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Is It Possible That Ernie Boch, Jr Would Buy WBZ Radio?

T

Tilden

Guest
Wondering since Ernie Boch, Jr. has demonstrated a well formed civic conscience - Boch is the principal benefactor for the old Wang Center and prevented it from going dark.

Perhaps, he can put together a group of investors to buy and save WBZ Radio AM 1030 from going silent.
 
It would be a shame if we couldn't hear Diane Stern, Kristen Eck, Tom Cuddy, Don Huff, Dan Rea, Michael Coleman or any of those voices that make WBZ the station it's been for nearly a century.
 
Tilden said:
Wondering since Ernie Boch, Jr. has demonstrated a well formed civic conscience - Boch is the principal benefactor for the old Wang Center and prevented it from going dark.

Perhaps, he can put together a group of investors to buy and save WBZ Radio AM 1030 from going silent.
Click to expand...

EBJ sold off all the Boch broadcast properties years ago, he didn't have any interest in keeping them

Since he sold off the retail dealerships ( he still does the imaging) he has moved onto other interests.

Although Suburu of New England is still his ( imports only, no retail sales) and he has a management team in there that does very well for him, he spends most of his time doing humanitarian things in other parts of the world ( very quietly ) and a few other things.

I will say I miss his band, they put on quite the show, Ernie is a bona fide musician, Berklee grad too.

I don't see him going back into radio...
 
Tilden said:
W

Perhaps, he can put together a group of investors to buy and save WBZ Radio AM 1030 from going silent.
Click to expand...

WBZ, which is the second highest billing station in the market, is not going silent. It is likely going to be part of a trade to another group as part of CBS and Entercom's agreement with the DoJ that will permit their merger to go through. The stations being spun off are not being "gotten rid of" because they make too little... just the opposite as they bill too much for the DoJ to approve what would be a monopolistic combination of stations if allowed.
 
DavidEduardo said:


WBZ, which is the second highest billing station in the market, is not going silent. It is likely going to be part of a trade to another group as part of CBS and Entercom's agreement with the DoJ that will permit their merger to go through.
Click to expand...

I till am shaking my head as to why they would potentially give up the synergy with the TV side by letting the AM go away.
 
MRBIboredop said:
I till am shaking my head as to why they would potentially give up the synergy with the TV side by letting the AM go away.
Click to expand...

It's because CBS wants to be totally out of radio. With the WBZ audience getting older and older, it is unlikely that it would be viable as a standalone, even if affiliated with a TV station.
 
As much as we value tradition and sentiment, radio boils down to this line from WKRP in Cincinnati, by the station's owner: " Young man this radio station is a BUSINESS. It is not here for your personal listening pleasure."
 
DavidEduardo said:


It's because CBS wants to be totally out of radio. With the WBZ audience getting older and older, it is unlikely that it would be viable as a standalone, even if affiliated with a TV station.
Click to expand...

It's just my opinion, but I wish CBS would've held onto at least the "heritage" CBS/Westinghouse stations, especially if they had a TV station in the same market. True, those may serve an audience that skews older than CBS would prefer, but I still think it's a shame that stations like WBZ 1030, WCBS 880, KYW 1060, KDKA 1020, WBBM 780, KNX 1070, KCBS 740, and a few other I've probably missed cannot remain with the parent.

To be consistent, I resented when GE acquired RCA and immediately shut down the NBC Radio Network and sold off the NBC O&O's. I also resented when Disney, who probably should not be in the broadcast business at all, sold off ABC Radio's O&O's to two consecutive losers, viz, Citadel and Cumulus.

But what do I know?
 
For NBC radio, if it is any consolation Jack Welch later said his biggest mistake as GE CEO was getting out of the radio business. GE missed the whole wave of deals in the '90's and had the resources to profit from it. Also they blew it with Howard Stern. Like him or not if they had kept him at WNBC and if they had done the syndication that would have been kept NBC radio relevant for at least a couple more decades.

With Disney I've wondered if they knew the writing was on the wall for many of their stations and didn't want to make the investment to rejuvinate them. Many of their historically successful properties like WABC, WLS and WJR were all circling the drain in short order after being sold. It didn't look like the new owners did any big changes to break them just did not have resources to refresh old fading programming.

