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All Hitz 97.7 Butler

P

Parttimer

Driving down I-79 today I decided to check the station out for a while, heard proably from 2:45-3:30 or so... please take the following in the spirit of constructive criticism as it is intended.

Vert pleasant musically. If you were in a bigger market you'd have a real identity crisis, because calling yourself "all hits" would lead me to expect a CHR or at least a more current-based Hot AC. What you're playing (Nelly Furtado, Fleetwood Mac, Justin Timberlake) is very female-leaning and should be a "Magic" or a "Star" or a "Lite" or something like that to better relate the name to the music. You'd flunk one the basic questions in a perceptual study when they asked the listeners, "What kind of music does All Hitz 97.7 play?"

And the Whitesnake in the middle of that was just out of place. Also the background music for the community calendar was very dated, sounded like it belonged on a station form the 70's. And if you're going to bleep Nickelback's "Rock Star" every time the word "drugs" comes up, just don't play the song.

After all that, however, I think it's a good enough product for who you're trying to sell it to. It wouldn't take much to polish it up a little and make it sound a little more major-market, but it's better than a lot of the stuff Keymarket/Forever is doing in the secondary markets.

Good job.
 
just about every station in america playing "rockstar" is playing the edit...
 
garnet said:
just about every station in america playing "rockstar" is playing the edit...
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THAT'S what they're saying? I thought it was, um, another word for kitty.

But at any rate, I completely agree with not playing this piece of crap song :)
 
Despite the swooshes in between their news bites and the announcer sounding like he is speaking into a coffee can during the station identification (sorry...sounds cheesy) they are doing a decent job. They have a local appeal and lots of local advertisers and that brings in listeners and profits. Their AM sister talk station WISR could use a little help though with programming. If I was the GM for WISR I would revamp it by making a little edger and more compelling talk radio with a local focus rather than grandpa Joe talking about his health problems and callers calling in and trying to out do him with their health problems.
 
FightingIrishman said:
Their AM sister talk station WISR could use a little help though with programming. If I was the GM for WISR I would revamp it by making a little edger and more compelling talk radio with a local focus rather than grandpa Joe talking about his health problems and callers calling in and trying to out do him with their health problems.
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LOL. I've never listened to their AM station, is it really that bad? Maybe its Kenhawk doing grandpa Joe on the a.m. side. ;D
 
garnet said:
just about every station in america playing "rockstar" is playing the edit...
Click to expand...

Sidenote...WTZN is playing Rockstar heavily. When 93.7 was K-Rock, Rockstar was also played a lot, but not the edited version.
 
SteelRocker said:
FightingIrishman said:
Their AM sister talk station WISR could use a little help though with programming. If I was the GM for WISR I would revamp it by making a little edger and more compelling talk radio with a local focus rather than grandpa Joe talking about his health problems and callers calling in and trying to out do him with their health problems.
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LOL. I've never listened to their AM station, is it really that bad? Maybe its Kenhawk doing grandpa Joe on the a.m. side. ;D
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;D Thanks, Steelrocker, but no it's not me. However, I do the "Officer Paddy O'Furniture" character who explains the rules at the beginning of Pat's Phone Party (on-air flea market)!

To explain WISR, we DID have a rather impressive lineup of syndicated talk show hosts when we rebranded the station in 2005 as a news-talk and sports station. It died a grisly death. We brought back the nostalgia music less than a year later, but kept the local talk and sports franchises. The health programs are brokered and very successful, since we cater to an older demographic to begin with.

We can't get too edgy with WISR. We push the envelope every once in a while, but Dave Malarkey knows how far to go and when to stop. As a small market station with a substantial but still small-market signal, we have to cater to the listeners in our own backyard and not for what we think we can accomplish in Pittsburgh.

Parttimer, thanks for your input about AllHitz 97.7, and I do appreciate your comments concerning edits versus full versions of songs. Try and understand that we're a small market station, and our listening audience is very vocal about what they hear on our stations. Unfortunately, there's too much hit music out there done by artists who feel that they have to swear every other word or bring drugs or other social distortion (pardon the pun) into the lyrics. Some musicians will release "clean" versions of their songs with lyrics changed, while others won't and face the razor and splicing tape.

