Boston Is The Test Market For More Than One NPR Station…

Monday, November, 30, 2009 by Mel Phillips.

When WGBH bought WCRB in September, Boston became the test market to determine whether more than one NPR station can co-exist with another in the same radio market. WGBH shifted its classical music format to WCRB and changed 89.7 to an all news and talk station in an attempt to compete with WBZ-AM and WBUR. A smaller NPR affiliate, WUMB (the UMASS station) also offers news and music programming. Next week WGBH will start airing some NPR TV shows and localize by using Boston NPR TV personalities on radio shows. Both WGBH and WBUR air NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.” WGBH will continue to add other NPR programs that could also be aired by WBUR. Both stations are NPR affiliates and pay dues to carry its programming even though they compete against each other. Some listeners feel that Boston radio doesn’t need another news station but not everyone agrees…

Among his many academic credentials, Doc Searls is a Fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. The good doctor believes that more than one NPR station can co-exist with another ”Public radio is in better shape, for now because its band isn’t the ever-growing accordion file that cable TV has become; and because most of it still lives in a regulated protectorate at the bottom fifth of the FM band. It also helps public radio that the rest of both the FM and AM bands suck so royally.” Doc believes that there is room for more than one mostly-talk (or news) public radio station in most well-populated regions. He even suggests markets and stations that could co-exist with more than one NPR station: Seattle (KUOW and KPLU), San Francisco (KQED and KALW), Los Angeles (KPPC and KCRW), Atlanta (various vs. GBP), Minnesota (too many to mention) and Oregon (JPR and OPB)…

There’s was a time when it was thought that two similar formatted stations in the same market couldn’t co-exist. With the exception of all-sports, that theory no longer holds up. There’s always room for competition. It puts the already established station on its toes. We all need a challenge now and then…

10 Timeline Memories:

1. 1939] New York’s LaGuardia Airport begins operations as a plane from Chicago lands at 12:01 a.m…
2. 1940] Wedding Bells: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz conga down the aisle to a latin beat…
3. 1972] No news is good news: White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler tells the press that there will be no more public announcements concerning troup withdrawals from Vietnam after they had reached a level of 27,000. In this clip, Ziegler is given instructions from Nixon banning the Washington Post reporters…
4. 1993] Brady Law: President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Brady Bill) into law…
5. 1993] Klaas murder solved: Richard Allen Davis is arrested after confessing to abducting and killing 12-year old Polly Klaas…
6. 1994] Jaguar sighting: The NFL announces that the Jacksonville Jaguars will become the league’s 30th franchise…
7. 1996] Happy Trails: After performing on stage, Tiny Tim collapses and dies from congestive heart failure at 71…2007] Daredevil motorcycle rider Evel Knievel passes away from a terminal lung disease at 69…
8. 2001] Artificial heart victim: Robert Tools, the first person to receive a fully self-contained artificial heart, dies after living with the device for 151 days…
9. 2004] Jeopardy champ falls: Ken Jennings finally loses but takes home $2.5 million, TV’s all-time biggest game show haul…
10. 2007] Clinton crisis: Hillary Clinton’s Rochester (NH) campaign office experiences a hostage crisis when Leeland Eisenberg enters and holds three people hostage for 5 hours…

Music Memories:

• 1958] Released on this date: “16 Candles” - Crests (11/30)…1968] “Everyday People” - Sly & Family Stone (11/30)…1979] “The Wall” LP - Pink Floyd…1982] “Thriller” LP - Michael Jackson (on behalf of all CBS Records employees at the time - Thank you Michael)…

Commentary:

This is the last day of The “Forever Young: Folk Music History Month in Harvard Square” festivities. For more information about the Harvard Square Events, go to www.harvardsquare.com For information about the New England Folk Music Archives, click www.newenglandfolkmusic.org … 

“Happy Birthday…happy birthday“:

Clay Aiken (31), Ben Stiller (44), Bo Jackson (47), Billy Idol (54), Mandy Patinkin (57), Jimmy Bowen (72), Frank Ifield (72), G. Gordon Liddy (79), Dick Clark (80), Robert Guillaume (82) and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (92)…

Timeline Countdown: 11 days until Hanukah, 22 days until winter and 25 days until Christmas…

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