# Debaser Pits the Boston Radio Market **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 24, 2013, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218 "2013-01-24T14:22:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/21 "2013-01-24T16:08:13Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > 92.5, the River? WERS? WUMB (which was folk, but now is verging on alternative)? I hadn’t heard of [WUMB](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WUMB-FM). Thanks. It sounds like it’s worth checking out. > [@](#): > > WUMB-FM (91.9 FM) in Boston, Massachusetts is the radio station of University of Massachusetts Boston. It broadcasts a folk and acoustic mix hosted by its staff weekdays. On weekends the station concentrates on traditional folk, Celtic, blues, afropop and world music including syndicated programs. Overnight programming starting at midnight and usually through 5am is a repeat of a portion of the previous day’s programming; an announcement of this fact is made at midnight. The station has received many awards for its folk music programming. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/22 "2013-01-24T16:11:22Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > Howie’s still on AM. I’m sure you hate his politics His “politics” \*are \*hate, combined with simple stupidity. The fact that there are so few people here who are interested in what he has to say, even for entertainment value, is a \*good \*thing. > [@](#): > > Without Howie, where would people go to “drop a dime” when they see a Lexus with MA legislator plates pull into the NH State Liquor store? Why should anyone give a damn? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/23 "2013-01-24T16:12:28Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > Are there really that many Jersey Shore shithead-juiced up, oily douchebags and dumb as a rock, slutty Snookie wanna-be hookers out there that justify having six dozen of these stations on the air? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/24 "2013-01-24T16:13:38Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > [We’re not on your lawn.](http://5secondfilms.com/watch/old-man-petersons-lawn) Well there goes my productivity today. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/25 "2013-01-24T16:25:06Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > You mean, back when advertisements were actually a part of the show, and the closing theme music for programs was “See the USA in your Chevrolet”? No, I mean BEFORE that, in its infancy, not its adolescence. > [@](#): > > Yeah, TV is a much better entertainment medium now than it was then, and it isn’t even close. Radio is, as well, with still more variety than was available in the glory years you pine for. Wait, who pines for what now? Have I expressed an opinion about the quality of any of the content of either radio or TV? ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/26 "2013-01-24T16:29:20Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > His “politics” \*are \*hate, combined with simple stupidity. The fact that there are so few people here who are interested in what he has to say, even for entertainment value, is a \*good \*thing. > > Why should anyone give a damn? Yeah, yeah. We all get it. Republican = Evil. Can’t we at least agree that a Democrat who listens to dance-pop is much worse than a Republican who listens to Rush and Frank Zappa? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/27 "2013-01-24T16:37:54Z")
No, \*stupid and hateful \*= evil. Unless you’re identifying the coining of juvenile nicknames for Democratic public servants, which is the heart of Carr’s act, with Republican “politics”? Whatever, perhaps you typify his fan base, in which case there’s no point exploring the topic anyway. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/28 "2013-01-24T16:39:12Z")
Two words : Internet Radio Ok, a few more. The cheap way to do this is with an App on your smartphone/iPod (or get an old used one just for that purpose). You can get as simple or fancy as you want to get the signal to speakers. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/29 "2013-01-24T16:42:26Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > if you would have kept listening then they may not have lost their market. it’s your fault. This. When you spend four years not supporting a company, can you blame them for tailoring their product to people who do? ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/30 "2013-01-24T16:54:47Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > No, \*stupid and hateful \*= evil. Unless you’re identifying the coining of juvenile nicknames for Democratic public servants, which is the heart of Carr’s act, with Republican “politics”? Whatever, perhaps you typify his fan base, in which case there’s no point exploring the topic anyway. Howie does come up with juvenile nicknames for Democratic public servants. However, he also comes up with juvenile nicknames for Republican public servants. You don’t get a chuckle every time you see a bumper sticker that says: “Don’t blame me, I voted for Muffy.” But like I said, the heart of Carr’s act is his insider knowledge of the corruption. Anyone who wants to learn about the sausage making that is MA state politics should read his book “The Brother’s Bulger” about Whitey and Billy. _Cue the cash register sound that his show always plays when he plugs his own books_ He goes after the big stuff, like Whitey and Billy. But he also goes after the small stuff. Like the example I posted: It’s perfect. A legislator votes to raise the MA tax on liquor and then gets busted loading up his government plated car at the NH state liquor store just over the border. This stuff is funny. Even if it’s not exactly curing cancer. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/31 "2013-01-24T17:02:58Z")
Howie’s [Column](http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2013/01/murphy%E2%80%99s_law_it%E2%80%99s_not) from yesterday is a perfect example of the sort of inside baseball that he’s great for. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/32 "2013-01-24T17:04:21Z")
Dude, pitting terrestrial radio for its shitty programming is like blaming dial-up internet service for its slow load times. The 20th century ended a while ago. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/33 "2013-01-24T18:00:13Z")
> [@hrhomer](#): > > No, I mean BEFORE that, in its infancy, not its adolescence. So, when you said radio “has changed” in post #2, you meant a century ago, after a couple of exploratory years? That’s what you meant in response to a guy who has taken a brief 2 or 3-year hiatus from classic rock radio? Okay. Excellent point. Totally wrong re ad generation, by the way. Radio has relied on ad revenue since 1920, which is the same year the first continuous broadcast went on the air. Anyway, you said it wasn’t an instrument for entertainment, which is blatantly false. As is your point that the market doesn’t support classic rock stations. It does. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/34 "2013-01-24T18:19:39Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > So, when you said radio “has changed” in post #2, you meant a century ago, after a couple of exploratory years? That’s what you meant in response to a guy who has taken a brief 2 or 3-year hiatus from classic rock radio? Okay. Excellent point. Totally wrong re ad generation, by the way. Radio has relied on ad revenue since 1920, which is the same year the first continuous broadcast went on the air. > > Anyway, you said it wasn’t an instrument for entertainment, which is blatantly false. As is your point that the market doesn’t support classic rock stations. It does. Oh for fuck’s sake, you win. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/35 "2013-01-24T19:06:41Z")
Apparently some cities have both NPR _and_ college radio stations. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/36 "2013-01-24T19:42:03Z")
Ooh! I love reading threads where the OP somehow doesn’t understand that HE himself is (part of) the reason his problem exists. > [@Debaser](#): > > \*\*I just woke up from a coma that I’ve been in for the past few years. > > I’m in the mood to listen to the radio. \*\* > > I turn on the dial and feel in the mood for some modern rock, so I put on WBCN 104.1. > > I’m greeted by the soulless sounds of dance music. What the fuck? BCN has been on the air for decades, **how could this happen?** > > I quickly change the station. Maybe some alternative rock will cheer me up. I tune to 101.7 WFNX. Once more techno-craptastic dance shit in my ears. What is this, some kind of sick joke? > > Maybe there will be something about this on the news. Beginning to panic, I tune to the FM Talk station: 96.9. I’m sure that Jim and Margery will be discussing this **shocking turn of events**. Again, the monotonous beating of disco drum annoying-ness blaring away relentlessly. > > * * * > > I mean, really: **Do we absofuckinglutely need to have another three vapid dance-shit stations on the radio in addition to the twelve we already have?** Now on FM there isn’t a single alternative rock station or a single talk station. > > [[snip]] > > Fuck this. > > **Who listens to this shit anyway?** Are there really that many Jersey Shore shithead-juiced up, oily douchebags and dumb as a rock, slutty Snookie wanna-be hookers out there that justify having six dozen of these stations on the air? I’ll address each bolded section separately. \*\*I just woke up from a coma that I’ve been in for the past few years. I’m in the mood to listen to the radio. \*\* Awesome! Radio stations live and die by having people listening to them. **[H]ow could this happen?