From: nhmas@gauss.med.harvard.EDU (Mark Shneyder 432-4219)
Subject: Re : Infinity buys a another Boston station (fwd)
Originator: wdp@gagme
Organization: Harvard
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1992 07:31:43 GMT

John Higdon writes :

> As someone who has worked for Infinity even before it had the name
> "Infinity", I would like to shed a slightly different view. While I
> cannot speak for the company and certainly cannot guarantee any policy
> decision in any particular instance, I can tell you about trends.

> [ loyal-Infinity-employee-speaks-out stuff deleted ]

You maybe can tell me the trends about Inifinity but you can tell me didly
about the Boston morning radio market.

WZLX(100.7) which Infinity is agreed to buy, has had problems with its
morning team since they started out in 1985.

Here's a little chronology and backround at WZLX :

1. Origianal radio duo : Bill Smith and John Popovich(he recently died
after losing battle to injuries sustained in a car accident couple
years ago). They last together less than a year. Popovich leaves the
station.

2. Bill Smith does it a solo. He's let go after 2 years. Morning ratings
are dreadfull. Bill Smith later resurfaces at WBOS(92.9FM,owned at the by
Ackerly Communications out of Seatle)

3.Mid-day jock,Jeff Gonzer(The GonzMan) is brought in to do a morning
thing. He lasts three years. He's moved back to late mornings. Talented
newsman,Dave Fallon is let go.

4. Annalisa takes over. She's definely not cut out for the morning thing.
She sounds annoyed and irritated all the time. Her tone of voice is
always constant whether she is funny or serious. Her morning stuff
is definetely not working. Every time I listened to her,she was always
reading gossip columns in the Herald.

The news of Howard blowing into a few months ago, made her act like a
second-grader where, in a unclassy move by any radio standards, she
pleaded for support from her listeners to save her job.


Although,WZLX is making strides in the overall ratings among 18-34 group,
they're far and away behind,such morning tyrants as Charles L. on WBCN,
Matt Siegel on KISS-108, and WBZ-AM's all-news format.

You might write a book on how well Infinity deals with its properties,
buf fact is fact,WZLX does suck in the morning and major changes are indeed
in the works according to my friend who works for them. No company
will sit back and lose money,when there is money to be made. And that
includes Infinity no matter how much you praise their 'hands off' approach.

Yesterday's news : KISS-108(Top 40) and WXKS 1430AM(big band)
owner,Pyramid Broadcasting,is being taken over by Atlantic Ventures
which owns WRKO-680(all talk,Red Sox) and WBMX-98.5(slower paced Top 40),
Atlantic Ventures also agreed to buy WHDH(TalkRadio 850AM) which is
owned by NewEngland Television Corp(they own a CBS affil,WHDH ch.7 and
are having major financial troubles).

Pyramid and Atlantic will form a new radio group called Boston Radio
Group(BRG). It's only a strong rumor but BRG will move Red Sox to
WHDH and might acquire Bruins and Celtics from SportsRadio WEEI-590AM
(owned by Boston Celtics). Rumor has it,that after WEEI sells off all
the broadcating rights to pro-franchises,they'll use the cash to pay off
all the debts and shut off the transmitter.

Meanwhile,WEEI has been cleaning out the house in the last 3 days :
Firing(There's God) Andy Moes and his 2 morning sidekicks and bringing
in Tom Doyle(formerly of WVBF-105.7) to do a morning schtik with an evening sports
talkshow host Craig Mustard staring Sept. 14. WEEI also fired
the only female sports talk show host,Janet Prensky. WEEI has been
doing all-sports for 1 year now.

Other radio-daze : WBOS's parent,Granumm Communications is shopping
for another outlet in Boston. Granumm is famous for making its DJ's
wear a tie and a suit and administering drug tests to its employees.

More Later,

-Mark


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Newsgroups: rec.radio.broadcasting