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Who Will Turn Out The Lights At WRKO ??

T

Tilden

Guest
Looks like the days ...or more correctly the "daze" of WRKO are numbered. Now, that Entercom is dumping WRKO. What a ' savage' thing to happen to the once great '68. Appears the carr is going to drive off the cliff with it....
 
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Well I am guessing that as someone who worked there in the glory days of talk radio, when Gerald Jacoby, Gene Burns and other greats wandered the halls it is must be hard to see WRKO headed off the cliff .... regardless of how you feel about management.

First it was WMEX, now WRKO has an uncertain future, as does WBZ AM.

I can't see anything good coming from any of this, especially the AM properties involved.

I am a little shy of 60 years old, I have fond memories of WRKO over the years, and some of the great talent that went thru there, before talent became optional.

I just hope someone remembers to keep the tower lights on in Burlington .... those of us who fly into KBED thank you in advance....

I wonder if WRKO still owns their towers or did American Tower take them when they spun off the radio stations.
 
MRBIboredop said:
Well I am guessing that as someone who worked there in the glory days of talk radio, when Gerald Jacoby, Gene Burns and other greats wandered the halls it is must be hard to see WRKO headed off the cliff .... regardless of how you feel about management.

First it was WMEX, now WRKO has an uncertain future, as does WBZ AM.

I can't see anything good coming from any of this, especially the AM properties involved.

I am a little shy of 60 years old, I have fond memories of WRKO over the years, and some of the great talent that went thru there, before talent became optional.

I just hope someone remembers to keep the tower lights on in Burlington .... those of us who fly into KBED thank you in advance....

I wonder if WRKO still owns their towers or did American Tower take them when they spun off the radio stations.
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What ever happens it will be a sad ending to '68 Talk Radio. To be sure even in their halcyon days they had bizarre programs like "The Thought Process" but in total the "Greats" were behind its mic: Norm Nathan and Jordan Rich in the morning; Gene Burns; Jerry Williams; David Brudnoy; Jon Keller and others. Of course, not all at the same time.
 
I remember when 680 was WNAC, and the talk line-up included Gus Saunders (who my mother adored). They flipped the switch to Top 40 one day (1967?) and at that point talk was on WEEI at 590.
 
brassband said:
I remember when 680 was WNAC, and the talk line-up included Gus Saunders (who my mother adored). They flipped the switch to Top 40 one day (1967?) and at that point talk was on WEEI at 590.
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Wasn't talk (Paul Benzaquin, etc.) already on WEEI when WNAC became WRKO?
 
I think so, in afternoon drive. I think WNAC's evening guy before the switch was Fred Gale (?) and I believe Jim Westover (whom I can recall Jerry Williams over 'BZ mocking occasionally by telling some complaining callers to hang up and call "Gentleman Jim") was already taking calls on 'EEI in the evenings. One other voice I remember from WNAC was Jean Shepherd, whose show 'NAC carried around 9 pm (bed time for me back then). When they flipped to WRKO I could sometimes still pick Shep up with my transistor radio on WOR (with their jingle: "1440 Broadway . . . 710 on your dial . . . that powerful POWERFUL station . . . with the 50 kilo-watt smile).
 
Was it 'RKO that used to run the "Drug![sub]drugdrugdrug...[/sub] Hotline![sub]hotlinehotlinehotline...[/sub] show late Saturday nights back in the '70s? That was some amazing radio!
 
MarcB said:
Maybe Hubbard buys WRKO, WBZ, and WBZ-FM and leaves WRKO as a talk station. Maybe move the talk show hosts currently on 1030 over to 680 and have 1030 become a true "All-News Station." Why not? In Philly CBS (soon to be Entercom) has a Sports Station (94.1), and All-News Station (1060), and a Talk station (1210).
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Since CBS is divesting WBZ A/F and WZLX and Entercom is divesting WKAF and WRKO, I don't envision someone buying those stations a la cart, especially since Entercom wants this merger done sooner rather than later. If I were a betting man, the 3 CBS stations get sold or swapped together and the 2 Etm stations get sold or swapped together.
 
Heslam in today's Herald has a Comcast spokesperson denying interest but NBCBoston aka Comcast could be a good fit for WBZ AM and FM.
 
I rarely listen to RKO any longer, so it won’t affect me if it flips formats. Occasionally I’ll listen to an hour of Kuhner at noon before I swap over to Juan DePedro at 1pm. The morning show is unlistenable, and after Howie, who I can catch on any number of his affiliates, there’s nothing worth listening to.
 
I could see someone like Bonneville or Hubbard coming into the market and buying (at least) both WBZ's and WRKO. They'd immediately own the news/talk format in the market and have a good chunk of sports. GREAT to sell them all together to advertisers.

I'm not in Boston, but i don't see the iHeart station in the ratings that airs Rush, Hannity, etc. Does it have any impact?
 
JoePyne said:
Funny column by Shattuck on this:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/co.../shattuck_radio_shakeup_hits_boston_listeners

I don't know how many "Lindberg Baby" listeners are still out there now though! :)

Always used to laugh when the toothless old coots used to call Jerry,..... " HELLO? HELLO? Jerry??,.......I'm a NOTCH Baby!!" and gettin' cheated outta my SS pension"!!......
Followed by Jerry:
"You old Bitty!"
CLICK!

Good Times!
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Oh man... I clicked on that Herald column... and I READ THE COMMENTS (sob)... Now I've got derp all over my mouse hand from scrolling through them! Yecch!!!
 
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