So we're faced with a quandary...play the edited hits or don't play them at all? I think we're shooting ourselves in the foot by doing the latter. We're on in a lot of offices, and the edits don't seem to make much difference to your average listener. They don't listen as intently as someone in my position would.

As for our name, we were not the first station ever to use the "All Hit" moniker. Because we're considered part of the Pittsburgh market (though we are not by definition a Pittsburgh station), we can't use the same moniker that other stations in the market would use...like Kiss, Star, Bob, Lite, or the like. We don't want an Arbitron-related lawsuit by another station claiming we're stealing their numbers.

But back in the early 90's, we were "Sunny FM". Still don't like the AllHitz name? :D
 
No, you certainly wouldn't want to overlap names with a Pitsburgh station, I was just using those as examples. "Mix" isn't being used in the market right now, that would fit.

You could also take the description out of the name and do something like Q104 in Cleveland, as "90's and now" 97-7 WLER.

And I know you can't play the unedited "Rockstar"... I just don't think your audience would miss that song if you didn't play it.

My first five years on-air were at WKEG in Washington (working for John Gallagher, now of WLTJ) so I know that small-town audience.

Bottom line: you're making money and people like it. It ain't broke, don't fix it. (I just like to play consultant...)
 
Q104 in Cleveland has been "Q104, Your Music, Your Station" for about a year now.
But yes, "90's & Now Q104" was the former slogan.

Not that it really matters...anyway, carry on!
 
InsertNameHere said:
Q104 in Cleveland has been "Q104, Your Music, Your Station" for about a year now.
But yes, "90's & Now Q104" was the former slogan.

Not that it really matters...anyway, carry on!
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WZPT is calling itself "Star 100.7, Your Music, Your Station" after the "No Repeat Work Day." Yet another slogan change this year.
 
Parttimer said:
My first five years on-air were at WKEG in Washington (working for John Gallagher, now of WLTJ) so I know that small-town audience.

Bottom line: you're making money and people like it. It ain't broke, don't fix it. (I just like to play consultant...)
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WKEG, huh? I heard that station gave JPA a run for its money back in the day. Were you working there back when it was still in the trailer at the antenna site? I hear lots of the Nascone years!
 
I started in the trailer and then moved to the downtown location a couple of years later.

On Sundays I did sign-on until 9AM then sat there while the Polka show was on (the station's largest moneymaker) because the host didn't have a 3rd-class ticket.

Every weekend we took all the paper from the ancient roll-type UPI machine and had to burn it outside to get rid of it. I was just getting ready to leave when the afternoon guy came running in yelling "GET THE HOSE!!!" It was windy and he had set the hillside on fire. We called the fire department and heard them go right past our driveway, which was not marked. Then we heard them turn around and fly right past it again. He then jumped in his car and led them up the hill.

As one does with a brush fire, we spent the next hour beating out the fire with shovels. The polka host stuck his head out the door and said, "I bet he's gonna lose his job for this..." The wind direction was the only reason the station wasn't destroyed., as a good couple of acres were burned up.

Even though we were a daytimer we gave WJPA a fight while Nascone was around. After he sold it, it went downhill quickly.
 
Parttimer said:
I started in the trailer and then moved to the downtown location a couple of years later.

On Sundays I did sign-on until 9AM then sat there while the Polka show was on (the station's largest moneymaker) because the host didn't have a 3rd-class ticket.

Every weekend we took all the paper from the ancient roll-type UPI machine and had to burn it outside to get rid of it. I was just getting ready to leave when the afternoon guy came running in yelling "GET THE HOSE!!!" It was windy and he had set the hillside on fire. We called the fire department and heard them go right past our driveway, which was not marked. Then we heard them turn around and fly right past it again. He then jumped in his car and led them up the hill.

