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660 AM
- Thread starter LA_Guy
- Start date
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I wonder how many listeners will stumble on to it quite by accident.
It looks like a great idea for a station format. I think it's one that could find an audience, if only the audience could find it. I think you could count on the fingers of one hand the number of outdoor sports loving guys who'd really get into that station who spend any amount of time scanning the AM band for interesting things to listen to.
I don't live in the 'Burgh any more. Do the folks running this new station have posters or promo displays in local sporting goods stores like Gander Mountain?
It looks like a great idea for a station format. I think it's one that could find an audience, if only the audience could find it. I think you could count on the fingers of one hand the number of outdoor sports loving guys who'd really get into that station who spend any amount of time scanning the AM band for interesting things to listen to.
I don't live in the 'Burgh any more. Do the folks running this new station have posters or promo displays in local sporting goods stores like Gander Mountain?
Interesting site - if you believe it, it starts Monday.
It looks like Mr. Langer himself is heavily involved in the on-air product, according to the schedule, at least...he's listed as hosting an hour long show a day, and two on weekends, all outdoor talk.
The afternoon drive "Barstool Talk" lists a name I don't recognize, though that means nothing since I'm not an encyclopedia of Pgh sports names. It promises sports talk from "people who've put on the pads and taken the hits"... and proclaims "step aside, Mark Madden!".
Uh, OK. Last I heard, he was already aside
I'm presuming the material was written before his dustup and dismissal from WEAE.
Does Da Burgh really need yet another sports talk show in afternoon drive? Or, for that matter, yet another Steelers pre-game show? Heck, I think the travelers' information stations are doing Steelers' pre-game shows.
And on a signal basically no one in the market knows about.
Well, good luck to 'em, anyway!
It looks like Mr. Langer himself is heavily involved in the on-air product, according to the schedule, at least...he's listed as hosting an hour long show a day, and two on weekends, all outdoor talk.
The afternoon drive "Barstool Talk" lists a name I don't recognize, though that means nothing since I'm not an encyclopedia of Pgh sports names. It promises sports talk from "people who've put on the pads and taken the hits"... and proclaims "step aside, Mark Madden!".
Uh, OK. Last I heard, he was already aside
I'm presuming the material was written before his dustup and dismissal from WEAE.Does Da Burgh really need yet another sports talk show in afternoon drive? Or, for that matter, yet another Steelers pre-game show? Heck, I think the travelers' information stations are doing Steelers' pre-game shows.
And on a signal basically no one in the market knows about.
Well, good luck to 'em, anyway!
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OhioMediaWatch said:
From the looks of their website, they're going after fans of participant sports like hunting, fishing, mountain climbing, and the like. That's a whole different kind of sports than spectator sports. I could be wrong, Maybe if they had actual text instead of a picture of text I could actually read what their website says. Are there any other sports talk stations in town that concentrate on participant sports instead of spectator sports?
OhioMediaWatch said:
Point taken, but what can we say? This is a good sports town.
At the beginning of the decade Paul Pysh (spelling?) had a sports talk show on a seldom-listened to AM frequency.
However, he must have had some sort of an audience because when I would listen to it, he would often get lots of callers and had a small staple of advertisers (a car dealer that sold recently used Jaguars and Mercedes comes to mind).
Pysh also did sideline reporting on the Pitt network and I can recall one of his listeners (or family members) writing the Post-Gazette that he should get Thor Tolo's gig when he was let go.
I didn't think Pysh's show was as crisp as the shows other stations were airing, but sometimes he was a pleasant diversion from the mainstream sports talk shows if for no other reason than he came off as a friendly guy.
But the point is, he made it work for a period of time and became a name. Not a big name, but a name.
I see no reason why Langer can't do that now.
Pratte4Life said:
Perhaps. I guess if you set the bar low enough, and don't expect to blow out whatever is up against you...just make a comfortable niche, perhaps. That's all 660 will ever allow this to be.
And about outdoor sports vs. spectator sports...it sounds like, from what I can figure out from the website, that the morning shows will be the former, and that afternoon drive and the Sunday morning Steelers' pre-game show will be the latter. Langer has his own late morning weekday show listed, of the outdoor variety.
I think he realizes that even with that different "twist", you can't do a full-time outdoors station and expect it to be a runaway hit. I don't think it's ever been done, in ANY market! But it's interesting "seasoning" alongside other sports-related content.
I will say this. Martin Milner (of Adam 12 and Route 66 fame) co-hosted an outdoors show on XRTA in San Diego- which at the time was probably the West Coast's premier sports radio station- for many years on Saturday mornings. For all I know he may still be doing it.
Now, I really don't know much about the outdoors life in San Diego. I would have assumed it was hanging out at the beach.
Regardless, my point is that though there are plenty of handicaps against AM 660 (such as signal) against a massive watt station like XTRA, wouldn't a hunting and fishing show make more sense in Western Pennsylvania than San Diego?
Now, I really don't know much about the outdoors life in San Diego. I would have assumed it was hanging out at the beach.
