[BC] WFMT owner

[Rich Wood]

------ At 06:44 PM 10/24/2005, Mike McCarthy wrote: -------

>Actaully, there was another angle...the FCC. At the time, the FCC
>didn't want to see one media compnay have all 4 pillars of access. AM,
>FM, TV, Print.  Tribune (the buyer) faced a very uphill battle with
>it's already mega properties.  So they donated it to the public TV
>outlet which owns it today.

At that time there were so many angles, regulations, prohibitions, 
etc. that any story would pass muster. Much of it was that WGN was so 
successful that there didn't seem to be a need to fight to keep WFMT. 
I don't think WGN would have understood it. It prided itself on the 
highest quality sound as well as totally uncluttered programming. No 
recorded spots for ages. All read live. When people thought of a 
"pure" Classical station it was WFMT. Most of the announcers sounded 
the same, except for Studs Terkel. I can't remember if Norm 
Pellegrini was the GM or Chief Announcer. It's changed but early on 
it gave new meaning to ultra pompous.

Rich


Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-303-9084
FAX: 413-480-0010