I just happened back, and guess I can't just let this lie.
A- WTAE would possibly have been better off without Myron Cope
Yes. That's what "possibly" means. Most major AC stations on AM were better without sports, because women were the target, listened for longer spans than men, and went away during sports programming. Yes, "possibly." I would not second guess WTAE at that time, it was an exceptionally well run and programmed station. Ted Atkins did have the parts working together, at least until the Bogut move. It was brilliant, on paper. Not so much in reality. But then I have a few of my own in that regard.
B- Penn State football at the height of their popularity (National Championship years) and a young new phenominom called Mario Lemieux and the Penguins that would redefine Pittsburgh culture was "inconsequential."
In terms of radio, they were inconsequential. Penn State gave us no ratings. The Penguins, even with Lemieux gave no ratings. I argued with Fred Honsberger and Judy Yanke about it when the team moved to WDVE. An after-the-fact analysis showed exactly zero impact for them, even during championship years. We billed around $250,000, IIRC, which is better than we would have done in the time period, but it was at the cost of listeners and habit. It was a reasonable trade; we felt we could afford to interrupt the talk shows. Baseball was a different animal, and did produce both ratings and revenue (but not profit! But then Morning Drive bumped up two points during baseball season and we DID profit there.)
In my entire life, I have met only two people who enjoyed listening to KDKA for music.
People didn't listen to KDKA "for music." They listened to KDKA. The music allowed them to listen in the daytime without demanding too much, as news and talk do. The demos were substantially better than either alternative.
Even in the days of AM music, you never hear about KDKA as a music station despite the fact of all the AM stations in town they would have to have the clearest signal. You hear people waxing poetic for KQV, or Porky on WAMO, but waxing poetic for KDKA in a bygone era means Bob Prince (sports) and "Party Line" (talk).
Now, that's not my "personal predilections." That's Western Pennsylvania.
It's your misunderstanding of how KDKA worked. Don't feel bad, not every programmer understood either, including some hired by KDKA.
I just read some of the things you've written and they are cliches. "Contemporary talk never works unless it's Howard Stern." I would argue that sports talk IS contemporary talk, but regardless
Regardless ... KDKA was showing a profit of nearly $2 million a year. Sports talk stations were almost all at zero. KDKA had an audience share of 20. Sports talk stations were at a 3. Even a bad program director would understand this.
Say sports talk is too male dominated? Perhaps that's the motivation that led KDKA to can Doug Hoerth for Michelle Madoff- perhaps the worst move in the history of Pittsburgh talk radio. I know- you'll tell me Hoerth never had big numbers. Yet somehow, he was referenced by Mark Madden as "the greatest talk show host in the history of Pittsburgh" in an expose of modern Pittsburgh talk by the Post-Gazette a few weeks ago.
Congratulations on finding someone, somewhere, who thinks Doug Hoerth was great. Arbitron, sadly, never agreed, no matter how many stations he went to. Michelle Madoff may have been the worst, but I'd put bringing back Mike Levine right up there. And thinking Doug Hoerth could attract a wide audience, even though a similar program in Boston on WBZ got 40 shares. I made lots of mistakes. Luckily I made some good calls, too.
If you were making money on the dumb phone format, it goes into perhaps the one thing about radio I don't like, and that is a lack of forward thinking.
There's plenty of forward thinking, it's just not smart to take the most successful station in the market - and the most successful in the entire Westinghouse chain - and decide that (what was it you said?) we should "redefine Pittsburgh culture" at the expense of ratings, profits, and history. You'll also find the most innovative new TV shows on the least successful networks, simply because they have less to lose.
why do you log in under a new handle all the time, though
I've changed once, when the board changed format. It blew me off, and after waiting a week from the moderator for help or explanation and receiving none, I signed on with the new account. RickStarr became RickStarr1. Not so difficult to follow, was it?
