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1360

A

argentarius

Guest
Reportedly, Lynn Cullen's contract with Renda expires this Monday, March 31st, and there is no extension at this point. Will Renda pull the plug on 1360 next week? Inquiring minds want to know!
 
pull the plug at 8PM tonight to achieve totaly synergy with the "Go
Dark for Global Warming" stunt.....
 
Or pull the plug and go dark....


They have so many opportunities for that station despite it not having a good signal. As I said before, old man Renda should experiment with 1360, maybe something would stick. But if they loose Cullen who is their only local host and he doesn't want to flip the format or inevst any money into the station then he might as well give it up.
 
Here's a novel idea...classic country.

You'd likely have to do it automated, but considering the make-up of this market, it could go. If you listen to SMN's "Real Country" format, it's not all twang, there are current tracks in there by known artists that are based more in traditional country and western music as opposed to early rock 'n roll, which is much of the makeup today. You'll hear George Strait, Alan Jackson, Alison Kraus, and the Dixie Chicks on there, as well as Roger Williams, Kitty Wells, Ray Price and Patsy Kline. It's based on sound as opposed to the era.

And you make THAT your NASCAR station! If the FM's don't want it, then this would be the perfect place for it!
 
kenhawk1160 said:
Here's a novel idea...classic country.

You'd likely have to do it automated, but considering the make-up of this market, it could go. If you listen to SMN's "Real Country" format, it's not all twang, there are current tracks in there by known artists that are based more in traditional country and western music as opposed to early rock 'n roll, which is much of the makeup today. You'll hear George Strait, Alan Jackson, Alison Kraus, and the Dixie Chicks on there, as well as Roger Williams, Kitty Wells, Ray Price and Patsy Kline. It's based on sound as opposed to the era.

And you make THAT your NASCAR station! If the FM's don't want it, then this would be the perfect place for it!
Click to expand...

Roger Williams? You mean, like, "Born Free?" And "Autumn Leaves?" Well, it would be a unique format, that's for sure...

Or do you mean the guy who founded Rhode Island? Could he sing, too?
 
jackandcoke said:
kenhawk1160 said:
Here's a novel idea...classic country.

You'd likely have to do it automated, but considering the make-up of this market, it could go. If you listen to SMN's "Real Country" format, it's not all twang, there are current tracks in there by known artists that are based more in traditional country and western music as opposed to early rock 'n roll, which is much of the makeup today. You'll hear George Strait, Alan Jackson, Alison Kraus, and the Dixie Chicks on there, as well as Roger Williams, Kitty Wells, Ray Price and Patsy Kline. It's based on sound as opposed to the era.

And you make THAT your NASCAR station! If the FM's don't want it, then this would be the perfect place for it!
Click to expand...

Roger Williams? You mean, like, "Born Free?" And "Autumn Leaves?" Well, it would be a unique format, that's for sure...

Or do you mean the guy who founded Rhode Island? Could he sing, too?
Click to expand...

I meant Roger Miller, Jack. ::) My bad!
 
Pratte4Life said:
I like the both the founder of Rhode Island and Ken's idea!
Click to expand...

Thanks, Pratte...but my idea isn't anything all that new. This is what Alan Serena was doing when he was controlling the station back in the mid 80's through the 90's. And it worked very well. The only exception was that they played a lot more current country. They had so many local programming elements that you didn't even know the station was on satellite half the time. Don't forget, this is where the show "Rappin' on Racin'" began before it went to WEDO after the Renda buyout.

But I feel classic country, which the two FM's in this market don't seem to want, could work on 1360. They've got the signal and that tenured reputation as WIXZ behind them. I think that "Pittsburgh's Home for Real Country Music" could do well.
 
I know WIXZ. Tremendous history there- and yes- I used to listen to it for the NASCAR and sports programming.

It was also the first all-sports radio station in Pittsburgh, giving top-of-the hour updates surrounding the Prime Sports radio network (now defunct).
 
Just a slight correction, Ken. Rappin' on Racin' started at WEDO in 1984, moved to WIXZ in 1987, and then to WTAE in the mid 90's, before returning to WEDO. It is celebrating it's 25 anniversary this year. WIXZ did have it's own racing show called Trackside in the mid 80's, hosted by Jack Seckel.

