3WS and Kate Harris

[db59]

I noticed that Kate Harris' name is no longer listed on the 3WS website. I guess that means she is no longer working there. That's a shame because she was very pleasant to listen to. Now I imagine when any of the few remaining jocks, Jonny, Sheri, or Mike dare take a day off, it will be all voice-tracking or let's pretend Steve Granato is really in Green Tree and not in another town. Clear Channel claims another body.

 

[F.M.Hertz]

Sad to hear, but it continues to show that 3WS is a shell of it's former self. It's a shame that CC had let this station fall as mightily as it did. Sure, the ratings are up, but for only one month of the year. The station needs to be taken into the garage, and get a really good tune-up (pardon the pun). Expand the playlist a little bit, live jocks with personality all the time, and more promotion.

It used to be my go-to station in the car because it was fun to listen to, but now I have it on less than 5 times in a month.

 

[trefdawg]

add a jingle package, a live ...note I said live Sunday Night Diner and hey why not a touch of reverb on the mic.

 

[Whiplash]

I agree its a shame what has happened to 3WS. If you look at CC Cleveland, and WMJI, you'll see how it should be done. The cities, demos etc. aren't that different.

CC should get Keith Abrams to oversee both markets, and bring 3WS back to life.

 

[Boss Radio]

I agree the stations sounds terrible, but....they're doing well in ratings and billing. They're running the place on the (extreme) cheap and they're getting better numbers than they did when it was a better station.

What's the incentive to change things?

 

[db59]

How about the pitiful morning show? It's really bad when Jonny Hartwell repeats the same taped segments two or three days in a row and wants us to believe they are live. How far they have dropped since the days of Merkel & Dickson. I really wish I could go back in time and relive my mornings with O'Brien & Garry on the Nifty-1250. Sadly, those days are gone forever. I guess I am showing my age, just like our parents wished for the days of Rege Cordic.

 

[cingram]

Pittsburgh, in my opinion, gets the radio it deserves. If listeners don't demand better, it won't be any
better. For example, compare 3WS to WMJI. Despite the many changes and cutbacks at WMJI, there
still is no comparison.

As a postscript, I've been over Led Zeppelin since about 1980 and I wish the rest of the market would
get over them, too.

C.

 

[F.M.Hertz]

Pittsburgh, in my opinion, gets the radio it deserves.

I couldn't agree more. Thank goodness for Internet Radio, where I can hear station like WCBS-FM, WMJI, and KRTH. Those stations are probably the last vestages of personality radio. The suits at CC should be listening to these guys and taking notes. If 3WS also wanted to succeed they could have great announcers that know the music, have a great understanding of presenting, able to run a tight board, and most of all have fun with it. Guys like C.Ingram for example [shameless plug].

 

[cingram]

Thank goodness for Internet Radio, where I can hear station like WCBS-FM, WMJI, and KRTH. Those stations are probably the last vestages of personality radio. The suits at CC should be listening to these guys and taking notes. If 3WS also wanted to succeed they could have great announcers that know the music, have a great understanding of presenting, able to run a tight board, and most of all have fun with it. Guys like C.Ingram for example [shameless plug].

WMJI is a CC station. They should know better. 3WS has great ratings, so the only reason it doesn't
sound great is because someone doesn't care, or (shudder) somebody actually wants it to sound that
way.

CC's Cleveland stations, where comparable, easily outmatch their Pittsburgh counterparts. WMJI is a
better station than 3WS, Kiss 96.5 there trumps Kiss here, WTAM trounces WPGB (and KDKA for that
matter).

The day is coming soon when you'll be able to listen to first-class radio stations like WCBS-FM in your
car with no muss and no fuss, and when that day comes, the very existence of mediocre radio will be
called into question. One thing's for sure: you'd better not be just a jukebox.

C.

 

[Boss Radio]

CBS-FM is infinitely better than 3WS, yet CBS-FM is about 30% of what it used to be.

 

[Alton]

CBS-FM is infinitely better than 3WS, yet CBS-FM is about 30% of what it used to be

How about the pitiful morning show? It's really bad when Jonny Hartwell repeats the same taped segments two or three days in a row and wants us to believe they are live. How far they have dropped since the days of Merkel & Dickson.

CBS-FM is classic, no doubt, but 3WS was classic, too (one of the most decorated Marconi award winning Oldies Stations of the Year). Both stations were great models for other stations. And, many stations have modeled themselves after the old 3WS.

What made 3WS special were the people who built it...the great programmers and staff of the 90's. It's a shell of it's self because those people are no longer there. (While Shery Vandyke and Mike Frazer are on the air there still, they were not responsible for making it the legendary station it was.)

Another reason 3WS is a shell of its self is that they are in the same cluster as DVE. And, from what I heard for the past 12 years or so, DVE is the favorite child. Those in charge (who had no investment of time or association with the station) chose to shed the layers of 3WS. If they were smart, they could've invested in it as they ddi DVE. (Of course, that would've taken the release of Krenn to have been 10 years sooner than when it happend).

 

[F.M.Hertz]

These are all great points, and the underlying theme of what has been brought up is that the quality is missing from radio, pure and simple.

