WWZN's minor league team going out of business

[raccoonradio]

Word out via papers in Lynn and Salem that the North Shore Spirit of the independent Canadian-
American league (minor league baseball) will fold--this despite the fact that they are currently
in the playoff finals. The attendance just wasn't there. WWZN had been carrying their games...
instead of moving, the team will just fold. Team played at Frasier Field in Lynn.

http://www.itemlive.com/articles/2007/09/07/news/news01.txt

[SonicAl]

their broadcasts sound like a cup and string... the promo they play is hilarious. Let's just say that it makes Joe Castig's calls sound somber.

[raccoonradio]

I went to a game in '06 and they had a 7 second delay on so you'd see a play happen and then
a moment later it would be described on your radio...though after a couple innings it was fixed
(prob. forgot to take the 7 sec delay off)

(The same thing happened, or does happen, with TV and radio. NESN is on HD and it takes a few
seconds to process, while it's live or "almost live" on Red Sox radio. Put your TV on with the
sound down and turn up the sound on the radio to see what I mean...
Last year at work someone brought in a portable TV and we had the baseball playoffs on Fox. ESPN
radio was doing them, too, and at one point I heard a home run being described. 7 seconds later,
there it was on TV. "Uh oh, looks like a home run...

...wait for it..."

[TSBench]

(The same thing happened, or does happen, with TV and radio. NESN is on HD and it takes a few
seconds to process, while it's live or "almost live" on Red Sox radio. Put your TV on with the
sound down and turn up the sound on the radio to see what I mean...

Brother, this is one thing that drives me crazy. I'm used to the usual 'transponder bounce', but this is getting  ridiculous. It is most noticeable whenever the Sox the are national network game and NESN is pre-empted.  I alway try to kill the TV audio and listen to the local radio call (I mean, is there anyone who would listen to Joe Morgan do color commentary without a gun held to their head?) I've heard that they use a delay to guard against profanity getting on the air, which seems pretty bogus since, with the tight camera work now used on the players, it doesn't take a professional lip reader to know every player's favorite four letter expletive. A good case in point was last night, when Youkilis was called out on a phantom swing. From the batter's box to the dugout he cut loose with a stream of profanity that would have given an infantry platoon sergeant pause. And that was probably the kind of language that Josh Beckett uses around the Thanksgiving dinner table.

It may be, as you mentioned, that the HD processing is contributing to the problem, but I'm starting to think that the delay is intentionally stretched out,  in order to guard against having people listen to audio separate from that of the TV broadcast.

Regards,
TSB

[KML-224]

Getting back to the team: Correct! While at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, RI on September 1st, watching a split doubleheader between the PawSox and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, I tuned around the AM dial during the second game and landed on 1510 AM. How did a little team like that get on 1510 AM? Isn't that the station which carried the Boston Celtics before?

As for the delay? It's even worse here in Connecticut! Compare WTIC-AM 1080 of Hartford with WEEI-FM 103.7 of Westerly/Providence. It seems that WEEI-FM is a good 10 seconds or more ahead.

[Ciao]

Word out via papers in Lynn and Salem that the North Shore Spirit of the independent Canadian-
American league (minor league baseball) will fold--this despite the fact that they are currently
in the playoff finals. The attendance just wasn't there. WWZN had been carrying their games...
instead of moving, the team will just fold. Team played at Frasier Field in Lynn.

http://www.itemlive.com/articles/2007/09/07/news/news01.txt

Who cares about WWZN? the only person listening to it is the guy who writes the Boston Radio Watch column.

[SonicAl]

Who cares about WWZN? the only person listening to it is the guy who writes the Boston Radio Watch column.

make that two people... esp. in the morning... now that D&C are back, I'm listening to the local program on there which, while far from perfect, at least is an alternative. And Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio, although it doesn't come in too clearly

[Ciao]

Who cares about WWZN? the only person listening to it is the guy who writes the Boston Radio Watch column.

make that two people... esp. in the morning... now that D&C are back, I'm listening to the local program on there which, while far from perfect, at least is an alternative. And Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio, although it doesn't come in too clearly

You can get sports anywhere in Boston. The 1510 frequency is being wasted when it could fill one of our many format voids in the market.