Left In Lowell

There is no benefit in local media failure

16 Responses to “There is no benefit in local media failure”

1. Lynne Says:
   September 28th, 2008 at 11:30 am

   Good commentary, Mimi! Agreed.

2. Eleanor Rigby Says:
   September 28th, 2008 at 11:46 am

   Two observations re: The Sun and WCAP.

   First and foremost unless the Sun actually reviewed the diaries dropped in WCAPs listening area in Middlesex and Essex Counties and perhaps Rockingham and Hillsboro in NH (I seriously doubt that the Sun would have spent the money to do that) then the numbers they quote are meaningless because the sampling is too small and includes areas where the WCAP signal can’t be heard.

   Second and ulitmately what may be at work here. The Sun’s current leadership has made no secret that they want a radio station.

   Former owner Maurice Cohen wouldn’t give them the time of day so they made a deal with UMass Lowell and tried to run a morning show there. In my opinion and apparently in the opinion of UMass Lowell as well, they failed and after a year were given the boot.

   When I read the article I looked at it as a message to WCAP’s advertisers that they are wasting their money, ultimately forcing Clark and Sam to bail out into the waiting arms of The Sun.

   Why is the Sun more interested in WCAP than in WLLH….signal strength. WCAP has a very good strong signal while WLLH does not.

   So unless the deal between Mr. Cohen and the new ownership contained an ironclad provision that the station not fall into the hands of the Sun or its executives, look for Wallace et al to make a bid to “save” the station sometime in the future.

3. Lets be real Says:
   September 28th, 2008 at 1:29 pm

   The Lowell Sun will not be around, in its current format, in 3 years. All print media are about to undergo a seriours change due to the internet. Only a few will last, certainly not the Sun, everything will be internet based. Stand by for the future.

4. jim Says:
   September 28th, 2008 at 2:13 pm

   Regardless of the reasons why the Sun wrote what they did the fact remains that ‘CAP has deteriorated to a point that it is irrelevant. Their fear of controversy or of offending anyone or any potential advertiser has left them so vanilla, so lacking of any interest to the average listener that they have collapsed under their own blandness.

5. waittilnextyr Says:
   September 28th, 2008 at 3:47 pm

   I have to agree with Jim, that there is an issue within WCAP. It only makes it easier for the SUN to jump in.

6. fred b Says:
   September 28th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

   WCAP needs to get it’s act together and go back to Policies in and around the city of Lowell, without that listener’s are changing the dial to station(s), that are giving them something to chew on.There has been a big mistake in changing all the programming overnight, I know i don’t listen anymore

7. Eleanor Rigby Says:
   September 28th, 2008 at 9:42 pm

   I have no argument with folks that no longer listen to WCAP because of their programming decision. I think it was a huge mistake on their part.

   All I am pointing out is that the Sun quotes bad information in order to scare advertisers away and ultimately cause the bankruptcy of the ONLY other source of information, however weak, in Lowell for their own benefit.

   They successfully did this with Lowell’s television station. Did you know that Lowell HAD an over the air television station long before cable? Then, gosh darn when they found the rules didn’t allow them to acquire the TV station they had all the advertisers to themselves…darn!

   The Sun has bought up all the weeklies in the area, now they are going after the only radio station.

   What does this say to you?

8. jim Says:
   September 29th, 2008 at 6:47 am

   It says to me that unless CAP changes they will continue on a downward spiral until they are gone. Now I don’t think that we can blame the Sun for CAP’ programming decisions. If the Globe wanted to buy RKO regardless of what they said Howie Carr (UGGH) would still be #1 in his time slot.The Sun isn’t the only paper that is buying up smaller weeklies in their area of circulation, it is a prudent business decision. It appears to me that what ever trouble CAP may be facing is self-inflicted.

9. Always Right in Lowell Says:
   September 29th, 2008 at 9:57 am

   Jim, you are correct in saying the CAP problems are self inflicited. The programming is just awful. All fluff and no substance and the sports reports occupy way too much airtime. I can see why they lost a major part of the audience. I used to listen every morning and on the way home at night. Now it’s Finneran and Carr every day and Warren on Saturday. Even the most intelligent show they had, George at Night, has disappeared.
   We need both a local station and a local paper so us little folk can keep up. CAP just isn’t measuring up and it has nothing to do with the SUN.

10. Bob Says:
    September 29th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

    I agree that wcap is a MESS. I used to listen in the morning for the news before heading off to work. When Garry Francis was there he was right on time with the local news. The new one berknees verpuse or whatever the name is who does the news, does it if she gets there on time. It was like hit or miss.

    Then again you could never understand what was being said because of all the stuttering. Aren’t they suppose to be professionals???? My five-year-old can do better! So I tuned out to another station for that reason and the stupid laughing contest between jack, teddy and berknees,they really do sound like idiots.

11. inside/outside Says:
    September 29th, 2008 at 9:06 pm

    Bob notes “professionals.” And the funeral home director was a professional too? I for one don’t miss the “nails on chalkboard” morning show with often made up/half truth rumors. The old show even said they were “infotainment” and let facts be damned! Worse than the Sun’s Column every Sunday.

12. kpem Says:
    September 29th, 2008 at 10:31 pm

    I have to agree with Jim. I do listen in the morning and find that I am alsways yelling at the radio when the have people like Niki Tsongas, Chief Lavallee, Bernie Lynch, etc. and all they ask is fluff. Throw some real questions that people want to know the answers to.

13. sd Says:
    September 29th, 2008 at 10:43 pm

    bob. it’s bernice corpuz. that’s her name

14. Teddy P. Says:
    October 2nd, 2008 at 4:23 pm

    Wanted to take a quick minute (or if you remember my last post here, maybe not so quick…LOL) to address some things I’ve read here and in other places over the last few days.