** It really does suck when a station that feels like a local icon or one of the city’s cultural bedrocks\* disappears. Perhaps it had been influential and popular for so long that people just took for granted that it’d always be around…? **[…]shocking turn of events**. Disappointing? Sure. Upsetting, even? I can see that. But “shocking”? I’m guessing it’s a relatively safe bet to think that if _you_ haven’t listened to the radio in years and feel that’s not unusual (the tone of your writing doesn’t suggest defensiveness or like you think we’ll be weirded out by the idea of not listening to the radio), others in your general radio demographic likely have as well. So how, exactly, is it shocking that a radio station you (and likely others) stopped listening to was shut down? **Do we absofuckinglutely need to have another three vapid dance-shit stations on the radio in addition to the twelve we already have?** Well, I think your question will be answered soon enough. If a station doesn’t get enough listeners, it dies. If you already have 12 “vapid dance-shit stations” yet 3 more have popped up, it seems pretty damn obvious that demand for “vapid dance-shit” is really strong. **Who listens to this shit anyway?** Pick whichever answer you like: [ul] [li]People who are not you. [/li][li]People who aren’t yelling at whippersnappers to get off their lawn. [/li][li]\*People who are still actually listening to the radio instead of tuning in ONCE after FOUR YEARS away. \*[/li][/ul] C’mon, dude. I do understand your annoyance (I still miss Detroit’s Z-Rock 102.7 and that’s been gone for yeeears, and more recently, 106.7 The Beat, though I suspect you’d sneer at it for being “vapid dance-shit”, which seems to include “anything made in the last 30 years that isn’t rock, country or rap”). I even understand the weird catch-22 of not listening because there’s not much on that you like, which then means what you DO like has ratings go down, which means MORE stuff you don’t care for is on, making you LESS likely to listen and on and on. But seriously! Your argument boils down to, “What the fuck?? How DARE they close down the radio stations I am not listening to??? :mad: :mad: :mad: They don’t know for sure I won’t suddenly come back! What, they can’t stay afloat on their fans’ quadrennial tuning in?? Psh! Please! :rolleyes:” - No, that’s not meant in a sarcastic “ugh, pop culture is soooooo beneath me” kind of way. An area’s culture is a complex tapestry of “high brow” and “low brow”, big institutions and tiny roadside signs. All of it contributes. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/37 "2013-01-24T19:47:52Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > Howie’s [Column](http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2013/01/murphy%E2%80%99s_law_it%E2%80%99s_not) from yesterday is a perfect example of the sort of inside baseball that he’s great for. Yes, that’s typical - calling every single person on a government payroll a “hack”, portraying every government appointment as the result of hackery, and using juvenile nicknames and an ethnic slur or two to fill the other 90 percent of a very short column. The fact that you admire such an “effort” and its like says quite a bit about you and your fellow “get off my lawn” types, unfortunately not positively. **zweisamkeit** , the OP is still getting used to the idea of this newfangled FM band on his portable transistor. Give him time. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/38 "2013-01-24T19:56:06Z")
> [@hrhomer](#): > > Oh for fuck’s sake, you win. Since I haven’t been the one arguing with you, I hope you don’t mind answering a sincere question: could you clarify what/when the radio era you’re talking about was? Like just a rough time frame, maybe, and what things were done (or NOT done) that makes it awesome? I’m not trying to do some GOTCHA YA but want to understand where you’re coming from. Only then can I maybe say you’re wrong. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/39 "2013-01-24T20:01:48Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#): > > Apparently some cities have both NPR _and_ college radio stations. Elwood: What kind of music do you usually have here? Claire: Oh, we got both kinds. We got country _and_ western. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218/40 "2013-01-24T20:06:12Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > Radio 4 (varieties of non-moronic ‘talk’) for people who don’t know or care what a ‘Ga-ga’ is. All advert free. \*All we hear is, radio ga-ga . . . \* [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debaser-pits-the-boston-radio-market/648218.md?page=3)