August 8, 2014
From our Walt Whitman desk
It’s been one year since the feisty local tabloid launched Boston Herald Radio, and the paper is celebrating the anniversary in its accustomed style.
Start, as usual, with Page One.
“Best yet to come”? That’s good to hear.
Inside, the firsty local tabloid devotes a full-page, Joe Battenfeld-bylined piece to the anniversary bash.
Our favorite part:
Herald Radio’s launch was named to the prestigious Frontier Fifty list of outstanding talk media webcasts in the nation by industry bible Talkers Magazine.
Which got the headscratching staff to wondering: How many talk media webcasts are there in the nation?
We couldn’t find the answer on the Googletron (we’re guessing it’s a lot), but we did locate BHR on the Frontier Fifty:
Let’s hope Boston Herald Radio’s second anniversary headline is, We’re Number 35! We’re Number 35!
Good luck, guys, and happy anniversary.
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Uncategorized | Tagged: Ann Romney, Boston Herald, Boston Herald Radio, firsty local tabloid, Frontier Fifty, Gary Sinese, Joe Battenfeld, Joe Sciacca, Leonard Nimoy, Megan Fox, Pat Purcell, Rand Paul, Stephen Lynch, Talkers Magazine, Walt Whitman | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
June 25, 2014
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has always struck the hardreading staff as deep-down a Boston Herald kind of guy. But you can’t tell by looking at the local dailies today.
Boston Globe, Page 9:
Boston Herald: Nada thing.
Of course this logo lower left in the ad might explain that.
Even so, it’s a bitter pill for the slighty local tabloid, especially since today’s edition spotlights Walsh in this ad for the virtually unlistenable – and unlistened to – Boston Herald Radio.
Notice that Mayor Marty’s full name appears bottom right of the ad. Think maybe he’s fallen below that in the eyes of the Heraldniks?
Regardless, the headscratching staff wonders whether the good taxpayers of Boston footed the bill for Marty’s Mash Note, or if the Globe comped him. We’re writing to what we hope are the appropriate authorities at the stately local broadsheet, and we’ll keep you posted.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Bill O'Reilly, Boston Globe Foundation, Boston Herald Radio, Boston Public Schools, Keith Lockhart, Marty Walsh, Marty's Mash Note, slightly local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
January 28, 2014
Looks like Jen Royle and Jon Meterparel are gone from Boston Herald Radio.
Boston Herald shameless print promo from last week:
Boston Herald shameless print promo from yesterday:
The writing was on the wall-to-wall promotion earlier this month. Royle had the stage on January 17 with her column in the print edition.
But Chris Villani took center stage two days later.
And now Villani has the 3 pm-6 pm timeslot that no one listens to.
(Who the hell is Chris Villani? See here.)
Meanwhile, @Jen_Royle is roiling the Twitterverse.
More to come, obviously.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: @Jen_Royle, Boston Herald, Boston Herald Radio, Chris Villani, Jen Royle, Jon Meterparel, Meter, Sportstown, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
November 27, 2013
As the hardreading staff wrote late last week, new Boston Herald columnist/Boston Herald Radio host Adriana Cohen came to the job(s) with an 
entangling alliance: She serves on the Finance Committee of Two-Time Charlie Baker’s GOP gubernatorial campaign. We contacted her on Friday to ask if she would be leaving that position now that she works for the feisty local tabloid.
“That’s up in the air right now,” she told us.
So we waited a decent interval and tried again. And here’s what she replied today:
There is no conflict of interest. I’m a radio host and opinion writer, not a reporter.
That’s no surprise at a news organization that allows other columnists to appear at public fundraising events for Republican candidates (c’mon down, Howie Carr and Michael Graham!).
But it’s nothing a legitimate news organization would allow.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Adriana Cohen, Boston Herald, Boston Herald Radio, Finance Committee, Howie Carr, Michael Graham, Two-Time Charlie Baker | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
November 19, 2013
From our Walt Whitman desk
They keep rolling the rock up the hill at the feisty local tabloid. Here’s their latest addition to Boston Herald Radio: the Trending Now webstream featuring political columnist Joe Battenfeld and commentator Adriana Cohen.
(In case you’re asking yourself “Who’s Adriana Cohen?” here’s her website and Twitter feed.)
From the newsverpromo:
“When the mics go hot on ‘Trending Now,’ listeners will be treated to the single-most-fortified three hours of news and talk in Boston and probably the country,” said Boston Herald Radio Executive Producer Tom Shattuck.
The hardreading staff has no idea what “fortified” news and talk is, but we’re guessing it involves artificial ingredients.
Beyond that, Cohen also got her own column today, straight off some journalistic Welcome Wagon.
Look who’s slamming the middle class
President Obama has misled the American people. He promised that if you liked your doctor and health plan, you could keep them. To date, 5 million Americans have received policy cancellations. Many in the middle class are being forced into new plans at a much higher cost.
Wait a sec! Didn’t President Obama and our own U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren campaign on the platform they were the party that protects the middle class? Weren’t they the ones who lambasted the GOP for pushing government policies that “hammered” the middle class?
Well my question for voters is, who’s getting hammered now?
It’s the middle class.
Not a helluva lot new there, eh? But a boffo debut in terms of newspaper real estate.
By contrast, today’s Boston Globe introduced TV critic Matthew Gilbert’s new column Bookish with this at the bottom of Page One:
Now if the Globe would just give Gilbert his own show on RadioBDC, we’d have a fair fight on our hands.
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Adriana Cohen, Bookish, Boston Herald Radio, Joe Battenfeld, Matthew Gilbert, newsverpromo, RadioBDC, Trending Now, Walt Whitman | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
November 5, 2013
From our Walt Whitman desk (Lost in Cyberspace bureau)
It’s no news that the Boston Herald devotes the better part of a news page every day to flacking Boston Herald Radio.