    First of all Mimi, don’t worry, there is no media failure. WCAP has grown by leaps and bounds in the short time since new ownership took over last November and will continue to grow in the coming months and years. We’ve added a lot of new programming, a lot of staff, and are in the process of putting together a slate of new shows that will serve the entire Merrimack Valley. We’re also ahead of revenue projections and have been since early last spring. The staton’s standing in the Merrimack Valley and the business community is better than it has been in a long time. In this business, a year’s time is but a blip on the radar screen. We’re all proud of what we’ve accomplished in such a short time, even if many of you don’t agree with some of the specifics of what we’ve done, and are committed to continued growth.

    If I could address this “ratings” thing for a minute, because there seems to be an awful lot of misunderstanding about how radio ratings work. Eleanor is on the right track. It is an incredibly inexact science, especially for a local station lumped into the Boston market. The Arbitron system (funny how similar to the word arbitrary that sounds, isn’t it?) is even less accurate than the Nielson system used for television, which was pretty whacky itself.

    I’ll give you an example: I worked at the old WNDS-TV for 6-years, and on most every night we did local newscasts, we would register NO ratings numbers at all, or a 0.1 or 0.2 when we did manage to register a blip. Every couple of months, a sky high number like 1.2 or higher would pop up some night, then we’d immediately go back to the lower numbers or the zero. Now granted, we admittedly weren’t a ratings machine compared to the Boston stations we were lumped in with, but do you really believe none of the 2-million cable households we reached had a television tuned to our newscast? Some of you might say yes, LOL, but I bet you’ve all heard of and seen Al Kaprielien on TV at some point or another. Somebody must have been watching all those years, right? Judging by his popularity at the television tent over at the Lowell Folk Festival, it’s pretty safe to say that Al and our newscasts had a sizable audience, despite what the ratings system would tell you.

    Another issue I have with the stats cited in the article is that the numbers are deceiving. Now, understand I’m a little uncomfortable discussing specific numbers because WCAP does not subscribe to Arbitron, so any information we get comes from radio magazines and web outlets, and we’re not really allowed to discuss copyrighted material we haven’t purchased. However, since specific info was placed in an article, I’ll address that.

    To read the article, one gets the impression WCAP was a ratings monster that lost all its listenership once the ownership change took place. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. From time to time over the last decade, the station would pull in a .4 or .5 rating (again, info found in other outlets), but like my old TV station, most ratings periods showed a .1 or 0, which is what the numbers looked like prior to the ownership change. That .5 that magically popped up in the ratings book actually came in December, AFTER new ownership took over. Now, does that mean nobody was listening before? Of course not. Just like it doesn’t mean people aren’t listening now.

    A couple of more quick (I promise) things: KPEM, I appreciate your desire to have us ask specific questions you have in mind, but instead of screaming at your radio, I wish you’d pick up the phone and address any specific concerns you have. We’d love to hear from you, and so would Representative Tsongas and any of the other guests we put on. That’s why they make themselves available. That’s why we give them, and you, an outlet through which to communicate.

    If you don’t have time to call, or don’t wish to call for other reasons, here’s what I’ll do for you. Send me an email (tedpanos@aol.com) and I’ll ask your question for you. I won’t even use your name if you don’t want me to. Just give me the town you’re writing from. And since email sometimes takes time to come to me or get read, I’m always on Instant Messenger during the shows. Send your question to my tedpanos IM address. And if that’s not enough, here’s my personal cell phone number: (617)901-7863. Send me a text with your questions. You can even call me me before or after a show to discuss things. That’s how strongly we feel about creating a forum to have your voice heard. I’m doing something incredibly stupid and giving out my personal number. (Don’t worry…I have ridiculous minutes and unlimited texting!)All we ask is that your questions and conversations remain civil.

    Speaking of which, this one’s for Bob, who thinks it’s humorous to disparage people by purposely butchering their names: we don’t have any objections if you don’t like what we do. We don’t object if you personallly don’t like those of us who do it. It’s part of the job. We take the compliments and the insults in stride. But Bob, at least show the young lady enough respect to call her by her proper name if you don’t like her. BERNICE CORPUZ, in addition to working for WCAP radio and WMUR-TV (Channel 9) in Manchester, does weekend news for WBZ radio, probably the best news station in the country. I wish we all were as successful in our chosen fields at such a young age as Bernice is.

    Lastly, we appreciate the feedback we get from here and other places. We listen to any and all ideas, and are willing to try pretty much anything constructive to make this a better radio station and to better serve the Merrimack Valley community as a whole, not just one segment of it. For those of you who miss your political talk and more in-depth, issues oriented shows, rest assured we are working on programming to satisfy your wants and needs. I think it’s pretty safe to say the morning show won’t be going back to what it once was, but I can also safely say that at some point in the very near future, you’re going to get a show that will give you an outlet to discuss local issues.

    So again, thank you for the time and for sharing your thoughts. Keep ‘em coming! We hope you keep listening if you already do. If you don’t, give us another try at some point and become a part of the shows as well. That’s what community radio is all about in the end.

    Thank you,

    Teddy Panos
    WCAP

15. Teddy P. Says:
    October 2nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm

    P.S. Mimi or Lynee, I couldn’t get the link to your email addresses to work, so I’m writing this in a post:

    Feel free to publish my personal contact info or anythng else from the “novel” I just wrote in a more recent post if you feel it’s worthwhile. This one’s near the bottom of the front page and I’m not sure how many people will see it. But again, that’s how stronly we feel about reaching out to the community.

16. Mr. Lynne Says:
    October 2nd, 2008 at 11:50 pm

    Thanks Teddy for your detailed input into the conversation.

Leave a Reply