Posted on 01/28/2008 9:31:42 AM PST by raccoonradio
Bad news for fans of Boston fans of Bill Bennett, Dennis Praeger, Mike Gallagher, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved, and Hugh Hewitt: WTTT AM 1150 has apparently changed its format from conservative talk to Spanish language religion. Salem Communications also owns WEZE AM 590 and WROL AM 950 in town but I don't believe any of the shows will wind up there (we'll see). Boston still has WRKO AM 680 (mostly conservative), WTKK FM 96.9 (mostly conservative), and WBZ 1030 at night (middle of the road)
Caution: There will be ABSOLUTELY NO JOKES herein about Boston's nickname.
Most distressing. I’ll miss Bennet on Morning in America.
AY DIOS MIO!!!
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McPhee has a screechy voice. It's very unpleasant.
I didn't realize they'd cut Crowley's show down. Too bad, I like her.
Nice metaphor for the Republican Party’s unstated platform transition over the last decade. ;)
A "z" in Spanish is pronounced like an "s," so it would be "Radio (rhyming with daddy-o) Loose."
We say the Gahhden or cahhh, we don’t say Bahstin.
Hope WRKO picks up Bennet. I cannot stand Imus and, like you, Spanish religous broadcasts don’t interest me.
Coming to you live from old Meh-he-ko, the most powerful radio station in the world!
I’m from New Yawk.
Sí se puede, con Gleem!
I like McPhee, and I like Crowley. Let’s lose those stupid Andelmans (all of ‘em). Eddie was past his prime 20 years ago and his offspring are unlistenable.
They’ll never drop the Felon, he has a three year contract or some such idiocy! Guess I’ll have to listen to BZ.
Agree about McPhee’s voice, plus she keeps thinking she is on sports talk radio instead of political. Everytime I happen to land on 96.9 when Michelle McPhee is on, I wish it were Michelle Malkin instead, and I quickly change the station.
Will miss Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher and Hugh Hewitt on 1150 a lot - the rest of the lineup, not so much.
Having 3 conservative political talk shows in Boston was an unexpected plethora of riches. Nice to have so many choices. Listen when I can to Howie Carr, Rush on 680, Michael Graham and Laura Ingraham on 96.9. Stations live and die by ratings and somehow 1150 did not pull enough listeners.
Here’s what happened according to Boston Radio Watch
http://www.bostonradiowatch.com
WTTT changes format, language
by Mark Schnyder:
What used to be English talk is now Spanish religious music as a result of a format change at WTTT AM 1150. Salem Communications 5,000-watt station which has featured the 24 hour conservative talk line-up since November 2003 has shifted to Radio Luz(Radio Light in Spanish) early Monday morning.
California-based Salem Communications which specializes in news/talk, Christian music and religious programming acquired WTTT for $8.6 million in 2003. The company also owns two other AM stations in the Boston market WROL AM 950(The Spirit) and WEZE AM 590(The Word). All three stations are based in Quincy.
Salem launched WTTT(which stood for Talk of The Town) with the hopes that its national talk radio network of ultra conservative talkers which features the likes of Denis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, Bill Bennett, plus ABC Radios Sean Hannity, would catch on with Boston listeners. However, after four years, WTTTs struggling format didnt show much promise. The stations revenue in 2006 was estimated to be $200,000 according to the BIA Financial Network.(2007 figures will be available in a few weeks). In contrast, Salems WEZE and WROL which both lease out its airtime to religious and secular programmers, were estimated to gross $2 million and $1 million, respectively. Salem, like the rest of the radio industry these days, is looking at different ways to generate more revenue in a depressed radio advertising market, so to no ones surprise the company shifted WTTT to pay-per-airtime business model that is more profitable for its other two local AM outlets.
They didn't have Rush.
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We are lucky here to have so many good talk stations. I wish 680 came in better here, but fortunately I can listen to Rush online. Even 103.7, although a sports station, offers quite a bit of political talk during the Dennis and Callahan morning show.
http://semper-fido.blogspot.com/2008/01/sadness-at-its-passing-1150-am-wttt.html
I just posted a blog-note regarding the passing 11:50 a.m., and some advice for those hungry for replacement.
semper-fido
http://semper-fido.blogspot.com/
http://semper-fido.blogspot.com/2008/01/sadness-at-its-passing-1150-am-wttt.html
my note from blog: http://semper-fido.blogspot.com/
I found this out yesterday with a sinking feeling in my heart. It’s funny, when you go to a website and it has changed, you are redirected to the newer website. If you call a telephone number that has changed, you are generally given the new telephone number, but with the radio there was this abrupt disconnect. The new “tenant” of this radio call number, Radio Luz, makes no mention of the previous, and its messages are in Spanish anyway.
Sometimes you’ll hear some background music on any of the talk radio stations and when I initially was listening to Radio Luz, it took me a few seconds to realize that the Spanish background music was the new content and message of 1150, and not just some segue-or advertisement-music. Probably many of 1150’s devotees had this silly lingering wait, followed by a search up and down the dial to see if there was a replacement/switch, à la the recent switch on the FM dial between country music and classical music over 102.5 FM/99.5 FM.
I am a (relatively) latter-day Conservative, and I found 1150’s hosts illuminating and intriguing, and quite helpful in my “growth” intellectually within the conservative movement. For those who are going through acute withdrawal from Bill Bennett, Dennis Praeger, Mike Gallagher, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved, and Hugh Hewitt, I can recommend partial recompense, via Townhall.com’s webcasts (with the advantage of having no commercials; disadvantage of having the broadcasts’ being a few days old, and having to go through the work of downloading them, then playing them on the car radio for instance). Sean Hannity is not on Townhall.com, but can be found on XM coincident with his erstwhile 1150 broadcasts.
For those hungering for drive time conservative talk, I recommend the admixture of Townhall.com podcasts (Hugh Hewitt is quite generous in posting them), XM -166 -168 or -165, FM 96.9, and 680 a.m.. Both of the latter choices are not as fully reliable as 1150 a.m. had been.
If you are going to be doing the podcasts, please try to avoid Mozilla Firefox, use Internet Explorer, right-click on the podcast in question and do “save target as” in order to save the MP3 file for download into your MP3 device.
I will miss Bill Bennett’s drivetime-coincident epiphanies on “morning in America”. I also think that others will be missing this generous and wise interlocutor. I was only just recently finding that some of my liberal friends were listening to him and having their views (possibly still only molecularly or microscopically) changed, but changed nonetheless.
Boston needed this station more than many other cities. It is a shame that more time was not given to see if this station could grow and blossom.
thanks—someone on savewrko.com noted that (weak) WDIS AM
1170 out of Norfolk carries Bill Bennett’s show...
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