Boston Radio: Talk Radio Needs Revival

Michael Harrison

On of the authorities on all things 
radio — Talkers magazine publisher Michael Harrison — said the future of Boston talk radio “troubles” him and he hopes it can be revived by Internet radio clicking with listeners.

Harrison, interviewed Tuesday on Boston Herald Radio’s “Trending Now,” recalled the Hub of yesteryear, saying Boston was “one of the modeled cities for talk” at the beginning of the 
modern era of talk radio more than two decades ago.

“You had great talk radio personalities, great talk radio stations. You had people like Jerry Williams and Gene Burns,” Harrison said. “It was just an amazing town for talk radio.”

But as radio became “more corporatized” over the years, Harrison said, the quality of Boston talk radio has gone “downhill.”

And he hopes Boston Herald Radio, an Internet radio station launched about a year ago, “can tap into the fact that the natural tendency of the Boston population is to like this kind of thing.”


Boston’s talk radio dial has seen a lot of shakeups in recent years, including the switch of WTKK 96.9 FM from a talk station to music last year.

As for ratings, WTKK’s former talk competitor, WRKO 680 AM, was in a dismal 25th place during the spring ratings period among coveted 25- to 54-year-old listeners. WBUR 90.9 FM was 14th, while its NPR competitor, WGBH 89.7 FM, was 17th. News station WBZ 1030 AM was 15th.