CBS 4/ Jordan Rich -WBZ Radio Nice Job !

CBS 4 and Jordan Rich of WBZ Radio did an outstanding job covering the Pops Concert on the Esplande.

Only wish the radio and TV were in sync but the radio was a few seconds ahead of the Comcast Digital Cable.

Still, Liza Hughes and Josh Binswanger and Joyce Kulhawik on the TV side and Jordan Rich on the WBZ Radio side had appropriate coverage which did not over power the concert. All were much better than the duo from CBS or A&E who came on at 10. Who was the gushing bimbo? ...something Krall? who added very little to the presentation. Fortunately, the fireworks ended her act.

All in all CBS 4 and WBZ Radio's best outing on the concert to date. Still miss Channel 5's Mary Richardson - the best of all.

> CBS 4 and Jordan Rich of WBZ Radio did an outstanding job
> covering the Pops Concert on the Esplande.
>
> Only wish the radio and TV were in sync but the radio was a
> few seconds ahead of the Comcast Digital Cable.
>
> Still, Liza Hughes and Josh Binswanger and Joyce Kulhawik on
> the TV side and Jordan Rich on the WBZ Radio side had
> appropriate coverage which did not over power the concert.
> All were much better than the duo from CBS or A&E who came
> on at 10. Who was the gushing bimbo? ...something Krall? who
> added very little to the presentation. Fortunately, the
> fireworks ended her act.
>
> All in all CBS 4 and WBZ Radio's best outing on the concert
> to date. Still miss Channel 5's Mary Richardson - the best
> of all.
>
I agree, i listened to the pops for about a half an hour last night and jordan did a tremendous job.

> > CBS 4 and Jordan Rich of WBZ Radio did an outstanding job
> > covering the Pops Concert on the Esplande.
> >
> I agree, i listened to the pops for about a half an hour
> last night and jordan did a tremendous job.

Yes, Jordan did an excellent job! Thumbs up to him!

However, thumbs down to the terrible audio quality on WBZ radio. Rather than brave the Esplanade crowds, I watched the fireworks from a hill here in Somerville, and listened to the soundtrack on my AM stereo Walkman.

I recall last year, WBZ announced that they were going to turn on their AM stereo for the Pops concert (which I assume meant going to their backup transmitter which may have still had AM stereo installed), but then they failed to ever actually go AM stereo that night.

This year, they didn't attempt that at all, and WBZ's current limited bandwidth airchain (to accomodate their use of IBOC in the daytime) sounded absolutely abysmal for music.

It doesn't matter much for their regular news/talk format, but what was until just a couple of years ago the best sounding station on Boston's AM dial was last night broadcasting this grand live musical event over 38 states (and part of Canada) with the audio quality of a cell phone.

I personally think that there should be an FM stereo simulcast of the audio of the 2006 Boston Pops' July 4th concert, whether on one of Infinity's own Boston-area FM stations, or on all-classical WCRB-102.5, although 'CRB is not an Infinity-owned station.

This is not to say that WBZ-1030 shouldn't carry the concert as well; it's strong nighttime signal could allow those outside the Boston area to hear the entire concert, especially if (as was the case last night) only the portion after 10 P.M. (and on a tape-delay, the final portion of "1812") is shown on national television.

> I personally think that there should be an FM stereo
> simulcast of the audio of the 2006 Boston Pops' July 4th
> concert, whether on one of Infinity's own Boston-area FM
> stations, or on all-classical WCRB-102.5, although 'CRB is
> not an Infinity-owned station.
>
> This is not to say that WBZ-1030 shouldn't carry the concert
> as well; it's strong nighttime signal could allow those
> outside the Boston area to hear the entire concert,
> especially if (as was the case last night) only the portion
> after 10 P.M. (and on a tape-delay, the final portion of
> "1812") is shown on national television.

Yes, it would be great to have it on an FM, but would it be such a major technical hassle to restore WBZ radio to good (pre-IBOC) audio fidelity just for the evening of the concert broadcast as well? Even if a Boston FM also airs it in the future, it would be nice if people out of range of the FM didn't have to hear it sounding like it's coming over a cell phone.

Not necessarily even AM stereo, since very few people have receivers for it, but at least back to the frequency response they had in the pre-IBOC days, instead of the current processing which not only seems to roll off the highs around only 2k, but also seems to have no bass worth anything. They can't run IBOC at night, so they're not restricted for that reason at that time.

I'm sure it doesn't represent Boston well for people in other states to hear a live concert broadcast in the year 2005 sounding like a radio concert broadcast from the 1930's.