Will commercial classical radio survive in Boston, specifically on WCRB-FM (99.5)?
The question came up yet again this week when the Chicago-based industry website Radio-Info.com reported that current station owner Nassau Broadcasting had listed the property with broker Doug Ferber of the Dallas-based Star Media Group. The listing followed last week's announcement that a previous investment deal with Entercom radio had "reached an impasse," as Nassau president and CEO Louis F. Mercatanti Jr. told the Globe.
The new listing, said Mercatanti, is for a similar investment and not for a complete sale of the station. Nassau doesn't want to give up control nor change the format of the station that it has owned for less than two years, he added.
"It's not up for sale per se," Mercatanti said by phone about the listing. "We're seeking an investor who has the same ideas about the station and the format that we do." Ferber did not return repeated phone calls.
Tom Taylor, the editor of Radio-Info.com, acknowledged Mercatanti's desire to keep the station, which has been broadcasting classical music for 60 years on various frequencies, as a commercial classical outlet. "It may be that they're looking for a replacement for Entercom," Taylor said.
That deal, he explained, would have resulted in Entercom investing an unspecified amount of cash for 50 percent ownership of WCRB, and making its popular WEEI sports-talk format available to Nassau's other stations, approximately a dozen throughout New England.
Although commercial classical stations survive in New York, San Francisco, and Seattle, Washington, D.C., recently lost its commercial classical station.
"My sense is that Lou would like it to remain classical," said Taylor. "But if they sell it, whoever adopts the baby gets to name it."
Spinning the dial
On Sunday, WHRB-FM (95.3) began its Beethoven Orgy, a chronological survey of the composer's work. As of today, the broadcast is up to 1813 and continues (with a few interruptions) until 10 p.m. Monday.Other "orgies" filling out this month of big-block programming include klezmer jazz (Tuesday, 5 a.m.-noon), women in jazz (Jan. 18, 6 a.m.-midnight), and Max Roach (Jan. 21, 6 a.m. - Jan. 23, midnight).
