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HOLIDAY PPM NUMBERS

I still think a WDUV Tampa-like soft AC would do well here. 92.9 would be the perfect spot.
Very little musical overlap with co-owned Bob and it would put an end to the schizophrenic "Q".
 
pman44 said:
As someone who graduated from high school in 1981 and college in 1985 I can say with authority: the 80's sucked musically.

Especially if all you had to listen to was mainstream Pittsburgh radio.
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"Hit Me With Your Rythym Stick" then linked to the Human League.

I guess it depends on what songs you listened to in the '80s. On further review, your comment is not without merit.
 
slimmons said:
I still think a WDUV Tampa-like soft AC would do well here. 92.9 would be the perfect spot.
Very little musical overlap with co-owned Bob and it would put an end to the schizophrenic "Q".
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WDUV does really well 6+ (they're usually #1 outside of the holiday book) but they do poorly 25 - 54. That was why WSHH and WLTJ both moved away from their much softer formats of the 80s and 90s. Remember, WSHH was originally a beautiful music format, and WLTJ was based on New York's WLTW.
 
Parttimer said:
FreddyE1977 said:
"All the Music you DON'T LIKE! All Day, Every Day!
All right here on The Pariah, 92.5 FM" ;D
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Actually I think that's Q92.9's current format....


Pratte... you are correct, the only other station on the planet, to my knowledge, that plays the Clarks is Bob Stevens' 103.1 WKVE.

But it's not about them being "better" than some other artist, it's about them being local. And say what you will about DVE musically, they are not just a jukebox like most other classic rock stations. They understand the market and their audience, and that is a big reason the numbers are what they are.
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No, I understand that. And to a certain extent they are to be commended, though I think the "dumb yinzer" bit they have played up for the past 25 years has just been so played it is time to move on, and a lot of the comedy cuts they air now just aren't doing it for me.

But it seems to me that as far as local bands go, The Clarks almost are the only one ever heard on WDVE. Maybe somebody can show me where I'm wrong, but I can't think of one, and can actually name nationally successful bands with local ties that never get played on WDVE.

The Clarks are played so much on WDVE I am actually surprised how unpopular they are. I read on Wikipedia that in 20 years, all of their albums, collectively, have sold less than 250,000.

Now, that's not bad for a local band. But the question remains- why just a local band?

Even the Povertyneck Hillbillys, and I once worked for an out of town program director with some influence in country that HATED them and took great delight in keeping them down, had the No. 2 video on CMT once. The Iron City Houserockers had a feature in Rolling Stone and the famous gig on Solid Gold (and I've even caught them on satellite radio). Maybe The Clarks had an appearance on Conan O'Brien and I don't know about it, and I do see they've played in places other than Pittsburgh, but it just stands to reason that if every other station on the planet has rejected The Clarks that maybe there is a PD trying to push them down our throat to the point that it has become a detriment; a detriment where the WDVE playlist has been corrupted and the city no longer has rock bands coming through the clubs (because they sure ain't gettin' any airplay on DVE) but instead has, God help us, RAPPERS DOING SO AND MAKING IT BIG!!!!!!!!!

I like it when girls kiss girls too, but that's ridiculous!

Admittedly, I like rock music that rocks. Now, it's an old arguement we've had on here and we get people who tell me "Rock stations that really rock don't really do that well," but I just wonder WHY ARE YOU LISTENING TO THE GENRE IN THE FIRST PLACE IF THAT IS THE CASE?!?!?!?!

Rock and roll. It's supposed to be caffeine. It's not supposed to be a lullaby. It's supposed to have some shock value.

Are The Clarks supposed to be shocking us because they like "CIGARETTES!?"

They are so forgettable I can't even tell you the name of the song I just referenced (nor can I really tell you any of the other lyrics to that song), and I've heard it countless times. It never, ever stuck.

Forgetable songs lead to forgetable stations, and all I'm saying, in a longwinded way, is maybe that's why WDVE isn't No. 1 anymore.
 
I don't have a vested interest in any of this. I'm not a fan of the Clarks or a fan of WDVE.

But...

The Clarks appeared on Letterman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaFKTLNiAUg

WDVE may not be No. 1 in the holiday book (victim of the Christmas music stunting), but they're still at or near the top consistently in the ratings and they still bill like a monster. Stale? Absolutely, and that means there are issues that must be confronted in the next several years. But by no means is it a failing station,.
 
As I said, I could have missed them on Conan O'Brien. As it turns out, it was another host of Late Night.

Seems odd that for such exposure, they could have sold so little records and have been totally ignored by every station on earth but one, the exception of a large crowd at Rib Fest notwithstanding.

I once saw Catawompus play in front of 100,000 people. How many of you have even heard of Catawompus? This doesn't exactly make them bigger than either the Stray Cats or Dick Allen.

Think about that for a minute, Boss. I'm sure you'll enjoy the pun.

Now, does WDVE know something we don't, or are they betting on the Washington Generals every time they play The Clarks?

As you implied, the station is stale. And they are stale because they are playing a band ad nauseum that is so utterly forgetable you have to bribe even their most devoted fans with pork products to come see them play!
 
I think big changes are brewing throughout CC these days. I follow the Tampa and Orlando markets as well, since I lived there, and just like the rumors about 104.7 here there seems to be a reshuffling imminent for a lot of their properties. Could be an interesting year.
 
