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WEIM - Paper or Plastic*

S

Schuyler

* That's Fitchburg - Leominster for those of you OUTSIDE the boonies.

Well, for all of us old coots who can't get enough music on AM, regardless of how it sounds or what format it is (we just admire the station's nerve), 1280 WEIM has sort of gone back to its roots. Under new owner Bill Macek (former owner of WINQ Winchendon - this is a step up, market-size-wise), the station is being managed by Ben Parker (formerly of WRKO and apparently a Fitchburg native). It flipped Monday to an ABC satellite-fed AC format, although still with long-time morning guy Ray C live and local (he's the Bob Steele of the Rollstone City) and with Howie Carr in PM drive (4 - 7, actually).

Greg Vine replaced Mike Fortier in the newsroom several weeks ago - Mike went off to work for Doug Stephan's syndicated show. WEIM carried that show on a delayed basis from 9 til noon before this week, but now it's gone. (Before Stephan, they carried Frank Foley and company until they moved from WORC to WCRN).

Long-time sports host Dave Clark has traded his nightly hour for a weekly Saturday morning slot. "Yankee Trader" (a/k/a Swap Shop, Bargain Box, et al) still airs Saturdays with the chipper and underutilized Mary Catherine Dennehy (sp?).

I live in the area and worked for the station for a year in 1998 -- two owners ago. Oddly, at that late date, it was still an oldies-heavy hot AC station with live, local jocks - one of the last of a dying breed.

Will this work? The tough thing about their situation is all that competition from Boston, Worcester and Manchester, especially from FM music stations. They previously had the talk format largely to themselves in the local area, especially at night. WEIM has always had a good local news and community presence, but with little return on investment in recent years...make that "decades." The good thing is that in terms of local competition, there is none whatsoever: WXLO is licensed to Fitchburg but for God's sake don't tell anybody. Speaking of God, 960 WFGL and 1000 WCMX are both religious stations, which is why we so badly need that new LPFM in Lunenburg on WAVM's frequency -- NOT!

And now, you know.... the REST of the story (oh, yeah, 'EIM still carries Paul Harvey).
 
> Will this work? The tough thing about their situation is
> all that competition from Boston, Worcester and Manchester,
> especially from FM music stations. They previously had the
> talk format largely to themselves in the local area,
> especially at night. WEIM has always had a good local news
> and community presence, but with little return on investment
> in recent years...make that "decades." The good thing is
> that in terms of local competition, there is none
> whatsoever:

What's the economy of the area like? Last time I went thru there it looked pretty dismal...lots and lots of vacant storefronts. Making it with a standalone AM these days is tough enough...trying to do it in an economically depressed area is a recipe for failure. I wish them luck.

Unless they've upgraded equipment recently, WEIM is a virtual museum of broadcast history. Looks like it once upon a time (30+ yr ago) it was quite state of the art, but last time I was there it didn't look like much had changed in those 3 decades.
 
Re: WEIM - "The Famous 1280"

Not surprising that WEIM is falling on kind of hard times these days. Kind of sad though...They were at one time, an outstanding small market, Top 40 rock station. In fact, considering the size of the market, the talent level and sound of that station, was absolutely amazing from around 1969-1973.





Will this work? The tough thing about their situation is
> > all that competition from Boston, Worcester and
> Manchester,
> > especially from FM music stations. They previously had
> the
> > talk format largely to themselves in the local area,
> > especially at night. WEIM has always had a good local
> news
> > and community presence, but with little return on
> investment
> > in recent years...make that "decades." The good thing is
> > that in terms of local competition, there is none
> > whatsoever:
>
> What's the economy of the area like? Last time I went thru
> there it looked pretty dismal...lots and lots of vacant
> storefronts. Making it with a standalone AM these days is
> tough enough...trying to do it in an economically depressed
> area is a recipe for failure. I wish them luck.
>
> Unless they've upgraded equipment recently, WEIM is a
> virtual museum of broadcast history. Looks like it once
> upon a time (30+ yr ago) it was quite state of the art, but
> last time I was there it didn't look like much had changed
> in those 3 decades.
>
 
> > Will this work? The tough thing about their situation is
> > all that competition from Boston, Worcester and
> Manchester,
> > especially from FM music stations. They previously had
> the
> > talk format largely to themselves in the local area,
> > especially at night. WEIM has always had a good local
> news
> > and community presence, but with little return on
> investment
> > in recent years...make that "decades." The good thing is
> > that in terms of local competition, there is none
> > whatsoever:
>
> What's the economy of the area like? Last time I went thru
> there it looked pretty dismal...lots and lots of vacant
> storefronts. Making it with a standalone AM these days is
> tough enough...trying to do it in an economically depressed
> area is a recipe for failure. I wish them luck.
>
> Unless they've upgraded equipment recently, WEIM is a
> virtual museum of broadcast history. Looks like it once
> upon a time (30+ yr ago) it was quite state of the art, but
> last time I was there it didn't look like much had changed
> in those 3 decades.
>
I'm new to the area (<2 years) and live about 20 miles west of Fitchburg (as the construction cones fly). Orange/Athol can just barely get 'EIM during the daytime hours. Nada at nite. AM around here is a dx-pedition every day! Gotta hand it to 'em, though - they sound pretty "big market" as a rule - good clean audio chain and smooth cues. Sounds like a decent spot load, well produced and mainly voiced by Mr. C (Chalifoux). The drive home from Boston in the a.m. with a Live host is pretty pleasant. Can't say I'll miss Doug Stephan, his politics are closer to Air American IMHO. ABC 'net news and features package. What good local radio used to be.