As one does with a brush fire, we spent the next hour beating out the fire with shovels. The polka host stuck his head out the door and said, "I bet he's gonna lose his job for this..." The wind direction was the only reason the station wasn't destroyed., as a good couple of acres were burned up.

Even though we were a daytimer we gave WJPA a fight while Nascone was around. After he sold it, it went downhill quickly.
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It went dark not just once, but twice, IIRC. That was 1987 when Nascone sold it, right? Yeah, I'd say it went downhill pretty quick.
 
Parttimer said:
"Mix" isn't being used in the market right now, that would fit.
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You're right, but Youngstown is using that moniker for 98.9, and it comes into Butler like a blowtorch and we can be heard there clearly as well.
 
Just a note, heard B94 play Rockstar today, and they have now switched to the un-edited version of the song! ;D

Sounds like they've gotten away from the heavily recurrent lean of CHR they had when they first launched as well. Probably was the plan all along. They sound good!!
 
InsertNameHere said:
Just a note, heard B94 play Rockstar today, and they have now switched to the un-edited version of the song! ;D

Sounds like they've gotten away from the heavily recurrent lean of CHR they had when they first launched as well. Probably was the plan all along. They sound good!!
Click to expand...

I heard the uncut version tonight too. This morning I heard Panic at the Disco and they cut out the "G.D." part in the song. What I don't understand is back when the Eagles sang Life in the Fast Lane they never edited it out. Why now 30 years later?

PS-Sorry, this is not the B-94 thread, just realized that.
 
Not the B thread, but Rockstar came up here, so thats where I threw this.

Panic! At The Disco's song, I don't believe I've heard any station play the full album version. They all play the radio edit, at least that I've heard. (Around here, streaming, etc)
 
InsertNameHere said:
Not the B thread, but Rockstar came up here, so thats where I threw this.

Panic! At The Disco's song, I don't believe I've heard any station play the full album version. They all play the radio edit, at least that I've heard. (Around here, streaming, etc)
Click to expand...

If you REALLY want to take this a step further, remember "Who Are You", by the Who. Where Pete Townshend drops the dreaded "F bomb". When I worked the night shift at WACB in Kittanning back in the late 80's, this song was in our library. NOT the changed version that said "who the hell are you".

Keep in mind that back then, nobody really paid any never-minds to things like this because this wasn't a problem for the music industry back then. Now just about every artist feels they have to curse in their lyrics, and more people are becoming vocal about their kids hearing it. We depend on local revenue to support our trombo, and we can't put ourselves "out there" to risk losing listeners and maybe a possible advertiser.
 
kenhawk1160 said:
InsertNameHere said:
Not the B thread, but Rockstar came up here, so thats where I threw this.

Panic! At The Disco's song, I don't believe I've heard any station play the full album version. They all play the radio edit, at least that I've heard. (Around here, streaming, etc)
Click to expand...

If you REALLY want to take this a step further, remember "Who Are You", by the Who. Where Pete Townshend drops the dreaded "F bomb". When I worked the night shift at WACB in Kittanning back in the late 80's, this song was in our library. NOT the changed version that said "who the hell are you".

Keep in mind that back then, nobody really paid any never-minds to things like this because this wasn't a problem for the music industry back then. Now just about every artist feels they have to curse in their lyrics, and more people are becoming vocal about their kids hearing it. We depend on local revenue to support our trombo, and we can't put ourselves "out there" to risk losing listeners and maybe a possible advertiser.
Click to expand...

And, how about "Money" by Pink Floyd....they always played the part that says B.S.
 
SteelRocker said:
I heard the uncut version tonight too. This morning I heard Panic at the Disco and they cut out the "G.D." part in the song. What I don't understand is back when the Eagles sang Life in the Fast Lane they never edited it out. Why now 30 years later?

PS-Sorry, this is not the B-94 thread, just realized that.
Click to expand...

Well, PATD is a little more, um, DISTINCT in using that particular word than than the Eagles were.
 
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