Demise of Renda’s 1360

[pocket-radio]

Jim Boyle said July's 6-7% projected drop in revenues will be radio's 15th straight monthly decline. My guess is this has something to do the demise of Renda’s 1360. Taking on a syndicated programmer will cost Renda almost nothing. In exchange for content, Renda gives up a few ad avails that the network sells.
It's like a trade for content and saves cash flow!

For a company that is struggling, dumping local talent was the only thing left they cold do to stop their bleeding.

If 1360 was a 100,000 watt ratings monster this would be a much different story. But it’s a dog with fleas…

In some markets these little AM radio peanut poppers still do very well. They have strong local heritage talent with a mix of syndicated programs and have strong ties to the local community. WTSN in the Portsmouth, Dover Rochester market is just one example.

 

[Pratte4Life]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

I actually think moving to business was a good thing for both station and community.

The only thing it isn't a good thing for is poor Lynn Cullen.

 

[Biz Listener]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

I actually think moving to business was a good thing for both station and community.

The only thing it isn't a good thing for is poor Lynn Cullen.

It's probably good for Cullen. She had been sounding worse and worse every time I tuned her in before I left the 'Burgh, and my family says it got even worse. I think she needs a long rest and/or vacation for the sake of her health.

 

[talkjim]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

You're a sad human creature, Biz. The manager at WPTT has already publicly stated that if he had other hosts generating revenue like Lynn, the station would not have changed format. So Lynn is out of a job through no fault of her own, and you critique her recent performance--which you acknowledge you didn't even hear--on the basis of second-hand sources.

Then this lovely gem:

"I think she needs a long rest and/or vacation for the sake of her health."

So are you a licensed medical professional or do you just play one on message boards?

 

[Biz Listener]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

Then this lovely gem:

"I think she needs a long rest and/or vacation for the sake of her health."

So are you a licensed medical professional or do you just play one on message boards?

Recommending that someone in their 60's take a nice long rest or vacation for their health is up there with "eat your vegetables" as nothing more than good, simple, common-sense health advice. Do you have to be a licensed medical professional to say "eat a better diet and you'll probably be healthier"? How much medical training does it take to be able to recommend a nice long rest and/or vacation for someone who looks and sounds like she's really, really tired?

But then, you don't recognize common sense, do you?

 

[pocket-radio]

What this person said "The manager at WPTT" is someplace between the truth
and nothing but big fat lies. Never believe anything a radio station manager/ownership has to say, especially these guys.

 

[Snafu]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

This format has a history of failure and will tank here too. Renda will use it for bonus spots like CC does with 970 and broker some of the time to local financial types. They'll keep losing money on it, just a bit less than before. Its either this or shut the stick down and turn the license back to the FCC>

 

[kenhawk1160]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

In some markets these little AM radio peanut poppers still do very well. They have strong local heritage talent with a mix of syndicated programs and have strong ties to the local community. WTSN in the Portsmouth, Dover Rochester market is just one example.

Very true. But stations like this one that are so close to Pittsburgh have special problems. The communities to which they are licensed are already getting ample coverage from
Pittsburgh radio and TV stations. Do you really gain anything by superserving McKeesport? But do you gain any more by marketing yourself as just another Pittsburgh station that's fighting for crumbs in the Arbitron ratings point pie? It's a tough call.

 

[argentarius]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

Taking on a syndicated programmer will cost Renda almost nothing. In exchange for content, Renda gives up a few ad avails that the network sells.
It's like a trade for content and saves cash flow!

How exactly are they going to save money? They're are just exchanging Lynn's salary for Ron Morris'. Still one live local host who has to be paid. They could have kept Lynn and gone with syndicated progressive talk the rest of the day, had a consistent format, and been an alternative voice in the community. Get the sales manager off his rear and sale the format. It CAN be done, if you actually try, instead of just paying lip service to it and saying progressive talk never works. Business radio will fail spectacularly and 1360 will be all brokered programming in less time than it took CBS to pull the plug on the Zone.

 

[BillAlexander]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

This all Ron Morris. I had wind of this happening this past spring when someone contacted me and asked if I would be interested in helping them. I told them that it would never get off the ground ( I guess I was wrong). Most of this is going to be brokered radio programming and Tony Renda is laughing all the way to the bank. BTW, from my understanding Ron Morris will be paying for his own air time. Morris will now be on 6 days a week.

 

[Biz Listener]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

This all Ron Morris. I had wind of this happening this past spring when someone contacted me and asked if I would be interested in helping them. I told them that it would never get off the ground ( I guess I was wrong). Most of this is going to be brokered radio programming and Tony Renda is laughing all the way to the bank. BTW, from my understanding Ron Morris will be paying for his own air time. Morris will now be on 6 days a week.

Charles Foster Kane lives!!!

 

[argentarius]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

This all Ron Morris. I had wind of this happening this past spring when someone contacted me and asked if I would be interested in helping them. I told them that it would never get off the ground ( I guess I was wrong). Most of this is going to be brokered radio programming and Tony Renda is laughing all the way to the bank. BTW, from my understanding Ron Morris will be paying for his own air time. Morris will now be on 6 days a week.

