This could not be more further from the truth. Will add that Entercom should have kept the transmitter in Paxton instead of moving to the Channel 27 tower with half the power, directional and lower antenna. When the new 107.3 signal did not work out as well as they wanted, they spent additional funds on the acquisition of WBOT. Adding the translators plus the big Paxton signal would have given them one of the biggest signals in New England outside of WHOM.
As for their planned format changes, too bad the market did not get a chance to try it out.
Their goal was to better cover metro Boston, where the most advertising money is considered to be. Covering small towns and lots of trees throughout New England from Paxton was not considered as financially rewarding. There's not much use in a "big signal" in areas where there isn't much advertising, or where you're not focusing your marketing. Western MA had and still has its own rock station with a pretty big signal focused there, WAQY Springfield, which also got/gets ratings in Hartford and covers all of northern CT. Also, NH, VT and RI had/have their own relatively successful rock stations focused there, such as WGIR-FM Manchester, WHJY Providence, etc... WAAF at the time wanted to be competitive mainly against the former WBCN for Boston's much more lucrative revenue.
WAAF's move from Paxton to Boylston apparently looked good on paper for signal improvement in Boston, but as we heard, in reality it didn't work, and they lost coverage north, west, or south of Worcester, but they weren't doing any significant billing in those directions beyond Worcester anyway compared to the potential in metro Boston. However, EMF's move of the main transmitter to Hudson, at even lower power than Boylston but a bit closer to Boston from a taller tower, did noticeably improve the 107.3 signal in metro Boston even before they got the boosters on the air. It's definitely covering parts of metro Boston where the low power translators may not reach better than Paxton ever did, and still covering the Worcester/Central MA market even if no longer much farther inland from there.
I grew up listening to WAAF from Paxton in Boston and the immediate west suburbs in the '70s, it covered much of New England well, but once you got east of Route 128 it got noisy, had fading, intermodulation interference from the Newton/Needham and Prudential transmitters, etc.. and Boylston was even worse except for maybe in the northwest Boston suburbs, however Hudson is a definite improvement in metro Boston, I agree that it was a shame that (and the boosters) weren't done when it was WAAF. We radio geeks love hearing big signals out in our cars on highways in the middle of nowhere, but they're often not practical for much revenue.
