The strange part of the deal, though, is that the Sox are obviously a more natural fit for WEEI, with its sports-focused programming, than for WRKO, where talk usually turns to political and cultural battles. According to Mark Jurkowitz, a former Phoenix media critic who’s now associate director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism — and who once had his own show on WRKO — the arrival of the Sox is not something WRKO’s fans should celebrate. “This marks the end of WRKO’s long run as Boston’s premier talk station, regardless of what the ratings are,” Jurkowitz says. “That’s what this station has really represented over the years. That marks a passage. And it says that the most dedicated, devoted, and lively station in the market is the FM talker, WTKK, which years ago was a creature that didn’t exist.”
Focus on the bottom line rather than brand identity, however, and the picture looks different. According to Inside Radio’s in-house estimates, Entercom currently gets just under 20 percent of the advertising revenue spent on radio in the Boston market. $38 million — approximately half of Entercom’s total — comes from advertisers buying time on WEEI; WRKO’s ad revenues total about $18.5 million. “If you’re management,” Inside Radio’s Taylor says, “You’re thinking, ‘If we can keep that billing on WEEI, which is the hottest sports station in America, and transfer some of that heat to WRKO and grow that, that’s a very good day’s work.”
The overarching question is this: by midsummer, when Finneran has settled into his new role and Sox fans are getting used to tuning in to WRKO for most games, will the station have a coherent new identity? Or will it be an awkward amalgam of non-complementary parts? In a best-case scenario, Finneran shows he’s a natural and mercilessly skewers his former colleagues; Finneran and Carr (a harsh critic of the former Speaker) develop a nasty rivalry that drives listeners back and forth between the two; Entercom finds a real midday talent to bring listeners from Finneran to Limbaugh (former Carr protégé Doug “VB” Goudie, currently at Fox-25 TV, is one possibility); commercials plugging WRKO’s new line-up run endlessly on WEEI during Sox broadcasts and generate scads of new listeners; and ratings and ad revenue spike enough that Wolfe, Kahn, and the other bigwigs at Entercom dream of overtaking WBZ instead of worrying about fending off WTKK.
This is an exceedingly rosy picture, however. WRKO’s extreme makeover has certainly been bold, but its wisdom remains to be seen.
On the Web
Adam Reilly's Media Log: http://www.thephoenix.com/medialog
