Boston is lucky to have two News-Talk public radio stations: WBUR 90.9 and WGBH-FM 89.7. WGBH switched a few years ago from a mix of News-Talk, Classical and Jazz music, to News-Talk all day with Jazz music seven nights a week. Then last year, it switched again to News-Talk around the clock with Jazz only on weekend nights.
WGBH last year ended two different daytime Talk shows, hosted by Emily Rooney and another woman whose name I forget. It now has a midday magazine show hosted by former WTKK Talk hosts Jim Braude and Marjorie Eagan. The rest of the day, WGBH runs syndicated public radio shows such as Diane Rehm, Tell Me More, The Takeaway, etc. It recently bought Public Radio International and it produces The World with the BBC for weekday distribution to other public radio stations. It is owned by one of the most important PBS stations in the country, WGBH-TV.
Meanwhile WBUR originates several programs that are distributed to other public radio stations, such as On Point and Here and Now which will be replacing Talk of The Nation on the NPR schedule.
They both run Morning Edition and All Things Considered at roughly the same time in morning and afternoon drive. They also both run Public Radio Remix overnight, even though WBUR used to run BBC World News overnight.
While WGBH airs its local magazine, Boston Public Radio from Noon to 2pm, WBUR runs its local program Radio Boston (geez, even the names are similar) from 3 to 4pm.
WGBH has the better signal. In fact, it's the strongest FM signal in Boston, grandfathered at 100,000 watts at apx. 650 feet, while WBUR has a standard Class B signal, 12,000 watts at about 1000 feet, similar to most Boston area commercial FM stations.
In the February ratings, WBUR was #7 while WGBH was #14, with a little more than half of WBUR's numbers. Also among the major public radio stations is Classical WCRB 99.5, also owned by WGBH. Perhaps because the public radio offerings are so strong, Boston is now down to just one full-time commercial Talk station, 680 WRKO, along with All-News by day, Talk by night 1030 WBZ. Boston had five commercial Talk stations only a couple of years ago.
So which is better, WBUR or WGBH?
WGBH last year ended two different daytime Talk shows, hosted by Emily Rooney and another woman whose name I forget. It now has a midday magazine show hosted by former WTKK Talk hosts Jim Braude and Marjorie Eagan. The rest of the day, WGBH runs syndicated public radio shows such as Diane Rehm, Tell Me More, The Takeaway, etc. It recently bought Public Radio International and it produces The World with the BBC for weekday distribution to other public radio stations. It is owned by one of the most important PBS stations in the country, WGBH-TV.
Meanwhile WBUR originates several programs that are distributed to other public radio stations, such as On Point and Here and Now which will be replacing Talk of The Nation on the NPR schedule.
They both run Morning Edition and All Things Considered at roughly the same time in morning and afternoon drive. They also both run Public Radio Remix overnight, even though WBUR used to run BBC World News overnight.
While WGBH airs its local magazine, Boston Public Radio from Noon to 2pm, WBUR runs its local program Radio Boston (geez, even the names are similar) from 3 to 4pm.
WGBH has the better signal. In fact, it's the strongest FM signal in Boston, grandfathered at 100,000 watts at apx. 650 feet, while WBUR has a standard Class B signal, 12,000 watts at about 1000 feet, similar to most Boston area commercial FM stations.
In the February ratings, WBUR was #7 while WGBH was #14, with a little more than half of WBUR's numbers. Also among the major public radio stations is Classical WCRB 99.5, also owned by WGBH. Perhaps because the public radio offerings are so strong, Boston is now down to just one full-time commercial Talk station, 680 WRKO, along with All-News by day, Talk by night 1030 WBZ. Boston had five commercial Talk stations only a couple of years ago.
So which is better, WBUR or WGBH?