Other than oldies and ethnic, does any music format stand a chance on an AM station in a major market?
 
They also had a racing show that was first hosted by Don Gamble, who eventually went over to KDKA. Tedd Williams (not the baseball player) picked it up for a while and finally DJ Johnson before the racing show ended it's career at WPTT.

The problem with NASCAR and WPTT now is, as has been stated in another thread, moiney. MRN/PRN want you to pay to put the product on and WPTT will not part with any money on programming that they can't make back. The only reason they carried it last year was that they were able to work out a deal for just the PRN broadcasts (MRN was on 93.7) where the broadcast fee was waived, but it didn't matter. On average you get about 24 minutes of avails in a broadcast, WPTT was able to sell 30 seconds, which doesn't even pay to have someone come in and run the board for it.

I am not saying Nascar can't be sold in this market, stations have done it in the past and made money doing so, but it takes an effort now to turn a profit on (rather than the old barter deal), and I am not sure how many stations want to expend the effort to do so.
 
No, it just takes a sales staff that isn't set in its ways.

Really, the fans are there, the product is hot, the market is receptive.

Unfortuately, it was on a station that the powers that be in-house do not pay any attention to.

The scary thing about WPTT is that it could be a player. But since the no-risk proposition is to just cut costs to the Nth power over there, it never will be.
 
Now that the shallow mind of the board has chimed in, the fact is with so many complaints about local talk programming you'd think that WPTT could be a player.

Now, does that mean they'll pull in 10.0's? No. But does it mean that they could change their rep from being a place where past-their-prime talent goes to die to a place that features innovative ideas and talent?

Of course.
 
AM McKeesport said:
Just a slight correction, Ken. Rappin' on Racin' started at WEDO in 1984, moved to WIXZ in 1987, and then to WTAE in the mid 90's, before returning to WEDO. It is celebrating it's 25 anniversary this year. WIXZ did have it's own racing show called Trackside in the mid 80's, hosted by Jack Seckel.

Other than oldies and ethnic, does any music format stand a chance on an AM station in a major market?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction, AM. I was out of the market for about five years and needed to fill in the holes.

As for your question, history has proven that in a major market, if you offer a product on an AM station that isn't available on an FM, you'll get listeners. But you have to hustle, you can't sit at your desk and wait for the phone to ring, then complain about it 'not working' six months later. When I was at Y108/WEEP/Rebel back in the early 90's, WEEP pulled about a 3 or 4 share, and billed more than $20K a month for doing absolutely nothing other than running SMN's Real Country off the bird with the occasional drop-in weathers, traffic and news headlines. All the board-ops were part-time hourly. It was easy money for an Entercom throwaway.
 
Pratte4Life said:
Now that the shallow mind of the board has chimed in, the fact is with so many complaints about local talk programming you'd think that WPTT could be a player.

Now, does that mean they'll pull in 10.0's? No. But does it mean that they could change their rep from being a place where past-their-prime talent goes to die to a place that features innovative ideas and talent?

Of course.
Click to expand...


The fact is that most people today don't have a lot of patience with dicey AM signals and don't pay much attention to the band. People who manufacture radios make the task even tougher by putting about eight cents worth of AM circuitry into most receivers. Don't blame them -- they know their market.

KDKA does well because it's KDKA and the signal isn't an issue. WJAS has carved out a niche because it's offering unique programming, but it has huge demographic problems which have restricted it to nine hours of daily local programming. It's being kept afloat by the personal sales power of two personalities, both of whom are over 70. Otherwise, there's ESPN 1250 with a small but steady niche, followed by the rest of the pack, none of which can even manage a full share point.

Because you listen to these fringe stations (how many references have we had to WURP?), you think others will, too. There isn't a bit of evidence to suggest that's true. An AM station can make it in a secondary market, but it's not going to happen when they're competing in Pittsburgh.

1360 isn't going to be a "player." It probably has a chance to be profitable, though, if it sells blocks of time to preachers and snake oil salesmen.
 
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