Re: Here's another good idea that will never happen.
> Convince ALL the people running oldies programming on
> suburban stations to all hook together into a regional
> oldies network. Forget running a national satelite feed,
> just run a regional network of 24/7 live and "local", with
> local meaning all of southwestern PA. It would mean
> listeners who travel long distances might have to hit a
> station button when they cross signal territories.
>
> The main advantages would be that this multi-station
> regional network could pool resources for news, they'd only
> need one set of DJ's to cover all 24 hours which would
> almost be as cheap as plugging into a satelite. They could
> split their programming for things like high school football
> and other sporting events.
>
> The model for such a network would be West Virginia public
> radio, which simulcasts most of the time over the entire
> state.
>
> Of course, this will never, ever happen. It's just an idea
> to think about.
Good idea, BUT! Same situation as above: no metro signal. You'd have the suburbs set (north (92.1, 1460), east (103.9, 620/770, 99.3, Latrobe's AM simulcast of 103.9), west (92.1), south (95.3, 1450, 99.3, 1130), but with the exception of WJPA's South Hills crackle and a very strong signal daytime from 620, the others don't reach Allegheny County with any manner of reasonable signal.
The situation is worse at night: the AMs (1450, 1460) are graveyard and their 1kw reaches not far beyond the immediate area. 620 goes down to 50 watts--still receivable in Allegheny County, but it's hard. Farther west is chancy...only because my little Toyota has a good receiver can I get the 50 watt 620 signal into Ohio on the turnpike. The other AMs are daytimers, as far as I know.