I totally agree on the CBS piece and think they are making a mistake long term especially with their News/Talk/Sports stations. Maybe radio won't be delivered by radio as we know it in the future but audio streaming will still find people that want news, sports and talk. They have that in a much more entrenched way than many other radio groups and people do seek it out. Top 40 I can get anywhere and it is pretty much the same. I don't need Kiss 108 when the same music can come from SiriusXM or Spotify but I can't get Dan Rea or local Boston news on Spotify. CBS is putting all their eggs in their NFL deal (guess what - ratings down on CBS-17% this year with a projected hit of 5% to earnings in upcoming earnings report) and on CBS All Access. One thing for CBS radio though is just keeping a limited number of news talk and sports stations is probably not that viable as sales is done at a cluster level selling all different demographics. A WBZ, WINS or KDKA is probably more profitable - at least for now with over the air radio - when sold along side sister stations that compliment them as part of an overall ad campaign. Going along with that I would think selling TV and radio ads together would be a good strategy but it seems like they don't do it that way.

SiriusXM proves people will pay for audio. Keep CBS radio and add it to CBS all access as another delivery method. Maybe add some exclusive audio content since it is subscription service. For example, make reruns of radio show available on demand, put the podcasts on there rather than as freebies on the main web site and for news or sports interviews not run in full over the air make the full versions a CBS all access product.

I have my own private prediction that long after FM music listening has gone online and local TV news fades even further in relevance that local radio news/talk will still thrive just because it can't be done in a national, consolidated way and is cheaper to do than TV. You sort of see that same thing with small town newspapers. I can't go online and find out what happened at the local school board meeting for my 20,000 person town because Drudge, Breibart and all the big news web sites don't care. It is still the local weekly or daily with pretty much a monopoly on that reporting.
 
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spt87 said:
For NBC radio, if it is any consolation Jack Welch later said his biggest mistake as GE CEO was getting out of the radio business. GE missed the whole wave of deals in the '90's and had the resources to profit from it. Also they blew it with Howard Stern. Like him or not if they had kept him at WNBC and if they had done the syndication that would have been kept NBC radio relevant for at least a couple more decades.

With Disney I've wondered if they knew the writing was on the wall for many of their stations and didn't want to make the investment to rejuvinate them. Many of their historically successful properties like WABC, WLS and WJR were all circling the drain in short order after being sold. It didn't look like the new owners did any big changes to break them just did not have resources to refresh old fading programming.

I totally agree on the CBS piece and think they are making a mistake long term especially with their News/Talk/Sports stations. Maybe radio won't be delivered by radio as we know it in the future but audio streaming will still find people that want news, sports and talk. They have that in a much more entrenched way than many other radio groups and people do seek it out. Top 40 I can get anywhere and it is pretty much the same. I don't need Kiss 108 when the same music can come from SiriusXM or Spotify but I can't get Dan Rea or local Boston news on Spotify. CBS is putting all their eggs in their NFL deal (guess what - ratings down on CBS-17% this year with a projected hit of 5% to earnings in upcoming earnings report) and on CBS All Access. One thing for CBS radio though is just keeping a limited number of news talk and sports stations is probably not that viable as sales is done at a cluster level selling all different demographics. A WBZ, WINS or KDKA is probably more profitable - at least for now with over the air radio - when sold along side sister stations that compliment them as part of an overall ad campaign. Going along with that I would think selling TV and radio ads together would be a good strategy but it seems like they don't do it that way.

SiriusXM proves people will pay for audio. Keep CBS radio and add it to CBS all access as another delivery method. Maybe add some exclusive audio content since it is subscription service. For example, make reruns of radio show available on demand, put the podcasts on there rather than as freebies on the main web site and for news or sports interviews not run in full over the air make the full versions a CBS all access product.

I have my own private prediction that long after FM music listening has gone online and local TV news fades even further in relevance that local radio news/talk will still thrive just because it can't be done in a national, consolidated way and is cheaper to do than TV. You sort of see that same thing with small town newspapers. I can't go online and find out what happened at the local school board meeting for my 20,000 person town because Drudge, Breibart and all the big news web sites don't care. It is still the local weekly or daily with pretty much a monopoly on that reporting.
Click to expand...

WOW! EXCELLENT! A "voice of reason".

What(s)he said.
 
DavidEduardo said:


It's because CBS wants to be totally out of radio. With the WBZ audience getting older and older, it is unlikely that it would be viable as a standalone, even if affiliated with a TV station.
Click to expand...

Besides, Entercom wants to divest their stations in Boston as a cluster, rather than selling each station piecemeal.
 
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