Just what Boston needs: More heavy metal

By adamg on Tue, 08/22/2006 - 9:13am

The Globe reports that WILD-FM will soon become a repeater station for WAAF, the better to reach headbangers on the South Shore (WILD-AM will remain as is).

John Daley sighs:

WILD has been a Roxbury radio station for as long as I can remember. Now it has been sold and will, unfortunately, go from being a city station to being a booster for suburban rock music fans.

Topics:

Entertainment

Free tagging:

WILD

WAAF

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Comments

I'm surprised the FCC allows this

By Ron Newman on Tue, 08/22/2006 - 9:40am.

Once upon a time, FM stations were used mainly to simulcast AM stations owned by the same company. The FCC eventually put an end to this practice in the 1960s, requiring the companies to provide entirely separate programming on their AM and FM outlets.

If AM-FM simulcasting is not allowed, why should FM-FM simulcasting be permitted?

Also, the FCC has sometimes intervened to protect a format that would otherwise disappear from a market. The people who will are about to lose this format need to get organized enough to put together a formal petition, objecting to the ownership change.

There is still JAM'N 94.5

By adamg on Tue, 08/22/2006 - 9:50am.

Which seems to have been WILD's main music competitor.

NH Rock Stations do this...

By amusings on Tue, 08/22/2006 - 4:35pm.

I live up in the merrimack valley, and listen to WGIR (101) or WHEB (100.3) most of the time when driving around (if the River 92.5 is playing too much don henley or sheryl crow. meh).

They share broadcasting - greg and the morning buzz - all morning long, then they have their own programming, and then shared programming again. it is kind of weird, because they are so close to one another on the dial.

there is another NH station, the shark, 102.5 or something along those lines, which also broadcasts in the 105 range with the EXACT same program as a booster. If you drive farther north up into Maine and NH, one station dies and the other is still clear.

there has to be some sort of loophole about booster stations.

as for the format disappearing from the market, WAAF plays rock/alternative which is available from many other stations. it isn't endangered, so the FCC intervention you cite in your comment won't apply.

what does WILD play anyway? i have never heard that station. i do know that when i get south of boston, my only option is WBCN if i want rock, or a CD (yay guster!) to keep the time going.

WILD is black music

By Ron Newman on Tue, 08/22/2006 - 4:37pm.

I was referring to the disappearance of WILD's black-oriented music format. I couldn't care less about WAAF's format.

re:I'm surprised the FCC allows this

By Radio Engineer on Thu, 08/24/2006 - 10:28am.

The ban on simulcasting between AM & FM ended back in the 1980's, I believe. I'd have to look it up for exactly when. The original purpose of the ban was just to kick start FM as a viable format on its own. That purpose has long since been accomplished.

These days lots of stations do AM-FM or FM-FM or AM-AM simulcasting to cover a wider area on smaller (and cheaper) signals. Public radio is one of the biggest users of that method. WBUR's 90.9FM simulcasts on 1240AM on the Cape. WUMB has four FM signals (plus one AM) that they transmit on. WRNI 1290AM in Providence repeats on WXNI 1230AM in Westerly...etc etc etc etc.

Also, AFAIK the FCC has not intervened over content for at least 30 years. Other than obscenity and their faux-"localism" initiatives of late, the last time the FCC waded into anything content-related was the end of the Fairness Doctrine, also back in the 1980's. There is precisely zero chance the FCC will get involved here; they have expressly stated over and over that they're not in the business of ensuring a particular type of content reaches a market; only in the business of ensuring a particular type (the vague concept of obscene or indecent) does NOT reach a market.

FCC has gotten involved in Boston radio formats before

By Ron Newman on Thu, 08/24/2006 - 10:50am.

I have some vague memory of the FCC intervening in the early 1980s when an ownership transfer resulted in Boston's only country music station going off the air. The result was country music returning on WDLW-1330 AM. This page mentions a related lawsuit. Perhaps today's soul-music fans should talk to yesterday's country-music fans about how they pulled this off.

AM//FM Is Allowed

By KMGC on Thu, 08/24/2006 - 10:34am.

The ban (limitation?) of AM-FM simulcasting was eliminated long ago.
~KMGC~