex-WCOZ, who would do the last rock shift on July 14. Along with Ms. Satori came Barry Skidelsky, afterwards a well known industry lawyer, as station manager.

The country format was programmed by Dean James, ex-WDLW, and ran jockless for a month or so. A few of the old staff stayed on, among them Bruce "Stompin' Zemo" Werner, who became "Larry Dobbs" under the country format.

A few days after the change to country I was at the transmitter site taking readings when the audio died, and I made a series of phone calls trying to reach someone at WBOS or its then-sister station, WUNR, but couldn't get anyone to pick up. It turned out that someone had called in a bomb threat and the whole building had been evacuated.
 
A great story about WBOS in 1983. I certainly remember that shocking format flip! Actually, Bob Slavin had also worked at WBCN, prior to WCOZ, and Jerry Goodwin (ex-WBCN/WCOZ) was the morning man and PD during Clark Schmidt's AAA format....
 
when they first rebranded and flipped to "radio 92.9" they played Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails. Tracy Chapman doesn't fit into that.

This sort of thing is what makes people keep moving down the dial. this is why i hate 93.7....
 
robotique said:
when they first rebranded and flipped to "radio 92.9" they played Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails. Tracy Chapman doesn't fit into that.

This sort of thing is what makes people keep moving down the dial. this is why i hate 93.7....
Click to expand...

It's almost like a hybrid of the new and old format. They are playing John Mayer, Train, and Sister Hazel. Along with Metallica, Guns N Roses and Van Halen. Hmmm...
 
Complain that stations are playing the same 300 songs and no variety over and over again.
Oh wait, NOW let's complain about stations that ARE playing over 300 songs and lots of variety.
Some are not happy unless they have something to complain about.

Suggestion, get an I-pod then you can bitch at yourself. ;D
 
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