Laurence Glavin said:
The Donny Osmond Show Website is claiming 97.7 WSNI in Keene, New Hampshire as their Boston affiliate. I've been to Keene before. It's been my experience that you can't get Boston FMers there and I'm willing to bet that WSNI can not be picked up in Boston.
http://www.donny.com/
It's more "network think" than "audience think". Networks try to clear a spots and programs in all the major markets, if they can't, they move to the nearest station (for a time) with the intention of moving closer as the situation changes.
You might recall that Rush used to be on WCAP as a Boston affiliate, Savage's show, Bob Brinkers, were all on WCAP. As time when on and they secured better stations in the market, they moved in closer. You might recall Larry Kings radio show started like that too. Delilah's show started like that too. (Thats the only problem with being a suburban show taking a good network program....as soon as the bigger stations want the show, it gets yanked from you.
With a new show like Donny's, no one in a major market is going to carry it...nor even some rimshotters. It's an unproven show, with no track record. It makes sense for stations that are looking for a cheap (i.e...free) show to start running it.
Most shows without a track record have to start somewhere. And quite often it's the station with nothing to lose.
The Donny show may be on in Keene as their nearest "Boston affilliate" for now, but it doesn't mean they have stopped efforts at trying to get it on the air closer to Boston.
The important thing for most network sales is to list
something as an affiliate in each of the top 15 markets.