The way I see it radio only exists today is as a medium to sell things. True, money has always been the main driver to invest in a station or to keep it going, but if you go back, those that invested in radio and ran stations primarlily did it because they loved it or saw a need to run a station. Jocks were allowed and urged to be creative and remotes were done as a way to reach out to the community, not because it was sponsored. Those of us that back in the day that worked in radio often stayed after our shifts to hang out with our co-workers in the production studio to listen to airchecks from other towns, go over new releases, or even work on bits for upcoming shows. That's more or less gone, because most of those in management don't let jocks take chances. They want the announcers to say as little as possible and stay out of the way. That is if their stations aren't automated. I often ask people when the topic of radio comes up when was the last time they heard an announcer give the time and temperature while talking up a song? It's probably been close to 20 years.

Radio will always be around in one forrm or another, and what Clarke says is true. In about 5 years new cars will be equipped with internet radio, and I can't wait to see it. It will definetly make everyone stand up and take notice. Hopefully it will allow programmers to focus more attention to their on air product and nt necessarily on the bottom line.

 

[cingram]

And, from what I heard for the past 12 years or so, DVE is the favorite child.

I can speak only from my own experience in the building, but it's the truth. WDVE is the mothership.
Everything else comes second, third, or maybe not at all.

There are six stations in the building, and only one set of call letters lit up on the side of the building,
which says more about the situation than I ever could.

C.

 

[Boss Radio]

I don't think 3WS was ever "classic" at any point. It was a much better radio station than it is now, but it was far from "classic."

It was never close to CBS-FM, which employed the DJs who were big in the era of Top 40 AM and recreated that kind of presentation with jingles and mic reverb. 3WS never had that kind of ambition.

 

[Boss Radio]

The way I see it radio only exists today is as a medium to sell things.

In the 1920s, radio was attempting to sell radio receivers that stores were trying to move. Let's not over-romanticize things. Radio has always been about the billing.

 

[KeyTimes950]

The way I see it radio only exists today is as a medium to sell things.

In the 1920s, radio was attempting to sell radio receivers that stores were trying to move. Let's not over-romanticize things. Radio has always been about the billing.

I won't "over-romanticize" but I will say radio offered something for that billing for so many years, from the shows that eventually moved over to television to the formats that once featured personality alongside the jukebox. I'm not that sure radio is all that special anymore, except perhaps on a handful of stations that do not fit the Clear Channel/CBS/Cumulus/whatever cookie-cutter mold. (I wouldn't rule out some of the big-chain outlets but I'm not readily ruling them in, either.)

 

[Alton]

I don't think 3WS was ever "classic" at any point. It was a much better radio station than it is now, but it was far from "classic."

It was never close to CBS-FM, which employed the DJs who were big in the era of Top 40 AM and recreated that kind of presentation with jingles and mic reverb. 3WS never had that kind of ambition.

Boss, 3WS was the template for a lot of oldies stations throughout the country. I know the programmers and consultants who worked at and with 3WS and know this for a fact, especially since I did work on some of their marketing campaigns as well as those at a few stations who were sent to me via their consultant. So, yeah, the station was regarded as a classic and legendary station. As I said, that's pretty much all changed due to how the station has been treated through the years and especially the present time.

 

[Boss Radio]

The way I see it radio only exists today is as a medium to sell things.

In the 1920s, radio was attempting to sell radio receivers that stores were trying to move. Let's not over-romanticize things. Radio has always been about the billing.

I won't "over-romanticize" but I will say radio offered something for that billing for so many years, from the shows that eventually moved over to television to the formats that once featured personality alongside the jukebox. I'm not that sure radio is all that special anymore, except perhaps on a handful of stations that do not fit the Clear Channel/CBS/Cumulus/whatever cookie-cutter mold. (I wouldn't rule out some of the big-chain outlets but I'm not readily ruling them in, either.)

There was a time when radio occupied a more important place in people's lives. That's changed, partly because radio has trivialized itself over several decades, and partly because people now have better alternatives.

 

[Boss Radio]

I don't think 3WS was ever "classic" at any point. It was a much better radio station than it is now, but it was far from "classic."

It was never close to CBS-FM, which employed the DJs who were big in the era of Top 40 AM and recreated that kind of presentation with jingles and mic reverb. 3WS never had that kind of ambition.

Boss, 3WS was the template for a lot of oldies stations throughout the country. I know the programmers and consultants who worked at and with 3WS and know this for a fact, especially since I did work on some of their marketing campaigns as well as those at a few stations who were sent to me via their consultant. So, yeah, the station was regarded as a classic and legendary station. As I said, that's pretty much all changed due to how the station has been treated through the years and especially the present time.

My point was strictly in comparing 3WS to WCBS-FM. CBS-FM set an impossibly high standard for oldies stations with an uncommonly deep music library, a commitment to hiring DJs who were important to listeners in the target demo and working to re-create the "sound" of classic Top 40 radio through jingles, engineering and the freedom for DJs to be personalities.

3WS never did any of that. Aside from three hours of the Oldies Diner, it was a generic oldies station that, as you suggest, could pretty much function in any market. CBS-FM was very New York specific and deserves the title of "legendary" for the way it fit its market and its commitment (backed with much cash) to a higher standard.

 

[Whiplash]

IMO the three best oldies stations in the country are K Earth 101, CBS FM and Magic in Cleveland. Why is so hard to utilize the people in Cleveland to program 3WS the right way?