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HEY, I'M BACK ON THE BOAT

Y

yonkstur

Guest
After languising in a sea of passwords and sign ons, the people at Radio Info helped me get back on this board. So, barring unforeseen circumstances, I'm back. And I hope you view it all as a good thing. While I was gone, I started two blogs with the help of John Webster from Rock 107. One is called The LuLac Political Letter, here's the link, http://lulacpoliticaletter.blogspot.com/, the other is Author: David Yonki, here's that link, http://authordavidyonki.blogspot.com/. I put them together because no one seems to be doing good, local political commentary anymore. We have reporters running around here not knowing our political past. The other is a compilation of articles, events, and people who made "A Radio Story" a success on the local level and hopefully might be used as a tool to get some more "outside the eastern seaboard" exposure. So in your free time, check them out. And yes, there is a photo of Geena Davis on one of the blogs!!!!Okay then, here's a recap of my thoughts:ELECTION COVERAGE: I found it necessary to defend the WILK news coverage on my blog when I saw some of the comments posted on this board. WILK did a very good job and more than what was expected. Face it, we can't go back to the old days of 4 radio news departments trying to beat each other to the punch. The budgets just are not there. (There are no three priests to a parish anymore either!) I felt WILK outperformed TV and even some of the print people in the days leading up to the election and on election night. GEM 107.7: Heard the station on the way to my sister's summer place in Wysox Memorial Day weekend. Nice mix, nice imaging, good sound. The Wilkes Barre signal is hard to pick up for me but loved the line about the "no static". WARM: THey can get rid of their static if they simulcast WARM on an FM. It would work. Little by little, the local spot rotation is growing with quality advertisers and you can't beat that oldies mix. And the Yankee baseball is a nice added attraction too. Reminds me of the old WSCR days when the rock and roll stopped only for Mantle, Maris and Berra. Now it stops for Jeter, A Rod and Torre!!WQFM: It is growing on me. This is not my fem side, metrosexual male talking here, it is listenable. And to get a 52 year old sports, politics and oldies junkie to tune in and not hate it, that's an accomplishment. And the wife says one of their remotes at a pet store Saturday was packed to the rafters. ROCK 107 ON THE ROAD: Made my way over to Kirby Park Memorial Day weekend to join Daniels and Webster for breakfast. Great hotdogs and brats. Talked with weekend warrior Ron Reino, saw what the behind the scenes engineers at Fox looked like, had a piece of Ruth Miller's cake (forgot to compliment her on her weekly public affairs show) and just had a great time. Over 150 people stopped by, coming and going and these things look pretty successful. Jay and John were on the road the night before going to the Jessup Carnival where the duo feasted on tripe and other mid valley Italian delicacies. MARY ONDRERKO: Where is she? How come there's no radio ciolumn? I volunteered to write one for the Times Leader but Matt Golas the editor there does not return e mails or phone calls and feels content to opine on silly stuff in his morning newsroom message while the buyers of newspapers storm the TL castle. And the Voice, well no word on Mary's column. Maybe she thinks "nuthin's goin' on". WNAK SALES COMMERCIAL: For months they tried the soft sell. "Route 81 sales are growing, come join us". Very low key, classy. Now they have a spot running with a semi literate sounding guy saying, "Does your job stink? Are you unappreciated?" And he goes into the spiel about how good it will be to work in radio sales. It's classic. L.A. TARONE'S BOOK: Check out L.A. Tarone's book, "We Were Once Here", a history of Hazleton. Really good reading especially the part about radio and TV broadcasting in the city. RERUNS: The WLYN Channel 35 "Your Life" show was rerun in the spring with me as the guest, talking about my book, and no less an authority than WILK's Bosco said it wasn't half bad. So, that made me feel better about it. WAR AGAINST TV: I can't get Yankee baseball (I'm an Indians fan) on my TV cable system. They won't show Yankee games and put on ESPN news. Now they won't give us the YES network to see the Yanks either. So I've started a letter writing campaign to slam them. THE RULES OF LIFE: Completing my second book for publication, "The 26 Rules Of Life". Hopefully, it'll be out toward the fall.Good to be back, that's all I have..........for now. Yonkstur
 
David:1. Welcome back.2. I respectfully disagree about election night on the radio.3. Thanks for explaining WVIA on your blog. I just watched a replay of the WB theater show. I thought I was watching an infomercial on PAX.
 
David:1. Welcome back. Thanks. I appreciate that. 2. I respectfully disagree about election night on the radio. And that's what makes this such a great country. We're not freezing our *sses off in a gulag for voicing an opinion!!3. Thanks for explaining WVIA on your blog. I just watched a replay of the WB theater show. I thought I was watching an infomercial on PAX. When I was driving to work today, and saw the progress being made, I thought, maybe I was being a little too critical. But then I thought this: the Chamber has had ample opportunities to bring in this type of funding. They did virtually nothing under the latter years of the McLaughlin administration, feeble attempts under the Namey regime and none under the McGroarty time. I guess they were waiting for the guy they liked the best to do something. I do think Kelly did ask good questions though, but no one seeemed to follow up on them. Yonkstur
 
I know this is a radio board, but I've never seen anything on WVIA that's made me say "wow." I know it's public tv, and WVIA does the shows the other commercial stations wouldn't touch, but Kelly won't rock the boat and annoy his chamber buddies who pay the bills.
 
Yonk...WNAK's running more "We need salespeople" spots than music. Are they enlarging their ad exec pool or trying to replace those they lose/fire?btw: I think they moved their operation to the FM site. I heard them give their office address as Carbondale.
 
Tom, I'm not sure what the story is. I know they have a staff of three great vets of the radio/TV sales wars, Bill Chessick (WGBI FM and AM in the mid 70s, Shamrock and Citadel), Dave Stroud (who never met a strip mall he didn't mine for gold) who worked at WARD, Susquehanna, Cable Rep and Cox, and Pat Thomas who worked for the Times, Citadel, Fox, and Lane Broadcasting. Those guys are quality reps. I don't know if Kevin Jordan is still doing sales or not. But my hunch is that they want to get more share of the market or develop more new business. The problem is there is only so much business to go around. Pressure is coming from somewhere to grow the dollars and the way they feel they can do this is to hire new people who don't know any better thinking that the consignment shop or bakery in town that's been there for fifty years will all of a sudden have an epiphany and buy a yearly 5 figure contract. Those reps rarely last. They want to get bodies to get short term revenue and then later blow them out. And if the new rep does manage to sell a good account and leaves, one of the "vets" usually gets an invitation to take it over. And to quote Lennon and McCartney, "Obladi, oblada, life goes on.............................................."Yonkstur
 
They want to get bodies to get short term revenue and then later blow them out.
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My understanding is that there is a turnover and the reps don't stay long, perhaps more being fired than quitting. That's my understanding and not to be confused with what might actually be happening (i.e.: this is a disclaimer).I'm not sure if Kevin is still with them. For some reason, I think not. (See disclaimer, above.)Somebody sure talked Marvelous Mugs into a deal. Whether they broke the rate card to get it, or MM thinks WNAK is just their vehicle, either way it advertises a lot. I think Shorten Homes and their wretched ads are another long-timer. Franks Whatever is another consistent advertiser.
 
The Marvelous Mugs has to be a personal relationship. They did very little advertising on radio until a few years back with Oldies 92. Shorten Homes is a combination of having the FM to advertise on, the numbers of the station and the rep. For all we know, MM might even be a trade deal. Yonkstur
 
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