Representative sample from [Monday’s] edition:
Every now and then, though, the Herald surrenders the entire page to self-promotion.
Representative sample from [Tuesday’s] edition:
Boston Herald Radio executive producer Tom Shattuck related his past experience of producing lousy election-night coverage for a real radio station (presumably WTKK) and promises real election-night coverage for his virtual station.
Beginning at 6 p.m. tonight, Boston Herald Radio will air the most comprehensive coverage of the mayoral election available anywhere.
The Herald’s political team of Joe Battenfeld and Hillary Chabot are real reporters and they will serve as in-studio anchors for the evening. Not only do they live and breathe local politics, but they love what they do and they know the subject matter like no one else.
And speaking of resources …
And etc.
The hardlistening staff will try to check it out. Not sure how much company we’ll have.
UPDATE: We forgot to listen. Pretty sure we had a lot of company there.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Herald, Boston Herald Radio, Boston mayoral race, election-night coverage, Hillary Chabot, Joe Battenfeld, Tom Shattuck, WTKK | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
November 1, 2013
Well, more like shaker-upper if you want to get technical about it.
The feisty local tabloid has a new host for Press Party, its weekly media-review webcast, along with a streamlined panel.
The musical chairs featured former Press Party multimedia reporter Katie Eastman taking over the host’s role, while former host (and Herald columnist) Joe Battenfeld moves over to the panel.
(That’s Herald reporter Hillary Chabot and Suffolk University’s Bob Rosenthal in the other two chairs. The fifth chair from previous webcasts is, well, unendowed.)
As for the content of the webcast, we’ll leave that to the hardreading staff at Campaign Outsider.
Meanwhile, in other Herald web news, a splendid reader of Two-Daily Town sent this today:
Have you noticed that they’ve cut the 6 to 9 a.m. slot [on Boston Herald Radio]? If you turn to the radio page in the paper, you’ll see there’s nothing listed. I listened this morning for a bit between 6 and 6:30 and heard an unbelievably lame segment from yesterday’s sports show followed by the beginning of Graham’s Thursday show.
Said radio page:
The rumor mill also has Battenfeld taking over the vacated 6 to 9 slot.
Stay tuned.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Bob Rosenthal, Boston Herald, Boston Herald Radio, Campaign Outsider, Hillary Chabot, Joe Battenfeld, Katie Eastman, Press Party, Suffolk University, Two-Daily Town | Permalink
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August 30, 2013
As the hardreading staff noted recently, the local dailies’ foray into Internet radio was bound to create some drama and conflict, even though Boston Herald Radio does talk (mostly to themselves) and RadioBDC does music. I wrote last month: “Be interesting to see if some news/talk shows start turning up on the indie rockstream.”
Lo and behold, from today’s Boston Globe:
The new show is Edging the Xtreme, described this way on its home page:
Edging The Xtreme with Dan Egan focuses on the hip and happenings of the extreme sports world, with exclusive interviews with regional, national and international athletes in the world of skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, surfing and so much more.
Be interesting to see how much more talk RadioBDC will start offering, yes?
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Herald Radio, Dan Egan, Edging the Xtreme, RadioBDC | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 8, 2013
From our Walt Whitman desk
The Boston Herald’s incessant Garage Broadband Radiostream gets front-page treatment for the umpteenth time in a row today.
And what is this “National Honor”?
36th place in a list published by a radio industry website whose traffic numbers are too low to be tracked (see here).
Regardless, here’s the story:
Talk radio journal recognizes Herald
Boston Herald Radio’s launch has been named to the prestigious Frontier Fifty list of outstanding talk media webcasts in the nation by the respected industry bible Talkers Magazine.
Talkers singled out Herald President and Publisher Patrick J. Purcell and Editor-in-Chief Joe Sciacca in its recognition of the innovative Internet radio platform.
Talkers editor Michael Harrison added, “[t]he Boston Herald is playing a pivotal role in the evolution of the 21st century ‘media station,’ which is the obvious model of the communications platform of this unfolding new era.”
If you say so.
Then there’s this:
“We don’t call it the Frontier Fifty for nothing,” [Harrison] added. “These guys are like Lewis and Clark. History will reward them with honor even if the immediate road ahead is strewn with challenges and pain.”
Yes, well, the challenges and pain part sounds about right.
Anyway, here’s a nice shot of the National Honor:
One last thing.
“We don’t call it the Frontier Fifty for nothing”?
Does that mean they pay?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Herald, Boston Herald Radio, Frontier Fifty, Garage Broadband Radiostream, Joe Sciacca, Michael Harrison, Patrick J. Purcell, Talkers Magazine, Walt Whitman | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 6, 2013
It’s official. The Boston Herald is no longer a newspaper. It is merely a promotional vehicle for the Herald’s Garage Broadband Radio webstream.
Today’s edition of the dicey local tabloid features four – count ’em, four – pages devoted to BHR, starting with Page One.
(The hardreading staff has changed its mind about the Little Green Numbers Facebook group, partly because we don’t want to give the Herald the exposure, but mostly because it’s a pain in the ass to create a Facebook group.)
Then there’s the obligatory two-page spread flacking the radiostream.
And then there’s this special bonus page.
The thing is, when you go to the Herald website the way it keeps telling you to, you see this:
And if you click on Listen Live you get this:
And if you click on the Play button you get this:
Nothing.
How fitting is that, eh?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: BHR, Boston Herald, Boston Herald Radio, Garage Broadband Radio, The Michael Graham Show | Permalink
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 