101.5 weei
 

I was disappointed to learn this week that WEEI was replaced by a light rock station. As a long time fan of WEEI, the slow demise has been tough to watch. Apparently, the switch occurred on July 1st.

I was a huge fan of Dennis and Callahan (and then Kirk and Callahan) and the Big Show. I know things can't last forever, but now we don't have sports radio in the Lakes Region, which is a tough pill to swallow.

It was nice to have sports talk at the lake on 101.5 but now try 98.5 The Sports Hub on I Heart Radio or through their website. They are pretty good and were overtaking WEEI in popularity. Listening this week was almost like the old days with all the Cam Newton talk and baseball beginning soon.

When in Boston, I listen to 98.5. I like Felger & Mazz more than Glenn, Lou and Christian. I also like Zolak & Bertran during the football season. It's not so much an issue when I'm working since I can stream. It's more when I jump in the car to run errands or commuting back and forth between Boston. We also listen when anchoring out on the boat. There is something about listening to Red Sox games on radio while puttering around.

I agree, it's nice to get back to some legitimate sports talk. As a season ticket holder, this season wasn't shaping up too good. Now I have something to look forward to!

Just tried 98.5 and it's all static here in Meredith.
Used to sleep with headphones on WEEI.....shocked to wake up the other day to and they had changed.
This is not good.....especially with football on the horizon

So we need to start a show here in the lakes region. We have a few outlets and many with opinions and some time on their hands. Let’s do this


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Sad but...
 

...I think many of these traditional radio stations/formats are going the way of the newspaper. Yes, more will try and come along but they'll struggle, there will be lots of station turnover, programs will be short-lived, and it'll be hard to develop the radio personalities that fascinated people once upon a time. I grew up listing to AM radio on my transistor radio (mostly Yankees games late into the night against my parent's wishes) which I guess in and of itself was the beginning of a new type of listening - portable.

Hard to compete with subscription based commercial free radio, better advertising choices, specialized stations that pay big bucks to even bigger non-local personalities, the internet, video games, personal play lists...to say nothing of the fading interest in sports that I see in kids growing up these days. Even cable TV is a dying technology. Local stations just don't have the cachet they once did.

Anyone that's getting up in years and is from CT will remember Bob Steele on WTIC-AM 1080. Now there was a personality.

Perfect
 

I think Major should anchor a political talk show. One that's a tad to the right of center. :D

Tad?


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We hardly needed another rock station. I would have preferred an all classical music station that I can get over the car radio when out and about, sort of like the Boston area station at 99.5 FM (WCRB). Sure, they play music that can be hundreds of years old. But there is a reason for "old" music being preferred by some; it survives becaused it's good stuff.

Personally I can't stand talk radio or talk TV. Nothing but BS, rather listen to music, JMPO.

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Very disappointing...
 

Really? The only sports radio station we had in the Lakes Region and it's been replaced by an easy listening music station? I know, I know...satellite radio, streaming, etc. But I always listen to sports on my five dollar radio when I putter around the barn. As Major stated, it's a tough pill to swallow, especially with some very unique major sports seasons set to resume. I was really looking forward to sports radio kicking back in to high gear. Now I'm rocking out to Peter Cetera's Right Before My Very Eyes (no offense to Peter...I'm sure he's a very nice man).

small towns really are missing something without local radio, but it's too hard to make it pay I guess. Forget how long it's been but it was a big shock when WLNH disappeared. Summer is not the same with out the remote broadcasts and local goings on and the goofy local ads.

I tried XM for a while but it is too split up for me. 60s, 70s,80s, Jimmy Buffet Channel, Rolling Stones Channel, etc. I could not find one place to leave it alone and who has the time to make a play list? What are we 16 and taping songs off the radio on to a cassette?

Personally I have almost zero interest in sports but I do find radio baseball to be sort of relaxing. Maybe it's just a sound of summer but you don't need to pay much attention to it as background noise.

When I am out walking or raking now I have an ipod with old time radio detective shows or audio books.

Do you have a smartphone? When I putter around the yard I put my phone into my shirt pocket and easily listen to 98.5 or other stations perfectly. I do the same while boating. It's 2020 and your options now are better, not worse.

A former student of mine is a Sports Hub personality. He used to work at EEI and has seen the light for a while—it sounds like they have a lot of little issues getting in the way of improvement. Since he's left, 98.5 has increased dramatically in market share.

Sorry you lost your station. I don't listen to sports radio at all—including when my student is live—but I LOVE to read his stuff.

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Now through July 6, SiriusXM is free, www.siriusxm.com/offers/free-listen

Haven't heard Howard Cosell or Howard Stern in years, now's your free opportunity ....... Howard Stern is on channel 100-Howard Stern Show and channel 101-Howard Stern World ....... not sure about Howard Cosell ......... hey COSELL ....... where are you! ...... maybe on Ch-148, classic radio shows.

If George Carlin can have his own channel, Ch-770, The One and Only George Carlin, then Howard Cosell definitely deserves his own channel, too ...... alive today, ladies and gentlemen, where's Howard Cosell from the graveyard of radio!

Like the President likes to say; so, what have you got to lose?

Inquiring minds want to know. Let's see, who has left WEEI and gone to 98.5 over the past few years? I guess technically Felger & Mazz (but they are older than you and couldn't be your student). Couldn't be Toucher & Rich or Zolack & Bertrand, since they never were with WEEI. Perhaps it is the Dark Knight, the Sports Vulture?

Attitude and latitude
 

Bluetooth, next best thing in the boat. Stream a lot of music via Bluetooth thru my smartphone. IHeart radio or even Youtube! Build a playlist while at home and use it on the boat!

