Was anyone listening to Howard this morning?

[Guernica]

I don't pay to get Howard but I have a question for anyone who was listening to him this morning... Apparently he made a statement about the demise of WBCN-FM in Boston. What, approximately, did he say? Thanks...

[Qsela34]

He stated that WBCN is scheduled to go off air (sometime in Aug). It is going to be replaced on the dial by 98.5 Mix Station i think, or by a sports/talk themed channel, or vise versa. He talked how impressive their system and their reach was for so many years, and how he dreamed of broadcasting for a station like that (50,000 watts when he was a kid.
WBCN had a very big following from what I understand, this is another black eye for CBS broadcasting, and terr. radio as a whole. Just another nail in the coffin that is terr. radio.
Hope their shunned fans see the light that is SIRIUSXM...

[Guernica]

Qsela, thanks so much. Truly appreciate it.

Frankly I think part of WBCN's problem is that a huge number of their old listeners (myself included TBH) have *already* vacated to Sirius/XM.

Supposedly WBCN will continue on t'interwebz as well as on HD radio, which could be interesting. Nevertheless I am very sorry to see it go.

[Qsela34]

Didn't hear they would be on HD radio, but so what if they were. I know of nobody that has HD radio, that's just me though. He did say they would be web based now.
Their real problem, and all terr. radio problem is pulling in advertising money...it's just not happening. No money coming in, so no money going out for "talent". Slowly but surely dj's are getting fired for preset playlsts and recorded intro's, and stations are going belly up.
Satellite radio is here to stay.

[SiriusBuzz]

I actually opened up today's daily thread with the news and a link to the boston.com website if you are interested.

http://siriusbuzz.com/forum/showthread.php?p=41351

[Guernica]

Thanks so much Charles... I am definitely not in the stock-holding class so I'd have missed this.

There was an interesting interview between former WBCN news pro Danny Schechter (the News Dissector) and original WBCN programming director Sam Kopper this morning on the Progressive Radio Network. Sounds to me as if the online/HD version of WBCN, which Kopper is helming, will be returning to its freeform roots.

I no longer live in the area so can't get it on either HD or analog, and am looking forward to the online version. I'm also thinking it might make a real interesting purchase for Sirius...