Regardless, my point is that though there are plenty of handicaps against AM 660 (such as signal) against a massive watt station like XTRA, wouldn't a hunting and fishing show make more sense in Western Pennsylvania than San Diego?
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At least this might create job opportunities for free-lance sportswriters who'd love to be able to break into radio.
Pratte4Life said:
One of the reasons Cabelas is where it is outside of Wheeling is the area's rather substantial level of participation. That doesn't necessarily mean people want to hear shows about it, and it really doesn't mean people will go looking for it on a little signal they've never heard of.
So, for those within the massive (cough) signal of 660/Wilkinsburg, did the new format launch?
Part- Nobody is saying that AM 660 is going to beat out WDVE.
But at least somebody's trying. And considering the amount of Cabella's billboards I see on the interstate (and Gander Mountain ads on the radio) then those outdoor shows could be profitable.
But at least somebody's trying. And considering the amount of Cabella's billboards I see on the interstate (and Gander Mountain ads on the radio) then those outdoor shows could be profitable.
I'm glad you are making more.
But why try to kick sand in the face of someone else's endeavor?
But why try to kick sand in the face of someone else's endeavor?
But what if it's something you love?
Part- Really, I'm not trying to pick a fight with you. I agree with a lot of your above statement.
But here's what I don't understand. It's a constant theme on here mass ownership has taken away creativity, it's limited job opportunities, etc.
So, here's someone- and I have no idea who he is- who is trying. Actually trying.
However long or short the odds are for him to succeed, he's giving a damn. He's trying to make it work.
On a board like this, shouldn't we be trying to encourage him?
Also, while I agree $26,000 a year isn't going to keep anyone in lobster and diamonds, it is (perhaps sadly) a representative salary for a lot of radio talent. And it is enough to have a car, a decent place to live, and a few perks.
Besides, that's a ballpark figure. Neither one of us knows the potential for revenue here. It may be a fool's endeavor or he might find some success.
But why bah-humbug a guy who is trying?
Part- Really, I'm not trying to pick a fight with you. I agree with a lot of your above statement.
But here's what I don't understand. It's a constant theme on here mass ownership has taken away creativity, it's limited job opportunities, etc.
So, here's someone- and I have no idea who he is- who is trying. Actually trying.
However long or short the odds are for him to succeed, he's giving a damn. He's trying to make it work.
On a board like this, shouldn't we be trying to encourage him?
Also, while I agree $26,000 a year isn't going to keep anyone in lobster and diamonds, it is (perhaps sadly) a representative salary for a lot of radio talent. And it is enough to have a car, a decent place to live, and a few perks.
Besides, that's a ballpark figure. Neither one of us knows the potential for revenue here. It may be a fool's endeavor or he might find some success.
But why bah-humbug a guy who is trying?
Comments on this board aren't going to make one bit of difference as far as the success or failure of the station.
I know a guy who worked at a small suburban radio station 25 years ago and they were getting shutoff notices from Duquesne Light while the managers had to hold their checks because there wasn't enough money in the account to cover them. I can't believe things have gotten any better for marginal AM stations since then, and I suspect they've gotten a lot worse.
I know a guy who worked at a small suburban radio station 25 years ago and they were getting shutoff notices from Duquesne Light while the managers had to hold their checks because there wasn't enough money in the account to cover them. I can't believe things have gotten any better for marginal AM stations since then, and I suspect they've gotten a lot worse.
Pratte4Life said:
A customer of mine once said to me, "Business ownership is highly overrated." A lot of people buy these small stations without the proper knowledge, business background, business plan or capitalization to make them work. That kind of money from self-employment is not "making it work."
It's like when I talked once on here about the AM is Kittanning, where virtually the only revenue comes from really horrible tape delay broadcasts of high school sports, where people will pay $5 to hear their kid's name on the radio. And they keep a station on 365 days a year for that? I mean really.
But then again the great majority of small business owners live the same kind of life, that's why most of them go out of business in a year or two.
I guess a lot of my opinion is based on the choices I made, where I passed on full-time radio as well as the opportunity to do something entrepreneurial in my profession, in favor of the relative security of working for a worldwide corporation. I just think that most of these tiny players are in it entirely to feed their egos.
There's no future in small AMs. There's barely a present.
And I guess my opinion is based on a friend of mine who was looked upon as a BSer in college for thinking big and as an entrepreneur.
His small business is now earning $13 million a year.
And this is not a knock on any career choice you may have made, Part. I think you know that.
Nor do I think AM 660 in Wilkinsburg is going to pull in $13 mil a year.
However, a type of sports programming not heard elsewhere on the air? The opportunity for a broadcaster to get on the air and, if nothing else, hone his skills for a better opportunity?
Nothing wrong with that.
His small business is now earning $13 million a year.
And this is not a knock on any career choice you may have made, Part. I think you know that.
Nor do I think AM 660 in Wilkinsburg is going to pull in $13 mil a year.
However, a type of sports programming not heard elsewhere on the air? The opportunity for a broadcaster to get on the air and, if nothing else, hone his skills for a better opportunity?
Nothing wrong with that.
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