It's got a beat you can fly to: Logan Radio
WBOS was already taken. So they're settling for Logan Radio.
That's the name of a "virtual radio station" being launched this month at Logan International Airport.
Instead of banal Muzak periodically interrupted by squawky Transportation Security Administration warnings, Logan will offer a studio-produced combination of adult-contemporary music and professionally narrated advertisements and public-service announcements.
Boston radio legend Rich Balsbaugh's Pyramid Radio Inc. -- Balsbaugh formerly owned and operated WXKS Kiss 108 FM -- is producing the audio feed. Pyramid and business partners are helping fund more than $100,000 worth of airport public-address-system upgrades to ensure Logan Radio comes across in high fidelity.
Logan Radio will start to go live in Terminal A, home of Delta Air Lines Inc., and the international Terminal E this month. Service in terminals B and C, home to the other major US airlines, will follow next month once technology upgrades are completed, said a Logan spokesman, Phil Orlandella.
The Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, will get 60 percent of ad sales that project leader Airport Marketing Income LLC generates on the station, which could be hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
But besides the income stream, Massport's acting aviation director and Logan chief, Edward C. Freni , said the upside for Logan's 60,000 daily passengers is "high-quality entertainment and important travel information. Our customers will recognize it as more in the genre of a traditional format than what they currently experience at airports."
Jeff Eischen, Airport Marketing executive vice president, makes even more exuberant promises. "It's better than what I was listening to in the car today," Eischen said. Depending on the hour of day and the mix of business travelers and families, Pyramid can shift the mix of music toward cool jazz, soft rock, or family-oriented formats.
Eischen's company hopes to expand the concept to airports across the country. For advertisers, airport radio may be a way to reach wealthy, highly mobile people who tune out most conventional radio and TV.
At Logan, the system will supplant existing public-address-system coverage, officials said. But it won't extend beyond security checkpoints, where the CNN Airport Channel is broadcast on ceiling-mounted sets.
"It sounds like a cool idea," said Alan Gold , marketing vice president of Burlington telecommunications consultant Avotus Corp., who travels out of Logan almost every week. "I like it. I completely applaud a more professional background sound so it's less grating."
Gold added, though, that he's not sure how much of his attention the system will command. "The only time I really notice what's on the airport P A now is when I've heard, for the 14th time, the Boston Pops "Sleigh Bell" song, and I want to throw something at the ceiling."
Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.
(Correction: Because of incorrect information on a company website, Richard Balsbaugh of Pyramid Radio Inc. was erroneously described in a story in Friday's Business section about new radio-style programming on Logan International Airport's public-address system. Balsbaugh is a former owner of WXKS KISS 108 FM.) 