<rant mode engaged>

On the other hand, Orange/Athol has daytimer 700kc - WCAT (also ID's as "WJOE"??) and its simulcast twin, 24-hour WGAW - 1340kc Gardner. Totally amateur-hour radio. Dead air, hastily dropped-in "musical interludes", horrible audio chain (can hear their FM-side underneath the AM's audio), sounds like there's 1 working mic in the whole studio (great for guests!). Their weatherman "phones it in" from the road ("traffic & weather together") via a usually-malfunctioning phone patch. Spots are few and far between, and today I heard one seemingly never-ending one voiced by a mumbling child!

Last Wednesday they ran the prior Monday's news package (including ABC network news, and local weather). I called to give 'em a heads-up, and the "lady" who answered snarled "We're well aware of it!!" and slammed the phone down. Good points: Hannity and O'Reilly. Other wise, whatta waste of ether. The FM side must pay the bills.

I grew up on the North Shore of Boston. Man, was I ever spoiled!

<rant mode off>

Mike
 
> On the other hand, Orange/Athol has daytimer 700kc - WCAT (also ID's as
> "WJOE"??) and its simulcast twin, 24-hour WGAW - 1340kc Gardner. Totally
> amateur-hour radio. Dead air, hastily dropped-in "musical interludes", horrible
> audio chain (can hear their FM-side underneath the AM's audio), sounds like
> there's 1 working mic in the whole studio (great for guests!). Their weatherman
> "phones it in" from the road ("traffic & weather together") via a
> usually-malfunctioning phone patch. Spots are few and far between, and today I
> heard one seemingly never-ending one voiced by a mumbling child!

The WJOE calls have been in use on 700 since early 2005. The WCAT calls are not currently in use anywhere on AM...Citadel, former owner of 700, has the WCAT calls in use on an FM in PA.

Peace,
User 11648
 
Re: WEIM - "The Famous 1280"

> Not surprising that WEIM is falling on kind of hard times
> these days. Kind of sad though...They were at one time, an
> outstanding small market, Top 40 rock station. In fact,
> considering the size of the market, the talent level and
> sound of that station, was absolutely amazing from around
> 1969-1973.
>

Never heard them back then, but they sounded good well into the 80s (though they'd transitioned to more of an AC by then).
 
On the other hand, Orange/Athol has daytimer 700kc - WCAT (also ID's as "WJOE"??) and its simulcast twin, 24-hour WGAW - 1340kc Gardner. Totally amateur-hour radio. Dead air, hastily dropped-in "musical interludes", horrible audio chain (can hear their FM-side underneath the AM's audio), sounds like there's 1 working mic in the whole studio (great for guests!). Their weatherman "phones it in" from the road ("traffic & weather together") via a usually-malfunctioning phone patch. Spots are few and far between, and today I heard one seemingly never-ending one voiced by a mumbling child!

WGAW has sounded small-time for years...even back when they were an independent station you'd hear songs you'd swear were being played off a cassette. About 10 years ago when they were simulcasting a Natick-area AM station the audio sounded like it was picked up off-air, compressed again & aired. Just awful.

It's sad to see these old stations that no one seems to care about any more.
 
Re: WEIM - "The Famous 1280"

>> > Unless they've upgraded equipment recently, WEIM is a
> > virtual museum of broadcast history.

This was certainly true in '98 when I was there -- I had a mic stand disintegrate right in the middle of a newscast and had to finish by holding the mic in one hand like a wedding singer and run the board with the other! They were in the process of replacing cart machines with computers at that time, and I believe they have upgraded the computers since. To my knowledge, they are still using the same consoles, mics, phone interface and so on.

They are directional day and night and the signal nulls to the west, which is why you can't hear it in Orange and Athol. But to the east on daytime power, it does pretty well along the Route 2 corridor.

WGAW and WJOE (formerly WCAT) have also been bought and sold a time or two in the past decade. GAW was just an abandoned building and was falling apart back in '98, when it simulcast WEIM. Later they simulcast WSNH Nashua (then WOTW) when Anastos Broadcasting owned those stations. Now it's owned by a subsidiary of the company (Silberberg's) that owns The River in Haverhill. They may have problems on the air, but you have to give them credit for fixing up the building and replacing equipment. They had to: part of the roof caved in and there was a flood in the building during the Anastos period. Chuck Wright, who was GM at WOTW then and had the thankless job of resolving this problem, now works for WEIM in sales and part time on air. (I worked with him in Nashua and he's a terrific guy.)

Stop me when you've had enough --- it's the Boston Board, after all, not the Ashburnham board!
 
Re: WEIM - Studio is NEW

> Unless they've upgraded equipment recently, WEIM is a
> virtual museum of broadcast history. Looks like it once
> upon a time (30+ yr ago) it was quite state of the art, but
> last time I was there it didn't look like much had changed
> in those 3 decades.

WEIM rebuilt their studio a couple years ago when my friend David Wang owned the station. The studio is beautiful. Pix available here:
http://markbisbee.com/
 
Re: WEIM - I Stand Corrected

I wrote:

> To my knowledge, they are still using the same consoles,
> mics, phone interface and so on.

Well, I DID say "to my knowledge," but it turns out that under David Wang, who owned WEIM in between the owner I worked for and the current one, the place got an extreme makeover. (See "geekboy's" post above)

I'll take engineer Mark Bisbee over Ty Penningon any day of the week. Or even over Norm Lathan!
 
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