Country In Boston Could Be Moving Up The Dial

[Joseph_Gallant]

Country-music fans in metropolitan Boston could soon be finding their favorite music at a new spot on the radio dial.

Today (December 15th), Greater Media announced that it had entered into "exclusive negotiations to acquire" WCRB-102.5 from that station's current owners, Charles River Broadcasting.

Greater Media already owns the maximum five FM stations in Boston allowed by the FCC. One of them, country-formatted WKLB-99.5, has it's transmitter well to the north of Boston in North Andover, Massachusetts. The other four Greater Media stations in the Boston area transmit atop the Prudential Tower in downtown Boston.

According to this Greater Media press release, the company's Peter Smyth said acquiring WCRB would result in a "significant signal upgrade". Given that four of the company's Boston FM stations transmit from atop one of Boston's tallest buildings, this can only be intrepreted one way: To comply with the FCC ownership limits, Greater Media will sell the 99.5 station, and move WKLB's call letters and format to 102.5.

One potential PR problem is that WCRB has been a classical-music station since it went on the air in the mid-1950's, and in recent years, has actually been successful in that format. Assuming that Greater Media moves WKLB to 102.5 and sells-off the 99.5 signal, there is no guarantee (and in fact, very little chance) that whoever buys the 99.5 signal would flip it to classical.

Boston area country-music fans will get a better signal for their favorite kind of music sometime in 2006, but it will come at the expense of the market's only 24/7 classical-music station, which was also quite successful in the format.

 

[cheapman]

It certainly makes sense to consolodate all of one's
transmitting operations to one location. Country music
has been kicked around the Boston dial forever while
102.5 has ALWAYS been classical (at least as long as I
can remember.) The 99.5 signal also serves southern
New Hampshire and Central Massachusetts well, and there
are significantly more country music fans there than in
Boston proper. So although it makes sense from a
technical standpoint, such a switch wouldn't win favors
from listeners of either station. But then again, when
did corporate radio ever care about listeners?


> Country-music fans in metropolitan Boston could soon be
> finding their favorite music at a new spot on the radio
> dial.
>
> Today (December 15th), Greater Media announced that it had
> entered into "exclusive negotiations to acquire" WCRB-102.5
> from that station's current owners, Charles River
> Broadcasting.
>
> Greater Media already owns the maximum five FM stations in
> Boston allowed by the FCC. One of them, country-formatted
> WKLB-99.5, has it's transmitter well to the north of Boston
> in North Andover, Massachusetts. The other four Greater
> Media stations in the Boston area transmit atop the
> Prudential Tower in downtown Boston.
>
> According to this Greater Media press release, the company's
> Peter Smyth said acquiring WCRB would result in a
> "significant signal upgrade". Given that four of the
> company's Boston FM stations transmit from atop one of
> Boston's tallest buildings, this can only be intrepreted one
> way: To comply with the FCC ownership limits, Greater Media
> will sell the 99.5 station, and move WKLB's call letters and
> format to 102.5.
>
> One potential PR problem is that WCRB has been a
> classical-music station since it went on the air in the
> mid-1950's, and in recent years, has actually been
> successful in that format. Assuming that Greater Media moves
> WKLB to 102.5 and sells-off the 99.5 signal, there is no
> guarantee (and in fact, very little chance) that whoever
> buys the 99.5 signal would flip it to classical.
>
> Boston area country-music fans will get a better signal for
> their favorite kind of music sometime in 2006, but it will
> come at the expense of the market's only 24/7
> classical-music station, which was also quite successful in
> the format.
>

 

[raccoonradio]

So although it makes sense from a
> technical standpoint, such a switch wouldn't win favors
> from listeners of either station. But then again, when
> did corporate radio ever care about listeners?

True; I listen to WKLB once in awhile, and WCRB, never...and where I work (N.
Reading, MA) WKLB at 99.5 comes in very well (transmitter a few towns away in
Andover). WCRB comes in slightly fuzzy. Well I could still pick it up at work at least if this happens.

Originally, 99.5 wound up with country because the transmitter did well in
areas like Southern NH, Merrimack Valley MA (Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill,
Newburyport), and just north and west of Boston.

I don't have the years offhand, but...country in Boston since mid 90s:
--Rumors were the 96.9 (tranmitter very close to Boston) was switching to
country. 105.7 out of Framingham beat them to it and were dubbed WCLB,
later WKLB (to avoid confusion with WCRB). Then 96.9 switched to country
anyway, and for awhile there were two stations.

Both stations were consolidated onto 96.9, but later 96.9 flipped with
99.5. Smooth jazz (more urbane, "citi-fied") shifted to 96.9 (later they
became talk) and country went to 99.5

For the station known as WCLB then WKLB, this means there have been several
homes on the dial:
105.7
96.9
99.5
and sooner or later,
102.5
<P ID="signature">______________

</P>

 

[cheapman]

> So although it makes sense from a
> > technical standpoint, such a switch wouldn't win favors
> > from listeners of either station. But then again, when
> > did corporate radio ever care about listeners?
>
> True; I listen to WKLB once in awhile, and WCRB, never...and
> where I work (N.
> Reading, MA) WKLB at 99.5 comes in very well (transmitter a
> few towns away in
> Andover). WCRB comes in slightly fuzzy. Well I could still
> pick it up at work at least if this happens.
>
> Originally, 99.5 wound up with country because the
> transmitter did well in
> areas like Southern NH, Merrimack Valley MA (Lowell,
> Lawrence, Haverhill,
> Newburyport), and just north and west of Boston.
>
> I don't have the years offhand, but...country in Boston
> since mid 90s:
> --Rumors were the 96.9 (tranmitter very close to Boston) was
> switching to
> country. 105.7 out of Framingham beat them to it and were
> dubbed WCLB,
> later WKLB (to avoid confusion with WCRB). Then 96.9
> switched to country
> anyway, and for awhile there were two stations.
>
> Both stations were consolidated onto 96.9, but later 96.9
> flipped with
> 99.5. Smooth jazz (more urbane, "citi-fied") shifted to 96.9
> (later they
> became talk) and country went to 99.5
>
> For the station known as WCLB then WKLB, this means there
> have been several
> homes on the dial:
> 105.7
> 96.9
> 99.5
> and sooner or later,
> 102.5
>

Tracing it back even further, prior to WCLB 105.7 there was NO
country music outlet in Boston AT ALL for a couple of years.
During the decade of the 80's the format struggled to survive
on WBOS 92.9 as well as on the AM dial at 1330 and for a very
shortlived time at 1510.

Stepping back even further it actually enjoyed a decent run on
the old WCOP FM 100.7 (and prior to that on WCOP AM 1150) (we're
talking the '60's now.) But unfortunately, Boston has just never
been a country music town. Even with contemporary artists like
Keith Urban and Big & Rich, I still question the feasability of
making country work on a full market Boston FM.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

In each of the first two "Phases" of the Fall 2005 Arbitron book, WKLB-99.5 (in 12-plus) got more than a (censored) share and was ranked 8th in overall listeners.

I would think that represents both the highest share and highest rank (in 12-plus) ever for a country-music station in Boston.

So country-music is "making it" in Boston and why Greater Media will move it to 102.5.