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WUMB continues toward AAA with some former WBOS staff

E

Eli Polonsky

Public radio station WUMB at U. Mass Boston is utilizing some staff of former commercial Boston AAA WBOS as they continue to transition from formerly "Folk Radio" toward a roots music-leaning AAA format.

According to former WBOS PD David Ginsberg's "LinkedIn" page, he says he is currently "working on a project for 91.9 WUMB/Boston... to better define and extend the station's identity to its current audience, as well as to attract new listeners".

I also saw an unconfirmed indication elsewhere online that we may likely be hearing former WBOS/WHJY/WZLX host John Laurenti on WUMB soon.

They're both very good people from what I've heard, and I've certainly enjoyed Laurenti on the air over the years. Good luck to them.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
Public radio station WUMB at U. Mass Boston is utilizing some staff of former commercial Boston AAA WBOS as they continue to transition from formerly "Folk Radio" toward a roots music-leaning AAA format.
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I live in Arlington near the Lexington line. I believe that is JUST outside WUMB's 60 dBu contour--I could be mistaken, however. The signal here is OK, but not great--decent reception sometimes requires a bit of fiddling with the antenna; nothing very serious, though. I've heard that Pat Montheath considers Lexington to be prime territory for WUMB members. If so, WUMB would have lost big-time had an app been approved for a 91.7 station that would have been sited atop the old 100.7 tower at the WTTT/WAZN (AM) site less than a mile to the southwest of here (the site is--just barely--within the borders of Lexington).

I'm wondering, could WUMB "protect" this area by building an on-channel booster sited on that same tower? I don't know the answers to several key questions: 1) On-channel boosters must be within some prescribed contour of the main signal. Which contour is it? Is the ex-100.7 tower inside or outside that contour for WUMB? 2) If WUMB could construct such a booster, would the booster be likely to do WUMB more harm than good? That is, would the interference between the booster and the main signal produce more reception problems than it solved? 3) Would a trick such as a booster that used vertical polarization only solve--or at least mitigate--such reception problems?
 
DanStrassberg said:
I've heard that Pat Montheath considers Lexington to be prime territory for WUMB members. If so, WUMB would have lost big-time had an app been approved for a 91.7 station that would have been sited atop the old 100.7 tower at the WTTT/WAZN (AM) site less than a mile to the southwest of here (the site is--just barely--within the borders of Lexington).

I'm wondering, could WUMB "protect" this area by building an on-channel booster sited on that same tower?
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Dan, I believe that WUMB has protected themselves from competing applications in that area by virtue of the CP that WAVM (91.7) at Maynard High School has been granted to raise their power to 500 watts directional, favoring toward the east. This is an arrangement that WUMB made with WAVM. WUMB helped WAVM get that CP. The two stations had to team up to keep encroaching Religious applications from being granted on that (and, I assume, the adjacent) frequency in the west suburbs a few years ago.

For some time, WUMB had a pending application for a class A translator on 91.7 in Stow MA, which would've completely eliminated the class D WAVM had it ever been granted. However, WUMB turned around and decided to unite with WAVM when national Religious outfits began applying for the frequency in the west suburbs. WAVM never really had their act together to make their class A application happen, but WUMB didn't have the local community support in the immediate Maynard area that WAVM had. With WUMB doing the paperwork and WAVM's local hometown support (to help make a better claim to the FCC for serving the COL), they made a team that prevailed, and they got the CP.

When that happened, the Religious outfit that applied for 91.7 in Lexington withdrew, and the other one farther out in Lunenburg agreed to a modified directional pattern to protect them.

I've heard that the stipulation will be that whenever Maynard HS students aren't doing radio on WAVM, the station will rebroadcast WUMB. This means that it will rebroadcast WUMB every entire weekend year 'round, full-time all summer long, full-time during every school vacation week, and all but six hours a day on school weekdays.

I've also heard that they've been encountering a "nimby" problem in Maynard which has delayed them from building the required new antenna. I don't know whether they have found an acceptable place for it yet.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
I've also heard that they've been encountering a "nimby" problem in Maynard which has delayed them from building the required new antenna. I don't know whether they have found an acceptable place for it yet.
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Does WAVM's proposed new antenna require tower construction? That's the usual cause of NIMBY problems. I see that HAAT is specified as 75' (and HAMSL is exactly 100 meters), so I suppose that a tower might have to be built. But there must be someplace in Maynard where the ground level is very close to 75' AAT. What about the Mill complex (the one-time home of DEC--remember them)? The buildings themselves might not be quite 75' high, but a tower on the roof that would place the antenna 75' AAT would probably have to be only about 30'--if that--from its base to its top. And if there are problems placing a 30' tower on top of one of those buildings, I'd think that WAVM could get its CP modified to allow a higher ERP at a lower HAAT. This doesn't seem like rocket science.
 
DanStrassberg said:
Does WAVM's proposed new antenna require tower construction? That's the usual cause of NIMBY problems. I see that HAAT is specified as 75' (and HAMSL is exactly 100 meters), so I suppose that a tower might have to be built. But there must be someplace in Maynard where the ground level is very close to 75' AAT. What about the Mill complex (the one-time home of DEC--remember them)? The buildings themselves might not be quite 75' high, but a tower on the roof that would place the antenna 75' AAT would probably have to be only about 30'--if that--from its base to its top. And if there are problems placing a 30' tower on top of one of those buildings, I'd think that WAVM could get its CP modified to allow a higher ERP at a lower HAAT. This doesn't seem like rocket science.
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I'm not directly in contact with anyone involved anymore, so I don't know the inside scoop on the situation.

