David Scott reports that “Dennis & Callahan” may be headed for classical station WCRB (99.5 FM), which could become the hub of a regional sports network. He rounds up Globe and Herald coverage as well.
Discover more from Media Nation
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I rarely listen to WCRB, but for two loudmouths like Dennis and Callahan to replace that venerable Boston institution– well, that’s like Mr. Ed replacing Secretariat. I hope this never comes to pass.
After spending pretty decent scratch to acquire the rights to use the WCRB name, playlists and staff…it seems odd that Nassau would ditch it all to start up a FOURTH sports station in Boston. Especially when the classical music gets decent ratings (even if it isn’t the easiest sell to advertisers).
The 12-plus ratings have been in decline (as well they should considering the product) and a few weeks ago the Herald printed the 18-thru-54 numbers and WCRB was a no-show. Classical music may skew old, but timid, training-wheels “classical” skews REALLY old!
Fybush just sent this out to the radio list: Just received a news release from Entercom – they’re partnering up with Nassau, will take a 50% ownership stake in 99.5, which will stay classical – and will put the WEEI network on 11 Nassau stations in Portland, Lebanon/WRJ, Concord, Montpelier/Barre and Cape Cod. No word on which stations just yet, but we can start speculating, can’t we…
Did I doze off and wake up on April Fool’s Day?Are there really and truly people with substantial money to invest concocting a scheme, magically timed to the Dennis and Callahan contract expiration, to use a Lowell FM with spotty coverage through the Metro but a fairly successful format targeting a high-end demographic to anchor a sportstalk-without- play-by-play network so auto glass companies and leaky basement repair outfits can have one-stop shopping for advertising in such bustling Nassau markets as Thomaston, Maine; Claremont, N.H. and Derby Center, Vt. (WMOO). Pretty tall tale that they’re going to challenge a sportstalk empire that has its own network of pretty good signals sprinkled throughout the more populated areas of New England and has play-by-play of the Celtics who are set to be the Next Trendy Sports Thing as well as all sorts of value-added marketing involving the Red Sox and Patriots in place.It took them two days to come up with Part III of the D&C Stunt and major credit is due the schemer who came up with this chapter.If I’m wrong, it doesn’t appear from publicly available data that the Ted Jones Trust, which was supposed to keep classical music on the air for a hundred years after the WCRB founder died, would be in a position to stop things. The sales agreement between Charles River Broadcasting WCRB License Corp. and Greater Media (GMI) for the sale of Charles River’s 102.5 WCRB frequency includes the following: Section 5.16. Classical Format. If GMI determines in its sole discretion that it isin its best interest to change the classical music format of the Station, GMI shall use itscommercially reasonable efforts to preserve an accessible broadcast outlet for classicalmusic in the Greater Boston area, such as broadcasting classical music on a digitalsubchannel that is associated with the Station or another of GMI’s Boston-area stations.And that’s exactly what happened, Greater Media bought 102.5, flipped to country and sold 99.5 to Nassau which switched 99.5 from country to classical. Greater Media did its duty to Jones and “preserved” classical right out the door. The Asset Exchange Agreement for the transfer of 99.5 to Nassau doesn’t mention classical music, so the long arm of Ted Jones may have been amputated.Still … disgruntled denizens jumping an established and successful station for a start-up? Mr. Scott ought to have a heart-to-heart with Peter Lucas.
So another words, if Fybush has the right information, Entercom buys another group of networks and ends up giving D & C the money anyways because of the coverage? This is getting old.
We now have Mr. Scott openly begging for a media critic job at a major metropolitan daily. Perhaps some time working in an environment in which editors review his work and make him plug his many and varied holes would better prepare him for such a step than gushingly rushing unattributed, unverified and unsourced rumor and hearsay into print.There is no better preparation for being a “media critic” than actually spending time in the trenches — starting with covering an 85-article town meeting or two