WFNX being sold to Clear Channel

[iyiyi]

Should I go ask Ernie Boch Jr. if he'd prefer to sell cars to a few thousand relaxed and educated audiophiles or tens of thousands of everyday people who buy non-hipster new cars like Toyotas and Hondas?

This is one of the lamest posts I've ever seen.

-

 

[WBIMDJ]

I thought the audiophiles were listening to jazz or classical, music with much more dynamic range than garage-band alt rock. A 56kb stream seems just right for this station.

It's funny you mention Jazz, with WFNX having a "Jazz Brunch" specialty show on Sundays for many many years..

Plus, it's not fair to say they only play "Garage-band alt rock" with no SQ...have you heard Bon Iver's albums? Wonderful SQ and recorded with great dynamics...this coming from an "Audiophile" who's spent thousands on speakers, amps, etc. for both home and car audio. There's also many other artists who have many well recorded albums in the "alt/indie" realm..

 

[promixcuous]

Should I go ask Ernie Boch Jr. if he'd prefer to sell cars to a few thousand relaxed and educated audiophiles or tens of thousands of everyday people who buy non-hipster new cars like Toyotas and Hondas?

We stream Radio BDC in our new Mazda 5 with Bluetooth Audio and an iPhone. Sounds great.

My friend listed to 'FNX in his Honda.

Didn't hear ads for Boch so we got it from Wellesley.

{shrug}

 

[reelyreal]

You're missing my point.

Large, broad audiences are more advertising-friendly than small audiences, even dedicated ones.

Beyond that, you seem to be missing the point of BROADcasting. You know, large audiences, mass appeal. I loved FNX. If anything were to ever happen to 'BRU, I'd be devastated. However, I get why FNX is dead, I don't think it was a pointless death, and I think it was totally warranted.

We'll always have the memories. No station will ever replace it, but a station doesn't need to. I like 'BOS. Don't like it? Don't listen to the radio. It ain't 1978 anymore, and things aren't ever going to be that way again.

 

[promixcuous]

I no longer see any point in anyone kvetching.

Radio BDC sounds like a more mature and broader version of WFNX. Its stream quality is better. When I stream it over the iPod/Bluetooth in the car, it sounds better than my FM radio, especially the notoriously insufficient 101.7 FM audio. In the office, I'd been streaming, anyway. I think I have an FM radio from the 1980s somewhere in the house.

Radio BDC sounds terrific, both in surface and in substance. This isn't exactly WFNX, it's better.

 

[WNTIRadio]

I know they want synergy with Boston.com, but RadioBDC needs it's OWN homepage. Link to Boston.com from it, promote Boston.com but put the "radio station" on its own page.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I know they want synergy with Boston.com, but RadioBDC needs it's OWN homepage. Link to Boston.com from it, promote Boston.com but put the "radio station" on its own page.

I'm sure that (part of) the purpose is for people to see any sponsored links on the boston.com page when heading for RadioBDC, and for perhaps news or other stories on boston.com to catch listeners eyes on their way to RadioBDC, showing them more sponsored links when they click in, and maybe even for some of them to go for paid subscriptions to read even more content that isn't offered on the free version.

As people (especially younger) shift from reading print newspapers to online news sources, boston.com is in competition with all kinds of other news sites, including the increasingly developing sites of the local news stations. Having a separate page for the station would defeat their purpose of using it as a way to attract more viewers to their site.

 

[ex radio pimp]

I stopped listening to BDC because it kept cutting out and the app was no better. I'll give it another shot. I like everyone over there. Just being honest. It keeps dropping, skipping and fading in and out.

 

[WNTIRadio]

I get what Boston.com's point was in locating RadioBDC where it is on their site. BUT, for it to be successful, it MUST be EASY TO USE. Sorry to yell, but that's why FM radio, and radio in general, hangs on. Flip the switch and tune it in. That's it. No clicking though 25 pages to get there. No confusing home pages. Tune to 100.7 and there is WZLX. Simple.

For RadioBDC to succeed, the interface has to be as simple as possible. For one, a dedicated home page with the links to Boston.com around the edges that displays "RadioBDC" everywhere. A simple landing site with the player right up front to greet everyone. Once you click to listen it goes in to the rest of the site.

The app has to work flawlessly. So does the website and stream. If there are drop outs or interruptions, then people will leave and forget to come back.