WDVE has issues but in my opinion, the music isn't one of them. The biggest problem is an audience
that's slowly aging out of the desired demographic. I doubt WDVE will be able to lean younger as the
desirable audience does. If they had a serious competitor, it would be an even bigger problem. (The
last viable competitor was WRRK when it was "97 Rock" about twenty years ago.)

C.
 
cingram said:
pman44 said:
As someone who graduated from high school in 1981 and college in 1985 I can say with authority: the 80's sucked musically.

Especially if all you had to listen to was mainstream Pittsburgh radio.
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Yep, the music was so bad that B-94 only had an 11 share.

Much of the music doesn't hold up today (I'd be happy never to hear Boy George again) but don't
confuse your opinion or musical tastes, whatever they may be, with the truth of the issue. You're
right about one word: mainstream.

C.
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We used to throw things at the school bus driver if they tried to put B94 on--CRAP!

Lol, it's all opinion. For rock fans like myself, the beginning of decade stunk--the great bands were dying from drug overdoses or still going through a "disco" phase. Then we were overrun by the corporate rock phase where formerally interesting bands all started to sound the same.

Punk was dead and never a factor in Pittsburgh anyway. New Wave, which was interesting musically, had little or no outlet in Pittsburgh until after it was over. DVE was playing the same songs then that it played for the next 20 years. Oldies were actually still the 50's and 60's.

Local pittsburgh music was actually at it's zenith (prior to Wiz and Mac Miller, i guess), but you rarely heard any of the local bands on the radio.

Then MTV and the video bands took over: Boy George, Madonna, Duran Duran, Crap, Crap and Crap Crap.

An 80's format? No thanks.
 
I just find DVE to play the most boring music of any rock station. Now, there is a chance that because it is the rock station I have traditionally listened to the most it seems repetitive to me, and then there's the chance my own taste sucks, but just; The Clarks.

Nevermind about any other local rock band! We must continue to play The Clarks!

I thought it was telling the one big fan I ever met of The Clarks didn't know who Guns n' Roses were. I realize GNR came on the scene in 1987 and The Clarks about four years later, so maybe if you were of a certain age group and you missed the late '80s GNR wouldn't be on your radar, but come on. This is one of the five great American rock bands.

To me, if that's the audience you're bringing in, that's counterproductive to a rock station.

So the music does need tweaked, and I know they've done it. And I also know people hate it when one guy rants that they don't play what he likes, as if he's a spokesman for the whole world.

But man, when you are the ONLY station that plays this band that after 20 years still hasn't made it despite numerous opportunities to do so and major play back home, maybe it's time to play something- ANYTHING else!

Also good comment on WDVE having no competition, cingram. Because of that they really don't have anyone to tell them they are stale.

If the demos are older, and they don't like those demos, maybe they shouldn't play so many songs from the 1970s. Maybe they should try to attract younger listeners with songs that shake you up instead of put you to sleep.
 
pman44 said:
Punk was dead and never a factor in Pittsburgh anyway. New Wave, which was interesting musically, had little or no outlet in Pittsburgh until after it was over.
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You're absolutely right about those two genres of music not gaining a foothold in Pittsburgh; another
genre that got short shrift was dance music (R&B was always much more popular here).

It used to be said that Pittsburgh was comprised of sons and daughters of steelworkers, who wanted
to hear rock, rock, and more rock. That was a generalization, yet it was true for years.

C.
 
Well, here's the issue with DVE, as Boss said earlier. They are #1 and bill tons of money.

At some point they do need to get it younger, but it will be part of a re-tooling of the entire mix of Pittsburgh stations.

The whole concept of an FM sports station raises all kinds of interesting opportunities, because I could actually see CC doing that on 105.9 since Madden and the Pens are already there. Then you morph DVE and the X together musically into something that sounds like 98 Rock in Tampa, which crushes in adult demos and would be right up your alley, Pratte. 3WS is still there to address the classic hits/ classic rock crowd, it could be tweaked to take the sting out of the change for an older DVE listener.

Then you move Rush and company to 970 and you have 104.7 left over for something aimed at 25-54 females, some sort of Hot AC or even country.

It would be risky, but as I said I think I sense an undercurrent of things brewing.....
 
I think if Rush and Co. moved to 970, I'd be surprised if within a short period of time KDKA AM got Rush back and picked up some of his playmates.
 
Please! I don't want to speak ill of Bon Scott, but to dismiss Brian Johnson, who I and evidently everyone else preferred when you consider AC/DC went from opening for UFO in 1979 to making what many believe is the greatest hard rock record ever and then launching into super stardom and one of the great rock bands of all time is to show you don't know what you're talking about.

It's like dismissing Yogi Berra because he's not Bill Dickey.
 
Pratte4Life said:
Please! I don't want to speak ill of Bon Scott, but to dismiss Brian Johnson, who I and evidently everyone else preferred when you consider AC/DC went from opening for UFO in 1979 to making what many believe is the greatest hard rock record ever and then launching into super stardom and one of the great rock bands of all time is to show you don't know what you're talking about.

It's like dismissing Yogi Berra because he's not Bill Dickey.
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Brian Johnson--nice guy, good singer, a little bland for the band IMO. After all, Bon Scott had the biggest balls of them all.
 
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