Posted on 11/27/2010 11:55:27 AM PST by raccoonradio
THE NEVER-ENDING BLATHER of Boston sports talk radio has been a hot topic of late as WBZ-FM‘s 98.5 station, “The Sports Hub,” has started to dominate the land of chattering idiots. For years, the king of call-in complaining in Boston was WEEI, which is on the AM dial at 850 kHz. WBZ, however, is on the FM dial, thereby making it not sound like an irritated toaster. The Sports Hub was introduced in August 2009 to great fanfare and has since started to corner the market on nannering nincompoops.
Most recently, it was reported that WBZ The Sports Hub had overtaken the goliath-like WEEI...
If our grapevine is right [ripe!—Ed.], all that is about to change.
Entercom, who owns WEEI-AM 850, is quickly moving on a plan to buy WFNX-FM 101.7 from the Phoenix Media/Communications Group. From there, the rumor is they will flip that with WMKK-FM 93.7 (otherwise known as “Mike FM,” aka Media Farm’s favorite radio station) and put WEEI on the FM dial at 93.7FM. This will lead to a few things:
1. WEEI avoids the broken toaster syndrome.
2. The Sports Hub has another crowd of tantrum-loving, wife-beating cavemen to fight with over its FM ratings.
3. The Sports Hub will have to change more than a few reels of radio IDs, which claim FM dominance, and …
4. Media Farm will no longer tune in to 101.7FM to play its favorite drinking game: “Foo Fighters or MGMT?”
WEEI is the broadcast radio partner of the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Celtics. The Sports Hub, meanwhile, has the New England Patriots and the Boston Bruins. The move should be timed to premiere sometime after the Bruins win the Stanley Cup and just before the Red Sox start their season of suck.
(Excerpt) Read more at digboston.com ...
WEEI--morning show Dennis and Callahan very successful; mixes right wing talk with sports. Natually when there are articles in Globe or Herald about WEEI, there are lots of comments from people who complain about the "Rethuglican" political talk, etc.
WEEI's AM signal is not the best. At night they have to point north and south to "protect" other stations on the AM 850 frequency. Meanwhile, 98.5 does well in many areas. No static, no static at all. No losing it under bridges or tunnels. No interference from high tension wires. Younger sound, younger audience.
WEEI has to do something...
And for many younger people especially, "AM radio, what's that?"
Some people have mp3 players with radios. They only get FM because the AM antenna is a pain to deal with and who listens to AM anyway?
In many cities political talk esp. conservative has moved to FM or is simulcast there. And of course FM has taxpayer funded, left wing NPR.
Howie list ping
No doubt the move to FM will happen. 98.5 is teeing off on WEEI, especially the afternoon Felger/Massarotti show.
How, how could this benefit Howie...???
Don’t know but it would have been interesing if WRKO moved to FM, like perhaps on 101.7...and thus the station now owned by big libs the Phoenix (”a one hand rag” Howie has called them, and you can guess what the other hand’s doing!) would be running Mr. Lipo instead. Or at the very least putting Dennis and Callahan on a powerful FM station (93.7 most likely) would make libs very frustrated!
They only get FM because the AM antenna is a pain to deal with and who listens to AM anyway?”
I lived near Boston when I was younger; the standing joke around the house was if the Sox were playing who was gonna go up on the roof to turn the antenna and who would wrap the ears with tinfoil, hold them in his hand and stand on a chair ...
Yes!!! I would be nice to hear Mr. Lipo in clear FM stereo.
ha—don’t know if you’re talking Sox on TV or radio.
The Red Sox for many years were on stations that didn’t exactly have the best signals. Often it was AM 850 (WHDH
in yrs gone by). For a time, AM 1510. Sometimes WRKO. But some stations do pretty well with clear FM signals.
WEEI _is_ simulcast on FM 103.7 in Westerly RI and it does
reach south of Boston, but in Boston, west of town, and north of town, not so much. (If you’re in the Salem MA area and had a pretty good radio sometimes you could pick up that 103.7
from RI but now there’s a station in Salem running religious stuff on 103.7, so, so much for that.
If you have an HD radio (some portables sell for $40-50) you can tune to the “HD-3” signal of WMKK 93.7 and hear
WEEI. But not everyone has an HD radio, and the reception can be tough to get or keep. I have one of the portables.
Works at home but not at work.
At work, at the postal facility in N Reading, we’re lucky to get 93.7, 98.5 (sports hub) and that rockin’ classical
sound of WCRB 99.5...other than that...
He actually is on FM in certain places
http://www.wrko.com/wrkonetwork
New London NH 99.7 FM (hear him on I-89 etc.)
Augusta ME 101.3 FM
Bangor ME 103.9 FM
And of course on the Cape there’s WXTK 95.1 (if you’re heading down to the Cape you can start to pick it up eventually on Rt 3)
10-4! I’m rarely in those areas. It must be awesome to hear Lipo-Man in stereo.
And, it would be nice to hear lipo man, period. Once it gets dark the station just fades away - pity they can’t do anything about that. And while we’re on the topic of RKO, someone told me that on Thanksgiving day they were running “best of manning” - LMAO, best of manning - isn’t that an oxymoron? LMAO!
““best of manning” - LMAO, best of manning - isn’t that an oxymoron? LMAO!”
BBWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just pissed my pants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not sure whether or not this deal will happen. WFNX
personality Henry Santoro—used to work with him in late ‘83 when I was a news intern there—is twittering that “the
music continues”
:(
Bummer...
well who knows; maybe it will happen but FNX is telling their listeners to, as Chip Diller (Kevin Bacon) put it in Animal House, “Remain calm! All is well?!?!?!?” All this is the result of a blog rumor which may or may not be true, so as the radio columnists always say, “ stay tuned...” (for any
details, incl. whether or not this is happening)
I know I will :)
10-4! Thank you for the updates Raccoon!
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