Bye, 'BCN

Today CBS announced that WBCN will be switching formats and frequency in a couple weeks, going to 98.5 and becoming an all-sports channel. My first thought, after updating my resume for possible job openings, was that I was surprised. Afterall, BCN has been around the area for 40 years and if any rock station was going to go off the air my money would have been on WAAF with it's spotty signal. But, then I thought more about it and I'm not really shocked. First off, I don't like the DJ's on BCN and I'm far from alone on that one. It's a combination of music snobs and guys who act like frat boys, despite being in their 40's. Really, DJ's make or break a station and ever since they ditched Opie and Anthony in the morning I haven't even been listening. I'm not surprised they're changing things up, but a switch to a Mike FM-like, no-DJ platform of nothing but rock music would make a lot more sense.

Let me just say that if the plan to keep Toucher and Rich on the air doing sports talk actually happens, then this station is going to fail quickly. These guys couldn't make it on a rock format that they only had to talk for 20 minutes an hour between bits about getting hammered. Also, neither of them are from Boston and let me sum up Boston sports fans for you: we don't care about other teams. Occasionally if you want to talk about the Yankees that will draw our interest, but we don't care about the St. Louis Cardinals or the Phillies. The average Boston sports fan isn't going to listen to these guys who aren't from here, don't really care about the teams and have no sports resume to validate their opinions. Trust me, I've worked at sports talk radio stations as they try to get off the ground and if you don't have solid hosts you're dead in the water before you even step off the dock. I give this a year before they switch back.

-Due to celebrating Israel one time, I'm permanently on some mailing lists. Really, I've tried to get off of them, but it is just not happening, despite the fact that I am not Jewish. They do occasionally pay off, though, like when I get the mailings about the Maccabi Games. Kudos (or should I say mazel tov?) for including golf as a sport, even though it's not in the actual Olympics. However, it's not the best choice of timing, because you've got to figure that the best Jewish golfers will be at the British Open this week. Good try, though.