I say we call Entercom and demand streaming of WGR!

[lordofgun]

Apparently Boston deserves streaming, but Buffalo doesn't. :mad:

http://www.weei.com/listingsEntry.asp?ID=317077&PT

WEEI Boston has streaming, but WGR doesn't and they're both entercom stations.

:down:

Let's see if we can get something done. Here's their contact info:


Entercom Communications Corp.
401 City Avenue, Suite 809
Bala Cynwyd, Pa 19004
Phone: 610-660-5610
Fax: 610-660-5620



<!--StartFragment -->David J. Field, President and CEO

<!--StartFragment -->Steve Fisher, Executive VP and CFO

<!--StartFragment -->John C. Donlevie, Executive VP and General Counsel

<!--StartFragment -->Steve Godofsky, Regional Vice President

<!--StartFragment -->Weezie Kramer, Regional Vice President

<!--StartFragment -->Deborah Kane, Regional Vice President

<!--StartFragment -->Pat Paxton, Senior VP-Programming

<!--StartFragment -->Martin D. Hadfield, VP-Engineering

<!--StartFragment -->Ken Beck, VP-News/Talk Programming

<!--StartFragment -->John Graefe, Director of IT





And here's WGR's office line:
<!--StartFragment -->Office Line: 716.843.0600

[LtBillsFan66]

I'll pass. Let me know how it goes.

[buffalofan19]

WGR used to live stream back in 2000-2001(ish) but Entercom took it down for legal reasons. Someone took the Buffalo chapter to court for some reason. It has been a while since I read about it and I can not find a link, but I do know that they live-streamed at one point and took it down.

[lordofgun]

WGR used to live stream back in 2000-2001(ish) but Entercom took it down for legal reasons. Someone took the Buffalo chapter to court for some reason. It has been a while since I read about it and I can not find a link, but I do know that they live-streamed at one point and took it down.
Entercom was not streaming on any of their stations until recently. Now they are adding streaming back to some of their stations, and we need to encourage them to include WGR to the list of stations they stream.

[imbondz]

I'll pass. Let me know how it goes.
me too. LOL at your sig BF1

[BillsSabresB.C.T. Fan]

Please NO WGR in streaming, I can't get it here where I live and when I do it's all static. WGR should be the radio station that is :offair: and WNSA should be still on the air. Plus Schopp, Bulldog and Hamilton are all morons the only guy that is at WGR is Howard Simon and I don't even know if he's any good anymore.

[chubluv]

Why? For the most part all they talk about is everything but sports. I stopped listening to them. Except for the occasional check in on the 20/20 sports report. trust me your not missing much. I emailed them once b4 and told them if I wanted to hear current events or recaps of Lost or 24 or American Idol I can listen to their sister station WBEN I also informed them that I would no longer listen to this ridiculous crap anymore. They didnt even reply to my email so I'm guessing they really dont care.

[sba]

Thanks for your e-mail about streaming WGR, and your ears must have been ringing. Our parent company, Entercom, is testing streaming our sister station in Boston, WEEI, as I write you. We do want to place WGR programming on-line, but we have to see how this test goes. Please be patient as we figure out the timeline for this process.
Thank you very much for taking the time to e-mail me about our programming, and please let me know if you have any other concerns.

-Andy Roth
Program Director
WGR - Sportsradio 550

[lordofgun]

Thanks for your e-mail about streaming WGR, and your ears must have been ringing. Our parent company, Entercom, is testing streaming our sister station in Boston, WEEI, as I write you. We do want to place WGR programming on-line, but we have to see how this test goes. Please be patient as we figure out the timeline for this process.
Thank you very much for taking the time to e-mail me about our programming, and please let me know if you have any other concerns.

-Andy Roth
Program Director
WGR - Sportsradio 550
Nice!

[The_Philster]

Nice!

Ditto :up:

[TheGhostofJimKelly]

I can do without GR. Everytime I go to check it out they are talking about some of the dumbest things around. Even Howard Simon, who I use to like, is caught up in the circus act. Yesterday I was heading home from the store in my wife's car, that doesn't have Sirius, and these two idiots (Schopp and the Bulldog) are talking about a parrot that eats chicken wings. What the heck happened to that show. The only one that I can tolerate is Brad Rider, but with Tom Lykas on in the evening who needs that show. What is wrong with a serious discussion about sports? You can keep your stupid chicken wing eating bird, thank God for Sirius.

[Earthquake Enyart]

Weezie Kramer?

I guess she moved on up to VP.

[Novacane]

I can do without GR. Everytime I go to check it out they are talking about some of the dumbest things around. Even Howard Simon, who I use to like, is caught up in the circus act. Yesterday I was heading home from the store in my wife's car, that doesn't have Sirius, and these two idiots (Schopp and the Bulldog) are talking about a parrot that eats chicken wings. What the heck happened to that show. The only one that I can tolerate is Brad Rider, but with Tom Lykas on in the evening who needs that show. What is wrong with a serious discussion about sports? You can keep your stupid chicken wing eating bird, thank God for Sirius.



100% right. Thier station has become a joke. They even ruined Howard Simon who I liked before he got to WGR. I don't listen anymore. I got sick and tired of them spending the morning talking about American Idol, 24, etc and which super power is better...................being invisible or flying :rolleyes:

[Earthquake Enyart]

Being invisible is waaay better than flying. Everyone knows that.

