Posted on 03/28/2007 1:45:44 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Now don’t breathe a word of this. Because nobody’s supposed to know. But rumor in radioland is that struggling rock station WBCN may be trying to woo sports yakkers John Dennis and Gerry Callahan away from WEEI.
The broadcast blather has it that parent company CBS may be looking at changing the legendary Boston music station to a sports-talk or the so-called male-talk format.
“In Pittsburgh, CBS just switched WRKZ, a rock station, to a male-talk station,” said one industry insider. “So it’s not unheard of.”
But others in the know say the station could be pursuing WEEI’s top-rated morning men with no plans to change its existing lineup of talk in the morning followed by rock the rest of the day.
Of course, ’BCN currently syndicates Opie & Anthony in morning drive, but their ratings are not what they once were. Dennis and Callahan’s contract with ’EEI runs through the summer, we’re told, and negotiations are reportedly under way with ’EEI for an extension.
However, the duo, who are No. 1 with men 25-54, are rumored to be seeking big raises, and could be stoking the ’BCN blather to bolster their negotiating position.
And some insiders insist that, although the format-change rumor crops up periodically, nothing is in the works.
’BCN is one of four CBS-owned music stations in Boston, with MIX 98.5, WZLX and WODS as the others. So the theory goes that a switch to sports or talk could open up new advertising revenue streams. The station already carries the Patriots games and enjoys a good relationship with the team.
“There’s a perception that WEEI is the Red Sox [team stats] station, they could become the Patriots station,” said our spy.
On the other side of the equation, however, is the station’s long heritage of rock ’n’ roll.
“It would be like if the Herald suddenly became a left-wing liberal rag,” said another source.
As always, do stay tuned.
Ping
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
"The 'B' stands for Boston,the 'C' stands for the ocean and the 'N' stands for nitrous oxide"
On the radio boards the speculation is that D&C are trying to get a higher salary from WEEI so they're shopping themselves elsewhere but rumors about WBCN going talk, specifically "guy talk" have been running for awhile.
On these same radio boards one or two participants have been
complaining about the conservative political views expressed
by D&C (or at least, "why are they not talking about sports?")
and they've tuned to other sports outlets in town.
It wouldn't be too hard to change them to "guy talk" or
hot talk or whatever...the stations CBS owns in NYC and
Pittsburgh have done it. They have local hosts and the
likes of Tom "Duraflame Log" Leykis too...
The current lineup on WFNY in NYC includes Opie and
Anthony, Dennis Miller (for now), Ron and Fez, John
and Jeff, and The Radio Chick who used to be on WRKO
as part of Two Chicks Dishing (producer Paul "Butchie"
Brennan used to be on Howie's show)
heck, Mark Parenteau could come back and do a talk show when he gets out of prison (sent to the slammer for pedophilia).
He did a talk show from WRKO for awhile. Another former WBCN
jock, Bradley Jay, has done fill ins for WBZ...
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