John Shea, music director for 95.9 WATD FM on Boston’s South Shore, recently started a new show on WATD called Almost Famous.
It’s a local-Boston/New England based music show that airs each Tuesday from 8-10pm. The show provide an outlet for bands and musicians who might not have a chance to be played on other local music radio shows.
“We’re here and are always interested in discovering new bands and music,” Shea said. Shea co-hosts the show with Liz Azizian.
The format of the show is pretty simple – the first hour listeners hear music tracks from various CDs from various local artist. The 2nd hour, a band plays live in the station’s studio. .
Boston has an amazing pop-rock scene and modern country music scene. Artists who might be considered too pop or too country for shows that air on stations with a more hard-rock format can get airplay on Almost Famous.
And WATD is also just about ready to launch a local music mobile unit so they can broadcast live concerts in stereo live on the air. And on top of that, Shea just began a project to incorporate the station’s local music library into its regular daytime music format.
Actually the whole philosophy of WATD itself is worth mentioning. They’re an independent commercial radio station owned by a husband and wife since 1977. They have an AC format and everything is programmed locally, often with the disc jockeys picking their music on the fly.
WATD is also very community oriented, with an award winning news team that’s not afraid to interrupt regular programming when breaking news happens. WATD is live and local 24-7; 365 days a year.
