Comments on: WGBH gets radio active

By: kevin

kevin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:42:27 +0000

/have they announced the line up yet for GBH? getting close to Dec 1st.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:13:48 +0000

Ok, so does Jazz stay or go on GBH? I am a big fan of jazz on GBH. What are the true plans?

By: raccoonradio

raccoonradio — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:12:26 +0000

>>I mean, 99.5 is a decent signal but it’s strictly North Shore to Cambridge.

Some Boston listeners have a tough enough time getting 99.5 but some pirate on 99.7 could be making things worse (noticed them on I-93 the other day)

By: Aaron Read

Aaron Read — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:54:07 +0000

@Charlie – put up or shut up! Either get in the studio and make a 24/7/365 edition of Only a Game or be quiet! ;-)

@Bob: Capital campaigns are a totally different ball of wax than regular fundraisers. It’s a lot easier to attract a few BIG donors to large, easy-to-explain projects (like adding a new station) than it is to get lots of little donors to chip in towards paying the electric bill. Virtually every non-profit faces this issue every year. I know colleges that are freezing salaries and slashing expenses but are sitting on millions donated by someone who demanded it be used towards a new football stadium. Yeah, that goes down real well with the staff, I’m sure…but logically football teams often contribute insane revenue from happy alumni donations (witness the aforementioned multi-million-dollar donation!) and contribute towards other important metrics, too. Yet the $5 or $10 million that can pay for a renovation that’ll last for a decade might not cover your payroll costs for even just one year.

@Laurence (and others): what happens if they don’t make the goal is indeed the $14 million dollar question. I suspect they’ve got the means to pull an angel investor out of their pocket for a capital project like this if they absolutely have to. But if not, it could be reeeeeeeally bad; there’s been examples of other institutions (some at colleges, some not) that have tried and failed to purchase major signals, both radio and TV, over the last year or two…in every case it was a P.R. debacle and in some cases it led to the downfall and sale of the entire organization.

By: Laurence Glavin

Laurence Glavin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:42:11 +0000

Apparently, WGBH-FM doesn’t have an unused pool of capital lying around to disburse as they wish. If I read the veritable blizzrd of press releases correctly, WGBH plans to have a fund-raiser specifically dedicated to raising the amount need to buy WCRB. Hmmm…what happens if they fall short of this goal? Will they back off from the deal? Will they then return donations that wre made for this purpose? Charles pierce just might get his, um, perverse wish. And why isn’t busy trying to get Stephanie Miller on “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me” instead of focussing on the WGBH/WCRB deal?

By: Bob Gardner

Bob Gardner — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:27:05 +0000

As I remember, WCRB was set up with an endowment to allow it to broadcast in a classical format. What happened to that money?
If GBH wanted another station to go all classical, why was WCRB the only choice? It sounds to me like they are more interested in eliminating competition than in saving classical music.
This is bad news for GBH’s jazz department, which unfortuately will go the way of James Issacs and the WBUR jazz department.
In the last couple months GBH has eliminated the local overnight jazz dj’s. And just last month they were crying poor on one of their endless fundraisers. All the time they had an extra $14 million sitting around to expand their empire.

By: charles pierce

charles pierce — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:07:57 +0000

I think it should go to a sports-talk format.
OK, I’m just trying to start trouble here.

By: Aaron Read

Aaron Read — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:01:39 +0000

Joseph – jazz formats have been tried, several times, in Boston…and they never last. The city just won’t support it. (shrugs)

WGBH can do just fine as a news/talk alternative to WBUR so long as they don’t try to be EXACTLY like WBUR. That is, they don’t try to compete on the local news front and they don’t try to duplicate WBUR’s schedule too much. There’s plenty of listeners who would rather hear the national feed than the local inserts from WBUR, and plenty of fans of alternate programming like The Takeaway or The World, etc.

Ben: Again, out in the boonies, WBUR doesn’t care if you can’t get them. All the lucrative donors are closer in to the city, as are all the listeners that underwriters are willing to pay to reach. WBUR has become as successful as they are precisely because they’re not trying to reach EVERY listener they possibly can; they’re trying to specifically serve the listeners that provide the best ROI.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:24:28 +0000

Aaron Read, I think WGBH’s signal strength will be an asset that makes it very competitive. My experience is that WGBH is the only NPR station that is consistently strong in Southeastern MA. You’re right, there are other competing stations, but driving just 15 highway miles on I-195, I need to change between three of them to stay with NPR.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:22:17 +0000

WGBH will fail if they try to take WBUR head-on with a all-day or 24/7 NPR news/info format.

What WGBH should do is drop NPR news/info programs from 89.7 (as well as classical) when it acquires WCRB, move the WGBH/BBC co-production “The World” to 7-8 P.M. (repeat 4-5 A.M.), and go jazz from 5 A.M. to 7 P.M. and 8 P.M.-4 A.M.

I think a 22-hour-a-day jazz format can succeed in Boston, and ‘GBH already has a good head start, what with their successful evening/overnight jazz block.