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What are Boston radio's biggest failures?

WXKS-AM is making a bid for the top slot.

Seriously how much did Clear Channel pay to move and upgrade the transmitter???

I never understood the move of WAAF to the Channel 27 tower. Part of the reason WSMW-TV failed was the signal just died at 128 which destroyed their plans to be a sports station.

What exactly was Entercom thinking?
 
Fenway1912 said:
WXKS-AM is making a bid for the top slot. Seriously how much did Clear Channel pay to move and upgrade the transmitter???
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The number I've heard but have no way of verifying is $10 million (for 1200 alone; the other two stations have separate tabs, which, taken together, might add up to another $10 million, or not). Sounds reasonable to me, but a whole bunch of other numbers would also sound reasonable, so you should take the above figures for what they're worth, which is, at best, not much.
 
TSBench said:
Mike Macklin. He, of "I Will Sue You Because You Unfairly Took My Job Away"

He would have had to fire himself since Mike Macklin was/is a freelancer and freelancers are, by definition, self-employed.

They didn't take away his job, they just never offered him a staff gig.

Your posts give uninformed opionion a bad name.

Regards,
TSB
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Well, shucks sir. Free-lancers can often be, and in many cases involving broadcasting companies, are often employees. The term is used as a legal fiction to avoid certain AFTRA contract guarantees. Says who? Says the IRS.
 
Biggest failure?

I don't know about the biggest, but there are two in history that I can think of (with probably very few old timers who remember them first hand):

1) WUPY/WUPI in Lynn on 105.3 (I think). This was a tiny stand-alone FM that was on air in the early 1960s which reportedly played jazz at least part of the time. Owner was a nut. Station gave up about 1963 and frequency was deleted. Tower reportedly still stood until just a couple of years ago when it either was taken down or fell down.

2) WTAO-TV Channel 56 in the 1950s. Almost nobody had UHF capability back then and if you were geeky enough to buy a UHF converter they were marginal at best and the signal (even from Zion Hill in Woburn, which was a pretty good spot in those days) was pretty crappy.
Public domain movies and reportedly some bottom of the barrel DuMont shows that Channel 7 wouldn't clear (7 was CBS and shoehorned in a few DuMont shows but not most). Station gave up after only a couple of years.

By the way, I question the selection of John Garabidian's time on WMEX as making the "biggest failure" list. As I recall, he gave WMEX its best ratings in years around 1970-71 when he was PD.
 
Thought, I read somewhere that WUPY was one of the first FM stations to be in stereo in the early days in Boston. Zion Hill is now the site of one the major head-ends for Comcast in Boston. How could put John H. time at WMEX as a failure He played Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band ' s "Isolation" on Top40 AM radio.
 
I was there

John H was NOT A FAILURE.

Mac Richmond died suddenly in October of 1971 and his brother Dick sent Bob Howard to Boston from WPGC.

Howard stopped everything John and Wendy were doing.





mgpt6 said:
Thought, I read somewhere that WUPY was one of the first FM stations to be in stereo in the early days in Boston. Zion Hill is now the site of one the major head-ends for Comcast in Boston. How could put John H. time at WMEX as a failure He played Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band ' s "Isolation" on Top40 AM radio.
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Fenway1912 said:
I was there

John H was NOT A FAILURE.

Mac Richmond died suddenly in October of 1971 and his brother Dick sent Bob Howard to Boston from WPGC.

Howard stopped everything John and Wendy were doing.





mgpt6 said:
Thought, I read somewhere that WUPY was one of the first FM stations to be in stereo in the early days in Boston. Zion Hill is now the site of one the major head-ends for Comcast in Boston. How could put John H. time at WMEX as a failure He played Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band ' s "Isolation" on Top40 AM radio.
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And he continued his WMEX experiment on his own little WGTR. That station was a lot of fun to listen to and you never knew what you were going to hear scattered among the adult contemporary hits, the oldies and the suburban commercials and newscasts. The Strawbs? Why not. Led Zeppelin at signoff. Sure. Deep cuts from the latest McCartney album? Yup. Garabedian used to alternate shifts with Don Kelley, often through a primitive form of voicetracking. I believe reel-to-reel tape was used.
 
Garabedian was getting by with WGTR but he made his score with WVJV-TV 10 years later.

V-66 was gaining traction in 1985 when Warner Cable and Cablevision cleared it. Home Shopping came along with 'an offer you can't refuse' and while John H was against it, Arnie Ginsberg who had more stock in the station cashed out and V-66 died.

Arnie happily 'retired' to Maine where he still lives and John H had enough money to allow him to try things.

Home Shopping paid a huge amount to buy 66 - and Arnie made sure it was cash and not stock.





CTListener said:
Fenway1912 said:
I was there

John H was NOT A FAILURE.

Mac Richmond died suddenly in October of 1971 and his brother Dick sent Bob Howard to Boston from WPGC.

Howard stopped everything John and Wendy were doing.





mgpt6 said:
Thought, I read somewhere that WUPY was one of the first FM stations to be in stereo in the early days in Boston. Zion Hill is now the site of one the major head-ends for Comcast in Boston. How could put John H. time at WMEX as a failure He played Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band ' s "Isolation" on Top40 AM radio.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
And he continued his WMEX experiment on his own little WGTR. That station was a lot of fun to listen to and you never knew what you were going to hear scattered among the adult contemporary hits, the oldies and the suburban commercials and newscasts. The Strawbs? Why not. Led Zeppelin at signoff. Sure. Deep cuts from the latest McCartney album? Yup. Garabedian used to alternate shifts with Don Kelley, often through a primitive form of voicetracking. I believe reel-to-reel tape was used.
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Comedy 1200. Which I believe is a place holder until they figure out what they're really going to do with it. I can't see advertisers lining up in between bleeped out Chris Rock bits.
 
WNTIRadio said:
Comedy 1200. Which I believe is a place holder until they figure out what they're really going to do with it. I can't see advertisers lining up in between bleeped out Chris Rock bits.
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Do major media companies like Clear Channel really park "placeholder" formats on frequencies anymore? I suggested that in the WFNX/WHBA thread and was immediately shouted down and told that CC always has a thoroughly researched plan in place for all of its stations. So is the placeholder concept valid or not?
 
The only examples I can think of at all anywhere over the past 15 years are stations that flipped to all-Christmas for a month or two before launching a new format on January 1st. Outside of that, I can't think of one single "place-holder" format anywhere in the past 15 years, at least.
 
As long as Matt Siegel's name is attached to the project it won't be a failure. He has a good track record in the city.
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So by your logic, if "Matty in the Morning" attached his name to a pile of dog excrement, it would then smell like roses?

People are lining up to listen to random comedy clips on a forgotten AM signal... right.
 
Well WCGX in Columbus went to an extremely conservative Modern AC playlist before flipping it's Gen X format to Alternative in December. Sounded like a trainwreck to transition between the formats.
 
WNTIRadio said:
As long as Matt Siegel's name is attached to the project it won't be a failure. He has a good track record in the city.
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So by your logic, if "Matty in the Morning" attached his name to a pile of dog excrement, it would then smell like roses?

People are lining up to listen to random comedy clips on a forgotten AM signal... right.
Click to expand...

You know that my point is Matty is associated with success and has a reputation in Boston radio for knowing the business. It's hard to believe he'd take on a project that was doomed for failure.
 
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