When you play music all the time doesn't your battery drain? I have to charge mine enough as it is so don't play music for long. Is there a secret?

I can play music and have my radio and GPS on and use my 12V inflator/deflator all day long at the sandbar without a problem.

Basic electronics take little power—if your battery is crapping out like that, you probs need a better, or new, one.

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I probably do. Usually I trade it in when it needs a new battery but this is a 10 and I do like it. The cheaper phones weren't worth changing. Thanks.

https://985thesportshub.com/category...s/ty-anderson/

One of my favorite teaching stories: I met Ty in the fall of his sophomore year when he'd run into my homeroom, scream out the T stops between his home and the Garden, and scoot off.

After the second day, I hid behind my door and jumped out before he could run away. He thought he was in trouble, I assigned him a Bruins article for the school newspaper. The rest is history.

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Talk Radio
 

96.9 Boston talk radio. With Michael Graham unbelievably entertaining.
Keeping politics out of this venue I will not venture as to why it went silent.

Pretty obvious as to why and not all just a matter of politics per say.

Radio in general is fading fast as a preferred medium people want to listen to. Not when you can get whatever you want streamed to you over the internet.

All Formulas have two. I replace the batteries with dual-purpose batteries. When playing music at the sand bar all day, and running the blender, I switch to only one battery in case I can't start the engine, I can switch to the other. I never had to switch. So no it shouldn't drain the battery.

Sorry I was talking about the phone battery. :laugh: Isn't it funny how you can have a conversation about two different things??

Mmmm
 

And sometimes downright dangerous. :)

On the serious side you can use a 12v adapter to keep your battery (phone) charged, or carry a power back that you charge at home and can use to charge your phone. The latter is about 3x5 inches and thin easily carried in a pocketbook or beach bag.

Dave

Good idea! I was thinking about that.

Though my Android gets whole days of battery life, if needing to charge in the boat, I plug into 12V. If on the ski, I use a jump pack while I'm anchored out or at port (the ski has a waterproof holder, but not big enough for a charger, too. I could've gotten a 12V plug, but it was $$$).

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Sadly I think the radio we know today is a dying industry, and that was made very clear to me for the first time, earlier this year, when Entercom sold 107.3 back in February and put WAAF (Boston's rock station) out of business. Entercom also owns WEEI, so it no surprise to me that they sold the airwaves. I think Entercom is moving toward the internet and doing away with FM broadcasting.

From yesterday.Attachment 16213

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Callahan had become such a tired act. His “shock jock” gig appealed to a dwindling audience and he lost his job because sponsors fled for the exits. He was pompous with average sports insight.


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He's at Barstool now? Maybe a good fit.

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"The word of the day is..."

From his sponsors, can anyone tell me what "P.O.M.G." stands for?

For bonus points...

What was Bob's occupation prior to being on radio?

What does the "TIC" stand for?

Too easy for those of us of a certain age who grew up in the Hartford, CT area.

Peace Of Mind Guarantee..we bought our engagement and wedding rings from Bill Savitt (27 steps from Main).

Travelers Insurance Company

Motorcycle Racer.

He was a legend! Robert L. Steele (The "L" stands for Elmer)

He was also a professional boxer.

The Savitt Jewelers advertisement song is now stuck in my head...

I remember it well, along with Bob Steele. He reported on the end of WWII - that's how far back his reporting went.

I remember Bill Savitt and POMG, but I don't remember the jingo.
Now Brass Bonanza - that was a good tune.
Go Whalers!

I think I’m going to listen to this light rock station and give it a chance. Times are changing.

The Insurance City
 

I think TIC stands for The Insurance City

It stands for Travelers Insurance Company. Travelers was the owner of WTIC 1080 am radio station. From Wiikipedia:

"Early years
On February 25, 1925, WTIC first signed on.[3] It was the second radio station in Connecticut, after WDRC, which went on the air in 1922. By the 1930s, WTIC was powered at 50,000 watts, originally at 1060 kilocycles. In 1941, when the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) went into effect, WTIC moved to its current dial position at 1080 kHz.[4]

WTIC was owned by the Travelers Insurance Company, from which it got its WTIC call sign. It was among the first affiliates of the NBC Red Network, carrying its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio."

WTIC is known for its historic time tone, which is a broadcast of the Morse code letter "V" every hour on the hour since 1943. This makes it one of the oldest continuously broadcasting radio time tones in the world. WTIC employs a GPS master clock system that fires the custom-built time-tone generator shortly before the top of the hour, timed such that the final tone of the sequence occurs precisely on the hour (Even though everything else heard on the station is on a 10-second delay), and listeners have been setting their watches to WTIC for many years. The notes of the sequence were pitched to mimic the famous opening sequence of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, whose "short-short-short-long" rhythm matches that of the Morse code letter "V". The Morse code letter "V" for Victory was selected during the height of World War II.[5]"

Check out Gerry's podcast. It's pretty good. Much like his WEEI gig, not all sports.

So here's a question:

If one wants to listen to the Red Sox on the RADIO and not on TV, is there another station in this area (that is actually receivable with a reasonable signal when you're not on top of a hill) that carries the games?

The nice thing about WZEI (which is the real callsign of the station, and is affiliated with WEEI (Boston) and WEEI-FM (Lawrence, MA)) is that the transmitter was relatively local to the lakes region, and the signal is quite strong around here.

Unless something has changed, due to contractual, copyright and other legal restrictions, stations otherwise carrying the Red Sox are not allowed to stream the games. You must subscribe MLB's "At Bat" service or general video streaming service for this.

I'm probably a dinosaur, but I do listen to the games on the radio quite a bit while doing stuff around the house, driving, etc....