Froggy is "Moving"

[cingram]

Froggy has moved. 98.3 switched to K-Love at midnight.

C.

 

[NoTimeForSleep]

So my question is, where is the advertised 50,000 watts coming from? Is the 104.3 stick going to be upgraded from 13,000 watts, or???

They may be only putting out 13,000 watts but they are equivalent to a 50,000 watt signal. Here is how it works:

If your antenna is higher then a rated "height above average terrain" for your station "class" then you must reduce power output to compensate for the added height. A higher antenna and lower power output is sometimes better, especially in mountainous areas like Pittsburgh. But with doing that there is a very fine line you walk in that your signal does get better being higher, but you have a harder time penetrating buildings with less power. The same height ratio was used in a reverse process to make the old WAMO-FM signal 72,000 watts. In the old days you could add power if your antenna was lower then the rated class's HAAT but that is not longer an option.

 

[Parttimer]

I thought I had read somewhere that they are actually upgrading but that doesn't appear to be the case. I had wondered how they were going to add power with second-adjacent 104.7 so close anyway.....

 

[MsMusicRadio]

I don't think 104.3 comes in so great in the eastern part of the city and suburbs. Does this really mean that are giving up the market with a very subtle start? If I loved country music and lived in Penn Hills, I would most like pick 107.9 all the time

 

[ratingsgeek]

Is this the beginning of the Great Frog Sell-Off? Or at least the Keymarket version? Is Getz still steering the ship?

A month or two ago the story was circulating that Getz was swapping his Keymarket President/CEO hat and Pittsburgh address for a Forever VP of Something hat in lovely, picturesque & historic Altoona.

Could this be true? Would anyone do such a thing voluntarily?

 

[youngabe89]

NoTimeForSleep, thank you for explaining that so well.

And yes, I was on the Parkway this morning around Wilkinsburg and noticed some static on 104.3. Now granted it comes in way past Wilkinsburg clear out in Vandergrift and areas around Northern Westmoreland County, but MsMusicRadio is right, Y108 would be a more stable signal in those areas.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

maybe Keymarket will buy 106.7 and have a Super Frog

 

[petey99]

I fully understand that country music is not a popular choice among many
folks who read this website. I also realize the froggy gimmick is not
well loved either by radio-folk. Despite that "Tommy the Tadpole" and
other various swamp b.s., I think WOGI is one of the better larger market
country stations nationwide. Before you laugh, think of this...jocks in
all drivetimes-even late night and weekends, and a fair balance of new to
classic to recurrents and *GASP* even local artists played.

Although I am a fan of country, I still believe Pittsburgh is a very
strong 2-country format market. Ratings can confirm this. As poor as
98.3 and their cousions' daisy-chain signals, combined they consistently
garnered a 3 to 4.5 12+ number. I can only assume the 25-54 to be just as well if not better.

With this sell of 98.3 to K-love, they have basically decided to give up on
Allegheny County and where the bulk of this market's population is.
104.3's stick is located somewhere near Raccoon Creek State Park in
Beaver County. How can they honestly expect a clean signal in say
Monroeville, Wilkinsburg, Irwin, or even downtown offices from there
considering Pittsburgh's atypical topography and other forces of interference? In other
words, Beaver, Butler, Washington, Fayette and western Allegheny County
are now all they are going to be able to target.

From the wikipedia page for WOGH (103.5), there is a link to an FCC page
of an upgrade of that facility to be moved into Allegheny County near
Oakdale and Robinson. (http://www.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/fm_tv_service_areas/maps/FM1093229.gif)
If that happens, 103.5 should put a rather nice
signal over the whole county. Why they didn't wait for a sale till that
was finished, I'll never know. But, it leads me to believe it was
strictly a financial/short term big income decision to do it now.

 

[Parttimer]

maybe Keymarket will buy 106.7 and have a Super Frog

Keymarket will only be selling, not buying. They're not in much better shape than Sheridan.

 

[brian.marchand]

WOGH (103.5) upgrade was dismissed.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

So that means that Pittsburgh is a one country station market and will have no urban station unless Kiss or B scews more urban. Guess that blows my theory of the Dixization of Da'Burg. So it looks like a very narrow casting band with most of the stations focusing on soccer moms or their kids. I would presume that 106.7 and 98.3 will be non-factors and get about 0.1 shares waisting these signals. The band Pittsburgh will be much worse for this in my opinion. Both Tampa and Richmond have more than one station in the country and urban formats.

 

[Pratte4Life]

Pittsburgh is a one-station country town now? Can't Froggy be heard in the city on one of the other 10,000 frequencies it has?

Either way, I still am surprised that there hasn't been a new rock station to take on The X or WDVE.

It's just my opinion that there is a market for a radio station that plays a bit more recent classic rock and/or more modern rock that doesn't cater solely to men.

 

[petey99]

Pittsburgh is a one-station country town now? Can't Froggy be heard in the city on one of the other 10,000 frequencies it has?

Either way, I still am surprised that there hasn't been a new rock station to take on The X or WDVE.

It's just my opinion that there is a market for a radio station that plays a bit more recent classic rock and/or more modern rock that doesn't cater solely to men.