I do know that, in recent years, a new form of "nimby" has been occuring, and it's not about the visual. It's a new paranoia about hypothetical "danger" of radio waves, exasorbated by recent claims of purported possible health risks of cell phones and their signals.

While any possibility of health risks from cell phones, which operate at extremely higher frequencies than broadcast radio, are still being debated, there are people who are (ignorantly) applying those same paranoias to ANY proposed radio transmitter of ANY type on ANY band, and if those people are influential enough in their areas, they may prevent municipal approvals for new broadcasting construction.

I've heard that, in some areas, this kind of paranoia about alleged "radiation" has been making it difficult lately for some businesses to build or maintain transmitters for their land/mobile two-way radios, such as private utility companies, transportation, delivery and taxicab companies, etc... and these aren't even operating anywhere near the cellular band. They're on old VHF and UHF frequencies that have been in use for many decades without ill effects.

So, nowdays they could be encountering "nimbys" with (largely groundless) fears about "radiation" as well as the visual aesthetics of antennas and towers.
 
Was Ginsburg ever on the air at WBOS? I heard him on WUMB and he sounded really flat and uninterested. I looked him up on LinkedIn and saw that it was, indeed, him. As talented as he was in promotions and as music director, his writing is appalling. He's supposed to be a professional, management material, but his communication skills are clearly lacking. I don't mean to be really down on the guy, but if he has his "resume" on LinkedIn, he should make sure that it is edited to the Nth degree. Same for his myspace--hiring managers do read these things.

I certainly hope that WUMB puts Laurenti on the air. He's the consummate announcer, knows his music, and is certainly more interesting than the bored-sounding morning dude.
 
Kritical said:
Was Ginsburg ever on the air at WBOS? I heard him on WUMB and he sounded really flat and uninterested.
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They don't want their hosts to sound too "up". I did a few fill-ins there a few years ago, and I was originally told to tone down my delivery and pacing to fit their sound.

It's an "art" to learn to announce in a laid-back, slow-paced, mellow format without sounding deadpan and flat. It was actually valuable experience for me to learn how to announce in their style. Their longtime afternoon host Dave Palmater has it down. Great pipes, and he sounds enthusiastic, upbeat, and even occasionally humorous while also sounding laid-back, totally relaxed and mellow at the same time (plus he's a walking encyclopedia about the music).
 
Kritical said:
I certainly hope that WUMB puts Laurenti on the air. He's the consummate announcer, knows his music, and is certainly more interesting than the bored-sounding morning dude.
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Laurenti is now "officially" at WUMB. He's now listed on their website as Music Director and on-air music interview coordinator.

I'd expect we'll most likely be hearing him on-air soon. The Program Director has been doing mid-days for the past couple of months, that's usually been an interim measure when they've been looking for a new regular host for a shift.
 
Hooray for John!

Dave Palmater does sound like he knows his stuff and has a good on-air personality. I have a hard time listening in the morning when the announcer seems to be too preoccupied to speak into the microphone. I have known announcers who fidget so much and actually turn their backs to the mic and expect to be heard.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
Laurenti is now "officially" at WUMB. He's now listed on their website as Music Director and on-air music interview coordinator.
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Where on the website did you see this? I looked and couldn't find anything... :-(
 
Kritical said:
Hooray for John!

Dave Palmater does sound like he knows his stuff and has a good on-air personality.
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Dave has a long history on the air here. Prior to joining WUMB full-time about 15 years ago, he hosted the former early morning classical program "A New Day" on WGBH for a few years, and he was on the former commercial folk station WADN "Walden 1120 AM" in Concord (now business news WBNW) in the early '90s. He also had his own weekly show "Folktracks" on M.I.T.'s WTBS/WMBR for about twenty years beginning back in the early '70s, and he is extremely knowledgeable.

I had Dave's on-air sound in mind when I did a few fill-ins on WUMB a few years ago.
 
Kritical said:
I certainly hope that WUMB puts Laurenti on the air.
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He just did the mid-day shift today (10 AM - 3 PM).

Though he's not yet on their website program schedule or announcer list, I'd bet that's where he's going to be slotted. The PD is still listed in that slot, which has always been temporary when they've been between hosts.

He just ended by saying he will be back on that shift tomorrow, filling in for the PD, who is filling in for mornings this week.
 
Another Greater Media DJ filling in on WUMB right now.

Current WROR overnighter, former longtime WBCN overnighter, and former WLYN-FM ("Y-102" pre-WFNX) and late '70s/'80s WTBS/WMBR rocker Albert O.

I heard a few weeks ago that he was going for fill-ins there. He's a great guy, best of luck to him!
 
Bare in mind that the former River PD might be available for this too....
 
Jack Ruby said:
Bare in mind that the former River PD might be available for this too....
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Depends on how many people they want to pay. I know they keep the budget tight, and they've already consulted with former 'BOS PD David Ginsburg, plus they got Laurenti as MD, and then the NYC consultants who advised their format tweak earlier this year (though I gather they were largely paid for by a CPB "improvement grant").

And, I doubt longtime PD Brian Quinn would ever be replaced. He's a good guy, all for going with the new format, and he fills a role there that no one else would.
 
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