I feel sick

 

[Biz Listener]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

I feel sick

Why? I hear Morris is quite a progressive businessman.

 

[Snafu]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

There will be about six people listening to the station at any given time starting Monday. They will long for the days when they had a .1 to go sell.

Face it. There is no business model that supports day time AM stations anymore in a market with more than two dozen signals. There are now more people in a market this size listening to Sirius/XM than any two stations of WPTT's size at a given time. Renda had to put something on the frequency so he'll chop it up in little pieces and sell it that way. It was either that or go dark. Trust me, when the depression deepens later in the year going dark will suddenly become an option for some.

 

[kenhawk1160]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

Trust me, when the depression deepens later in the year going dark will suddenly become an option for some.

It's always been an option. There's tax advantages to turning these licenses in for the bigger companies. Some of them, bless their hearts, refuse to give up.

A great deal of AM signals in northern Michigan have shut off and handed their licenses in to the FCC. The purpose is twofold...the tax advantage, for one. Then there's the other stations on adjacent channels that are now able to raise their power substantially with those stations gone and actually be fairly competitive.

 

[Biz Listener]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

A great deal of AM signals in northern Michigan have shut off and handed their licenses in to the FCC. The purpose is twofold...the tax advantage, for one. Then there's the other stations on adjacent channels that are now able to raise their power substantially with those stations gone and actually be fairly competitive.

That actually sounds like a really good thing. It appears that what constitutes "local" has been expanding steadily over the past 100 years. I'm now living in what used to be an independent small town, and that might well have been an independent radio market 50 or 60 years ago. Today, it's just a bedroom community of Atlanta.

When I lived in Pittsburgh, I heard stories of Canonsburg, Duquesne, McKeesport, and other such places being pretty much independent small towns and now they're little more than neighborhoods in the Metropolitan Pittsburgh Area. Maybe the people in the government that run the FCC need to recognize that the rules about City of License written in the 1930's need to be brought into the 21st century. Maybe "local" needs would be better served with fewer stations, but with those fewer stations being more powerful to cover larger areas.

 

[kenhawk1160]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

That actually sounds like a really good thing. It appears that what constitutes "local" has been expanding steadily over the past 100 years. I'm now living in what used to be an independent small town, and that might well have been an independent radio market 50 or 60 years ago. Today, it's just a bedroom community of Atlanta.

When I lived in Pittsburgh, I heard stories of Canonsburg, Duquesne, McKeesport, and other such places being pretty much independent small towns and now they're little more than neighborhoods in the Metropolitan Pittsburgh Area. Maybe the people in the government that run the FCC need to recognize that the rules about City of License written in the 1930's need to be brought into the 21st century. Maybe "local" needs would be better served with fewer stations, but with those fewer stations being more powerful to cover larger areas.

Interesting observation, Biz. That's pretty much what I'm getting at. Fortunately, the markets that lost their AMs in cases like these were getting full-service radio from other AMs in the market, if applicable, or FMs that took on a full-service approach to programming.

The towns you just mentioned have evolved from being their own self-sufficient "shopping centers" to commuter suburbs, because with the departure of heavy in-town industry, the so-called "Main Street" which was radio's lifeblood for so many years, isn't there any more, and thus brought on the challenges we're experiencing today.

You had small but lucrative coal and steel operations in towns like these, with its local workers patronizing the downtown establishment, largely out of convenience, because many people didn't have cars. With rising fuel prices, you may see this trend reversing if fuel prices continue their ghastly climb. Will it bring us back to the good ol' days? Probably not.

However, you will see more companies reluctant to invest overseas due to rising shipping costs and making it more profitable to do business here. But as far as unskilled labor goes, forget it. You have to have a little moxie on the ball just to work as a general laborer in a steel mill these days.

Though commercial businesses seldom advertise on radio, they're still customers, though indirectly. They employ the people who patronize your car dealerships, dry cleaning establishments, supermarkets, banks and other such businesses. Commercial businesses are often very willing to underwrite high school sports on a "booster" basis.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

In the Fifties,McKeesport was the second largest community in Allegheny County with 60,000 people. It had a big downtown witrh office buildings, department stores, and first run movies. it was the home of G.C. Murphy. WMCK and WEDO programmed as if this was a stand alone city. Around 1960 or so WMCK decided to enter the Pittsburgh market as "Mighty 1360".

 

[Biz Listener]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

In the Fifties,McKeesport was the second largest community in Allegheny County with 60,000 people. It had a big downtown witrh office buildings, department stores, and first run movies. it was the home of G.C. Murphy. WMCK and WEDO programmed as if this was a stand alone city. Around 1960 or so WMCK decided to enter the Pittsburgh market as "Mighty 1360".

And in the 1750's, McKeesport was an empty stretch of forest. Big deal. In the 1950's McKeesport was a standalone city. It's not that today.

Today, McKeesport is nothing but a neighborhood in the Greater Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area. Maybe it had a unique identity half a century ago. Today, it's just a ZIP code and a place to pass through on the way from Duquesne to North Versailles.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

Re: Demise of Renda’s 1360

I agree. Even when McKeesport was the center of the Mon Valley---------whoever owned 1360 was trying to make it a Pittsburgh station with the same signal issues