I think you may be missing part of a point here...there is no longer a signal for Froggy that has clear reception in most of Allegheny County, and especially downtown with tall buildings, wireless networks and Mt. Washington hampering signal quality. 94.9 isn't receivable above Charleroi easily. 103.5 is very spotty- spots of excellent coverage and others with horrible. 104.3 is the best they have, but far from what 98.3 covered in the county. Two suburban class-B signals 30 miles from the city can't do what a decent class-A in the city could.

I agree 100% about wishing to have a nice rock station to battle it out with DVE and the X. No disrespect to DVE. They do what they do well- being a "heritage" rock station focusing on classics. But, I fear our chances are diminished since K-rock ended on a sour note. If they had not have went to the hybrid talk-rock format and got a memorable morning show, I think we'd still have them around today.

 

[Parttimer]

It's just my opinion that there is a market for a radio station that plays a bit more recent classic rock and/or more modern rock that doesn't cater solely to men.

Do we really need to go there again?

 

[Parttimer]

I think you may be missing part of a point here...there is no longer a signal for Froggy that has clear reception in most of Allegheny County, and especially downtown with tall buildings, wireless networks and Mt. Washington hampering signal quality. 94.9 isn't receivable above Charleroi easily. 103.5 is very spotty- spots of excellent coverage and others with horrible. 104.3 is the best they have, but far from what 98.3 covered in the county. Two suburban class-B signals 30 miles from the city can't do what a decent class-A in the city could.

I think it's safe to say that virtually all of the Frogs' Allegheny county listeners were tuned to 98.3. 103.5 does not even show up in the book. They are now a total rimshot, and will likely fall to the bottom of the FM ratings. What will be interesting is to see if Y108 gets any bounce out of it.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

Can Keymarket now justify staff like Jimmy Roach. Will the next step be robojocking and then selling the whole thing? I would think that WDSY should get a big bounce.

 

[Parttimer]

Not necessarily. If the Frogs are most people's second choice for country (which I'll bet they are), they might just as easily go to a non-country station vs listening more to Y108.... you turn on your second choice when you're tired of your first choice..... so now instead of tuned FROM Y108 to a Frog when that happens, maybe they go to WSHH, BOB, 3WS, 104.7... who knows?

 

[pghsternfan]

Pittsburgh is a one-station country town now? Can't Froggy be heard in the city on one of the other 10,000 frequencies it has?

Either way, I still am surprised that there hasn't been a new rock station to take on The X or WDVE.

It's just my opinion that there is a market for a radio station that plays a bit more recent classic rock and/or more modern rock that doesn't cater solely to men.

I think you may be missing part of a point here...there is no longer a signal for Froggy that has clear reception in most of Allegheny County, and especially downtown with tall buildings, wireless networks and Mt. Washington hampering signal quality. 94.9 isn't receivable above Charleroi easily. 103.5 is very spotty- spots of excellent coverage and others with horrible. 104.3 is the best they have, but far from what 98.3 covered in the county. Two suburban class-B signals 30 miles from the city can't do what a decent class-A in the city could.

I agree 100% about wishing to have a nice rock station to battle it out with DVE and the X. No disrespect to DVE. They do what they do well- being a "heritage" rock station focusing on classics. But, I fear our chances are diminished since K-rock ended on a sour note. If they had not have went to the hybrid talk-rock format and got a memorable morning show, I think we'd still have them around today.

I wonder if they will change the sign near the parkway west and I-79 that reads froggy 98.3 And if it wasn't confusing enough I see froggy on 105.5 and 99.3. From the Froggy website...
"In addition to 104.3 FM, you will continue to hear Froggy at:

94.9 FM - covering the Mon Valley, Fayette & Westmoreland counties
103.5 FM - covering Washington County & the Ohio Valley
105.5 FM - covering part of Allegheny County, including downtown Pittsburgh
99.3 FM - north of downtown Pittsburgh"

 

[petey99]

I wonder if they will change the sign near the parkway west and I-79 that reads froggy 98.3 And if it wasn't confusing enough I see froggy on 105.5 and 99.3. From the Froggy website...
"In addition to 104.3 FM, you will continue to hear Froggy at:

94.9 FM - covering the Mon Valley, Fayette & Westmoreland counties
103.5 FM - covering Washington County & the Ohio Valley
105.5 FM - covering part of Allegheny County, including downtown Pittsburgh
99.3 FM - north of downtown Pittsburgh"

At least they realize a problem here...but two translators on 99.3 and 105.5 will NEVER make up for the loss of 98.3.

P.S. I was driving through Carnegie on rt. 50 earlier today and tried 104.3 - lots of interference from power lines, PAT buses, etc. 103.5 was more consistent when it did come in at all. Keep in mind their studios are about a mile from downtown Carnegie...

 

[MsMusicRadio]

This is probably too stoopid to get an answer, but why not sell one the others rather than 98.3? Still sounds like they abandoning Pittsburgh if they can't upgrade 104.3 to 50,000 as originally mentioned. I would expect that they will sell them all. Would PPM have anything to do with this? This whole thing with WAMO and now Froggy is just very disappointing. It makes one wonder who's next. Lately, I've been hearing Sirius in a lot of businesses. They have an AC and a Classic Hits formats perfect for businesses including jocks. Maybe terrestrial radio is slowly phasing out. It's like the way cable just destroyed over the air TV and the way traditional networks are just another cable channel now. Maybe I'll get Sirius in my next car.