[buffalofan19]

Alot of the reason WGR is doing what they are doing is because there is not much going on locally in the sports world right now. The NHL is locked out, and there really is only so much you can say about the Bills right now without becoming too redundant(someone is going to crucify me for saying that, I know). Last year, when the Sabres were still playing, there was alot less of the side-show stuff because there was actually fresh news to talk about. Right now, the Buffalo sports scene is dead. There is the Bisons and that's about it. I guess it would be nice if they talked more Major League Baseball and the NBA playoffs (though I don't really like the NBA until the conference finals), but without local franchises, there is only so much interest you can generate.

As far as WNSA is concerned, I really don't think it was that much better than WGR. There may have been a little (at most) more substance as far as the sports talk went, but I found it boring. Every host seemed to talk in a monotone voice and basically say the same thing over and over. At least the WGR guys could/can be funny everyonce in a while. I actually think Jeremy White is pretty funny, as is Brad Riter, but maybe that is because I am younger than most.

[THATHURMANATOR]

Please NO WGR in streaming, I can't get it here where I live and when I do it's all static. WGR should be the radio station that is :offair: and WNSA should be still on the air. Plus Schopp, Bulldog and Hamilton are all morons the only guy that is at WGR is Howard Simon and I don't even know if he's any good anymore.
Simon is a bore... :boring:

[THATHURMANATOR]

I actually think Jeremy White is pretty funny, as is Brad Riter, but maybe that is because I am younger than most.

Agreed they are funny dudes.

[Dozerdog]

Thanks for your e-mail about streaming WGR, and your ears must have been ringing. Our parent company, Entercom, is testing streaming our sister station in Boston, WEEI, as I write you. We do want to place WGR programming on-line, but we have to see how this test goes. Please be patient as we figure out the timeline for this process.
Thank you very much for taking the time to e-mail me about our programming, and please let me know if you have any other concerns.

-Andy Roth
Program Director
WGR - Sportsradio 550
:posrep:

[Bruce is Loose]

Do they have the Bills games on during the season?

[The_Philster]

Do they have the Bills games on during the season?

no...just pregames and postgames...97Rock carries the actual games

[Bill Brasky]

I know from working in radio previously that many radio stations used to stream, then the FCC started charging an arm and a leg for streaming, which is why many stations (Probably including WGR) pulled their plugs. My station pulled the plug because we were non-commercial and couldn't afford it, then the FCC decided that stations within a certain wattage along w/ those that were non-commercial could stream for a low fee, or no fee at all (I can't remember which one). Basically -- the more listeners, the more wattage you use up, the more it costs the station to stream online.

Unless they go non-profit or non-commercial, I doubt streaming will come back to WGR anytime soon. They're probably "testing" in Boston cuz it's a bigger market with 4 sports, strong fan listenership/following, and enough revenue to pay for the streaming... they probably want to see what kind of listenership/response/demand there will be for the streams before they start bringing it back in the smaller markets.

[Typ0]

I know from working in radio previously that many radio stations used to stream, then the FCC started charging an arm and a leg for streaming, which is why many stations (Probably including WGR) pulled their plugs. My station pulled the plug because we were non-commercial and couldn't afford it, then the FCC decided that stations within a certain wattage along w/ those that were non-commercial could stream for a low fee, or no fee at all (I can't remember which one). Basically -- the more listeners, the more wattage you use up, the more it costs the station to stream online.

Unless they go non-profit or non-commercial, I doubt streaming will come back to WGR anytime soon. They're probably "testing" in Boston cuz it's a bigger market with 4 sports, strong fan listenership/following, and enough revenue to pay for the streaming... they probably want to see what kind of listenership/response/demand there will be for the streams before they start bringing it back in the smaller markets.


I'm not in radio...but I do know wattage is not similar to bandwith on the internet. A radio station sends out a signal and there could be one or a zillion radios receiving the signal and the wattage would not change one bit. The only correlation would be higher wattage covers more square miles which could theoretically contain more people listening to the radio...but if you compared Manhattan to anywhere in Nebraska this obviously wouldn't be true.

[Bill Brasky]

I'm not in radio...but I do know wattage is not similar to bandwith on the internet.

Correct. But try explaining that to the boneheads in the FCC.

Basically it boils down to the fact that they knew they could profit off webstreaming and wanted their hands in the cookie jar by forcing everyone to pay up. When that happened stations quit streaming.

[lordofgun]

Correct. But try explaining that to the boneheads in the FCC.

Basically it boils down to the fact that they knew they could profit off webstreaming and wanted their hands in the cookie jar by forcing everyone to pay up. When that happened stations quit streaming.
Actually, it's not the FCC, it's a combination of the licensing companies such as BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC along with the fact that the voice actors union wanted more money if their voices were going to be aired on the internet as well as over the air.

The FCC has no say on the internet.

[lordofgun]

Actually, it's not the FCC, it's a combination of the licensing companies such as BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC along with the fact that the voice actors union wanted more money if their voices were going to be aired on the internet as well as over the air.

The FCC has no say on the internet.
As a result of the union wanting more money, many stations such as WNSA and WGR when they used to stream wouldn't air the commercials online, but would cut away to that annoying repetitive music.