 

[promixcuous]

And now this: Kurt St. Thomas is returning to reprogram WFNX.com, which will make good on its promise to have live DJs:

http://blog.thephoenix.com/BLOGS/ph...s-executive-producer-of-the-new-wfnx-com.aspx

The Phoenix has put out a press release today.

Having both Radio BDC and a revamped WFNX.com is great from an art point of view (and let's not forget WBCN.com), but the businessperson in me is wondering how all this gets paid for....I don't want to see everyone burned out, broke, and off the stream in the end....

Thoughts?

 

[ex radio pimp]

My thought is: someone if not all of them won't last a year. There just isn't room.

 

[CTListener]

For RadioBDC to succeed, the interface has to be as simple as possible. For one, a dedicated home page with the links to Boston.com around the edges that displays "RadioBDC" everywhere. A simple landing site with the player right up front to greet everyone. Once you click to listen it goes in to the rest of the site.

That would be a dealbreaker. RadioBDC is a marketing tool for Boston.com, period. It's not going to get enough listeners to make advertising pay for the stream, royalties, etc., and besides, I have the feeling that a lot of ex-WFNX listeners think advertising is pure evil and would stop listening if stop sets were to be introduced. Putting the Boston.com links on the margins of a page that blares RadioBDC is not good business for Boston.com. If the RadioBDC people really think they could attract tens of thousands of listeners simultaneously if only the page said RadioBDC instead of Boston.com, then I'm sure Boston.com would gladly let them walk and try to make it on their own. But they won't walk, because the cost of streaming music to tens of thousands of users would be out of their league.

Dream on, information-ought-to-be-free idealists, dream on.

 

[WNTIRadio]

Where did I say it should be free??????????

It should have ads up the ying yang to pay for it. I am in business myself, no way should it be free.

But if it is to succeed, it has to be easy to use and equally easy to find. If the idea is that it is always secondary to Boston.com and not on an equal footing, then it is doomed.

Sure, put ads in the app. Run stopsets. Keep everyone employed. That's the goal, isn't it?

 

[CTListener]

I gotcha. Sorry for the misunderstanding. But an ultra-successful, 50,000-listeners-at-once RadioBDC on its own page with its own URL makes no bottom-line sense to Boston.com, not with the payments to the music industry that would entail and the costs of running that many streams, even if everyone who tuned in clicked on those little Boston.com links in the margins -- which, of course, they wouldn't. What does make sense is a nice little station with a devoted little audience who normally wouldn't go near a newspaper website and now might just click on a Globe story or two and see a few Globe ads every time they visit.

 

[ex radio pimp]

They've been running ads since they started. I don't know if one 30 spot for coors qualifies as a "stop set" but it is happening.

 

[TRF]

I get what Boston.com's point was in locating RadioBDC where it is on their site. BUT, for it to be successful, it MUST be EASY TO USE. Sorry to yell, but that's why FM radio, and radio in general, hangs on. Flip the switch and tune it in. That's it. No clicking though 25 pages to get there.

But how many listeners in this demo would be doing that (more than once) anyway? There are the mobile apps, bookmarks (and the bookmark toolbar) in browsers, and the auto-complete drop-down history list to bypass all those clicks. Not to mention Internet radios (e.g. Squeezebox), third-party streaming apps (not in RadioSure yet, but is there any reason it won't be soon?), and just leaving the computer on. I think getting prospective listeners to try it out in the first place is a bigger hurdle than facilitating return visits.

 

[TRF]

They've been running ads since they started. I don't know if one 30 spot for coors qualifies as a "stop set" but it is happening.

I wonder whether Budweiser will start advertising on WFNX.com once they start the live format. Was the appearance by the Bud exec on the last day of live shows on 101.7 part of a deal (or understanding) to eventually buy spots on the stream?

 

[TRF]

I no longer see any point in anyone kvetching.

Radio BDC sounds like a more mature and broader version of WFNX. Its stream quality is better.

Advantage to BDC for now, though I still switch to FNX (or WEQX) if I don't like a particular song. Or there's an ad. Or any mention of karma.

Between the three streams, my TSL has gone way up (at the expense, mostly, of WBUR and WGBH).

 

[raccoonradio]

A PARODY Twitter account seemed to grab the name of the new adults-only publication of the Boston Phoenix, BostonAtNite. It is labelled a parody and pokes fun at a paper which promotes
"sex trafficking". One tweet poked fun at the sale of WFNX

@wfnx When did you guys start playing Bob Seger?!?!