T. Taylor, R-I.com: WCRB up for sale

[raccoonradio]

Maybe he doesn't intend to keep it classical (could sell it off partially or fully to someone who would
change the format) but doesn't want to let that news get out--it would distress listeners of WCRB
and also advertisers who were aiming to buy time on a classical station (and a heritage one at that)
would be upset, too...unless the Mercedes Dealers Of New England could be assured that
"Sports Radio 99.5, WBEI" (or whatever calls they wind up with) would be a great place for a buy for
their target audience!
Who knows.

[Eli Polonsky]

For what it's worth, the 93.7 and 99.5 coverage of the downtown Boston area and immediate metro may look similar on paper, but in actual listening experience, 93.7 has significantly better penetration of the city than 99.5. Perhaps it's just one more hill in the way from Peabody to Andover or something related to the terrain, but there's a significant difference.

Here in Somerville just a few miles north of Boston, 93.7 comes in with local reception behavior and does a much better job of cutting right through the intermod slop from the Pru. It comes in OK and in stereo on cheap, poor quality tuners such as Walkman's, boom-boxes and clock radios, which can barely even hear 99.5 here, if at all.

93.7 immediately activates the HD on my Sangean home tuner without having to fool with my indoor antenna positioning. 99.5 is very difficult to get here in HD, and doing so requires some antenna acrobatics to find a placement that works. There also seems to be a lot more analog multipath distortion on 99.5.

93.7 is also much more solid in the car around the Boston metro. 99.5 suffers from more picket-fencing, multipath, and more generally weak/noisy spots. I think that if Mike is switched to 99.5, a lot of immediate Boston area listeners would complain of lesser quality reception. That could be remedied with a 97.7 simulcast, but then listeners would have to get used to finding it, and the simulcast idea hasn't seemed to help WAAF's numbers all that much. Also, I'd like to see less repetitious simulcasting in overlapping areas and more different programming formats offered, but I guess that's unrealistic idealism...

[BRNout]

This is exactly why a 99.5/97.7 WEEI-FM simulcast would be optimal.  You introduce the "new" station as such and the idea sticks.  The stations perfectly compliment each other.  If you're in a place where 99.5 doesn't come in, chances are 97.7 does.  Again, it's better to introduce a whole new station with the 2 frequencies. 

With respect to simulcasts, 93.7 and 97.7 do have more overlap.  And, not being on the Pru, 93.7 still isn't good enough downtown to be able to compete with the others signalwise and would require the second signal just to cover downtown.  And, Entercom would not only have to spend promotional dollars on a "new" Weei-FM (the calls could be brought up from RI, by the way), but more $$ on advertising the new 99.5 Mike FM.  No, that would cost money without delivering value. 

My theory on why the 107.3/97.7 thing hasn't worked is twofold, by the way:

1)  Too much signal overlap, so people just go to 107.3 as they have for decades; and,
2)  The area covered by 97.7 and not adequately by 107.3 has relatively few potential listeners for WAAF anyhow. 

That one is a wasted simulcast.  I'd hope that they're coming up with better ideas in Bala Cynwyd.

[raccoonradio]

From today's Globe; Mercatanti wants a buyer to invest in half of the station and wants to keep it classical
(though ya read it here first)

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2008/01/10/air_of_uncertainty_about_format_and_future_of_wcrb/

[BRNout]

From today's Globe; Mercatanti wants a buyer to invest in half of the station and wants to keep it classical
(though ya read it here first)

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2008/01/10/air_of_uncertainty_about_format_and_future_of_wcrb/

It'll be interesting to see if that actually happens. 

He may WANT to do that, but what happens in the marketplace is a different matter.  Where's the upside for the investor?  Unless he can find a group of aficionados with millions of dollars to spare, it could be tough. 

Interesting to see how the purveyor of McRadio's mind works though.