raccoonradio said:
Am guessing their other stations make enough money, and 1200/1430 are
a "loss leader".
What I've heard is that when they bought Kiss-108 (WXKS-FM), they were stuck with 1430 (WXKS-AM) as part of the deal. I'm sure they wouldn't have bought it alone in the first place if it wasn't tied up with Kiss.
As for 1200, they originally had big plans for that which became long delayed, and thereby got changed. They got FCC approval for the 50 kW transmitter upgrade and move to Newton at least five years ago, shortly after they bought it, before AAR and Progressive Talk networks were even on the air here. Reportedly, they were originally planning to re-launch WKOX as a Boston market 50 kW conservative talk station competing with WRKO, mainly so they could take programs that they syndicate (such as Rush Limbaugh) off of WRKO and put them on a station of their own. I'm sure that wasn't planned to be a "loss leader".
However, though they had technical approval for the move and upgrade from the FCC, the City of Newton denied them a permit to build the towers, so their original plan for WKOX never happened, and they weren't going to try to compete with WRKO without a comparable Boston area signal. So, while they were stuck with WKOX remaining a 10 kW Framingham station for the time being, they sold brokered ethnic time on it for a while.
Then, AAR came on the air, and at first tried to buy themselves their own national network of stations (I heard they were briefly negotiating with 1510 WWZN here), and they had only acquired a very small handful nationwide when that idea became a failed venture. So, they began soliciting other stations, and CC decided that they might as well put AAR and other syndicated Progressive Talk on a number of their underperforming AM's nationwide, including WKOX (still mired in Framingham), and the severely directional at night WXKS-AM.
CC was finally granted approval from the City of Newton to build the new towers for the 50 kW WKOX upgrade just this past year, though it looks like construction of the complicated five-tower site, which also includes upgrades for two other directional AM stations (WRCA and WUNR), won't be completed until maybe a year from now.
Meanwhile, CC began acting "committed" to AAR and Progressive Talk over the past few years in some of the markets where they're airing it, and it seems less likely now that even a 50 kW WKOX could fly viably as conservative talk competiton to WRKO (and WTKK), so it will be interesting to see what they do when the 50 kW WKOX finally goes on the air.
If AAR crashes, I wonder if CC would consider filling the gaping holes for a full-time full-power Spanish or Urban AC station in the Boston market with the 50 kW WKOX?
As for WXKS-AM, there will be no use in having it simulcast 1200 any more after their upgrade, so we'll see what happens to that as well. When that happens, I think they should leave the Adult Standards to Bob Bittner and WJIB, and put Spanish and/or other ethnic formats on WXKS-AM which would serve the "minority" populations in Chelsea, Everett, East Boston, Revere, Lynn, Winthrop, etc... the communities where the directional signal is strong at night. They could also target Boston in the daytime, but not after sunset.
