1 yr Anniversary of Pittsburgh Radio BLACK Out

[Ohsnaps]

Sept 8th 2009- Sept. 8 2010
What are your thoughts with NO WAMO?
Do you think Pittsburgh Black Radio will survive with Urban AC outlet instead of Urban?
Do you think that there will be a station before 2011?

 

[corporateradiosucks]

What Urban AC outlet???

 

[Ohsnaps]

Sept 8th 2009- Sept. 8 2010
What are your thoughts with NO WAMO?
Do you think Pittsburgh Black Radio will survive with Urban AC outlet instead of Urban?
Do you think that there will be a station before 2011?

In my opition i think Urban AC is more positive Urban format that i think can survive longer then Urban and also Southern Music(ATL/Miami/New Orleans)(Lil Wayne/Rick Ross/etc.) is one of the good reasons why Urban stations in cities with a 35% or less population of blacks have dropped ratings.

 

[KeyTimes950]

It would appear that the world has moved on.

There are websites that offer alternatives to the news, soul and hip-hop formerly found on WAMO. WGBN has found ways to add American Urban Radio Network news and Bev Smith to a lineup that also includes a nationally-syndicated gospel music format, local ministry, CNN news, local weather and public service. WLTJ continues to offer urban music at night and on an HD subchannel.

Is it a perfect world without the WAMO stations? It wasn't a perfect world before Sheridan sold WAMO/AM-FM and WPGR to St. Joseph Missions. WQED has changed its programming to be less black-oriented and more diverse in its "Horizons." WZUM finally succumbed to the mistakes made by its three most recent owners, the last of which could have been a true alternative for the minority community but instead chose to be a repeater station for a Virginia outlet, run by a staff and management that didn't care if anyone in this market knew they were in existence.

Could things have been different if Eddie Edwards had been healthy enough to go through with his plans for AM 660? Who knows? It is sad that Edwards was unable to build his studio and bring on a news-talk format that clearly could have been an alternative to KDKA and WPGB.

Pittsburgh is poorer for each of the formats that no longer air here. However, Pittsburgh also is a far smaller and less important market than it was when WAMO first arrived on the scene a half-century ago.

The world indeed has moved on.

 

[Boss Radio]

...far smaller and less important...than it was when WAMO first arrived on the scene a half-century ago.

You can say the same thing about radio.

 

[Parttimer]

Bottom line is that for anything to change, one of 3 owners would have to sell out: Steel City, Renda, or Keymarket. Keymarket has been running through the raindrops financially, so they're the only likely candidate anytime soon.

I was very interested to learn from another recent thread that Keymarket still owns 98.3, they are just LMA-ing it to the K-Love folks. 98.3 is the definitive signal in the market that would be perfect for Urban as it covers the city pretty well, with no waste in the outlying counties.

If a major operator bought Keymarket's cluster including 98.3, there are all kinds of interesting possibilities. But for now, that will have to wait.

 

[corporateradiosucks]

Does anyone else pick up 98.5, which according to K-Love's website, is in Confluence? I'm in the east suburbs. (This has nothing to do with WAMO, just that I get 2 K-Loves right next to each other.)

 

[FreddyE1977]

I can get both K-LOVE stations in the car while driving around the South Hills.

On topic, I think that the longer this market goes without an urban format the less likely
it is to ever recover one. Young people have moved VERY quickly to getting all of their
music online, downloaded, in MP3's and iPods, etc. People are obviously taking notice of
that because there is a move in Congress to require cell phones, iPods and all wireless
devices to include an FM tuner! A slightly silly idea that smacks of desperation.

I think that would still leave a market out there for black listeners 35+, but that is not
likely to appeal to the big chain operators. It would take someone like Eddie Edwards who
would make it a community service/labor of love to make it fly, I think. I do think that
such an operator with a devoted listener base could pull it off here though.

 

[Talk_Dude]

I can get both K-LOVE stations in the car while driving around the South Hills.

On topic, I think that the longer this market goes without an urban format the less likely
it is to ever recover one. Young people have moved VERY quickly to getting all of their
music online, downloaded, in MP3's and iPods, etc. People are obviously taking notice of
that because there is a move in Congress to require cell phones, iPods and all wireless
devices to include an FM tuner! A slightly silly idea that smacks of desperation.

I might have mentioned this once before, but based on my "open car window in traffic" polls of what other people are listening to, down here in the Atlanta Metro things are the same as they were in Pittsburgh. Whenever I'd end up alongside a car in which the listener (often white sububan kids) was playing "urban" music, the explicit lyric content and lack of DJ's or jingles between songs lead me to believe they were not listening to a broadcast station.

 

[mc_billy_bob]

Oddly enough, when I lived in Charleroi, 98.5 Confluence was such a strong signal there that it cut into 98.3.

 

[corporateradiosucks]

I honestly don't know why Confluence is K Love when Somerset's station is too.

Solution: make the Confluence station Urban.

 

[Jkf]

That 98.5 Confluence outlet for K-Love has very odd signal peaks around Pittsburgh. Travel along Rte. 8 around Hampton, Shaler, and Etna and it comes in like a local station. I almost thought they are running a repeater on 98.5 for those areas. There is no data on the FCC site for one. Who really knows - K-Love repeaters pop up on a daily basis across the entire region.

 

[Parttimer]

I honestly don't know why Confluence is K Love when Somerset's station is too.

Solution: make the Confluence station Urban.

It's licensed as a translator, so it can't originate programming... by rule it can only re-broadcast another signal.

 

[corporateradiosucks]

I didn't know that part.

But even without it, an Urban station is about as likely to pop up in Confluence as "WBRN - The Ultimate Cleveland Browns Fan Station" is likely to pop up here.