I "heart" Radio......constantly!!

[corporateradiosucks]

You have a professional involvement in radio and you drive a car that is less than 10 years old?

How do you do it, corporate? How do you do it?

LOL. I had only the briefest and most backwaterish professional involvement...that fact appears to have gotten lost somewhere over the years. I've never said otherwise, though.

And Raymond's post sums up the plight of 3WS PERFECTLY.

 

[TheBigA]

Clear Channel has mucked up a lot of radio.

And yet when the numbers are counted, they're kicking the crap out of everyone else in Pittsburgh.

 

[cingram]

CC has made 3WS into their sAcrificial lamb. Staff cuts, air content polluted by CC mandates like iheart. It's now a jukebox. What's next? Just replace it altogether with one of their classic hits formats?

3WS now exists only to protect 'DVE ... just as the X exists to protect 'DVE.

It won't surprise me at all if, at some point, 3WS moves to 104.7 and WPGB moves to 94.5 to take advantage of
that big, grandfathered FM signal. "News/Talk 94-5" has a certain ring to it.

C.

 

[KeyTimes950]

3WS now exists only to protect 'DVE ... just as the X exists to protect 'DVE.
It won't surprise me at all if, at some point, 3WS moves to 104.7 and WPGB moves to 94.5 to take advantage of
that big, grandfathered FM signal. "News/Talk 94-5" has a certain ring to it.
C.

Fascinating. And not surprising, though I'll admit I never thought of it.

 

[DToTheJ]

Believe it or not, there are lots of people out there who don't have smart phones or whatever you need to use and could care less about "apps."

See also, "believe it or not, not everybody has Facebook." (Of course I do, but I don't think it should be necessary to give CC your Facebook info in order to have the privilege of "bookmarking" your favorite CC stations... I know... "favorite CC stations"... an oxymoron and a half, right? )

I do like the idea of an "iHeartRadio restaurant", though."Okay, who ordered the DVE Double Cheeseburger?"

 

[Parttimer]

Well then, that lets me out. I drive a 2004 (completely paid off) Chevy and will continue to do so until it dies on me.

And that's fine, but commercial radio is targeting people who are in the market for smart phones and new cars.

 

[tce]

Not a radio professional, so: How do 3WS & the X protect DVE?

 

[xm41]

Not a radio professional, so: How do 3WS & the X protect DVE?

3WS protects DVE by preventing the competition from sweeping in and setting up a competing classic hits/AOR format aimed at DVE's listeners. The X does the same thing on the active rock/AOR front.

That way a competing station has to face two stations instead of just DVE. Let's face it, otherwise DVE would be ripe for the picking.

 

[FreddyE1977]

just the same way that Jell-O makes about 25 flavors which never actually sell,
but it crowds Royal out of all that shelf space.

 

[TheBigA]

The problem with doing rock as a format is that it has splintered into several subformats. It's not the solid centralized format it once was. So you need all three stations owned by the same company to do it. That's part of the reason why rock has failed in other markets like NYC. If you only own one station, you'll aim for the big fat middle, rather than the edges. So you either get mush or nothing. In the meantime, CC has 3 stations in the Top 5 and has crowded out CBS. Just like they do in a lot of markets. Which demonstrates that strategic programming works.

 

[xm41]

Which demonstrates that strategic programming works.

But it sure isn't any fun to listen to.

 

[TheBigA]

Which demonstrates that strategic programming works.

But it sure isn't any fun to listen to.

It's the Vincent Van Gogh problem: Do great work and starve, or do average work and succeed? The folks in LA had a great rock station (Indie 103) that got bad ratings. So it went away. The goal is to win.

 

[xm41]

Which demonstrates that strategic programming works.

But it sure isn't any fun to listen to.

It's the Vincent Van Gogh problem: Do great work and starve, or do average work and succeed? The folks in LA had a great rock station (Indie 103) that got bad ratings. So it went away. The goal is to win.

It's too bad that mediocrity rules the day. At least stations tried before the FCC fu#ked things up back in 96. There are few areas where capitalism should not be allowed to completely rule and radio is one of them. It is about public service after all. The public was served much better when radio was a locally owned affair with no one entity allowed to own too much of the pie.

 

[TheBigA]

It's too bad that mediocrity rules the day. At least stations tried before the FCC fu#ked things up back in 96. There are few areas where capitalism should not be allowed to completely rule and radio is one of them. It is about public service after all. The public was served much better when radio was a locally owned affair with no one entity allowed to own too much of the pie.

Lots of things changed before 96. The FCC overlicensed the spectrum in the 80s. That made it more difficult for an operator to make money with just one AM and one FM in a market. And American broadcasting has always been about making money, not public service. The one exception is public radio, and right now there are people trying to eliminate public funding.

But the big change that occured in the 90s with regards to rock was that the music changed. It splintered into a dozen subformats, and the audience became less tolerant of artists they didn't like. That's partly why MTV got out of the music video business. They tried to have shows for all the subformats, but it just diluted the whole thing.

 

[corporateradiosucks]

But the big change that occured in the 90s with regards to rock was that the music changed. It splintered into a dozen subformats, and the audience became less tolerant of artists they didn't like. That's partly why MTV got out of the music video business. They tried to have shows for all the subformats, but it just diluted the whole thing.

Absolutely. It also wasn't just the music. Lots of people defected to country then, not just because they didn't like grunge music and/or rap music, but because they disagreed with the lifestyles those genres ostensibly portrayed.

 

[Raymond]

At least stations tried before the FCC fu#ked things up back in 96.

This is such an accurate statement! Once AM/FM got into the picture and started buying things up, the end of competition among the stations stopped. Creativity stopped.

Consolidation and Clear Channel killed radio. CC still is killing it each day.

 

[TheBigA]

Consolidation and Clear Channel killed radio. CC still is killing it each day.

And yet CC has three stations in Pittsburgh's Top 5. Either you're wrong or the people of Pittsburgh have bad taste.

 

[Parttimer]

Consolidation and Clear Channel killed radio. CC still is killing it each day.

And yet CC has three stations in Pittsburgh's Top 5. Either you're wrong or the people of Pittsburgh have bad taste.

Neither, actually. It's more a result of their skill years ago in buying up the dominant signals, and being the best in the business at upgrading the fringe facilities. 94.5, 102.5 and 105.9 are 3 of the 5 best signals in the market, and 96.1 and 104.7 are no worse than the 6-10 range. Secondly, they used their monopoly power within the industry to leverage resources like Rush Limbaugh.

CBS only has 3 FMs, of those, 100.7 is a less competitive signal than any of CC's properties. Y108 is a good signal with a horrible dial position. Only 93.7 is in the league of CC's best.

What's left? Steel City has 2 FMs and is run like the little family business that it is. WSHH is a standalone on FM for Renda. 101.5 and 106.7, two of the most viable signals in the market, are religious, as is 98.3 which would be an absolutely perfect signal for Urban. WAMO's a 99-watt translator. Keymarket is an outfit far better suited to markets like Altoona and Meadville-Franklin- Oil City with a collection of rimshot simulcasts.

So CC has the best signals, the most programming resources, and almost no competition. 3WS is awful. The X should be 2 radio stations. 104.7 is a satellite talk box, but it has all the key conservative content to itself. CC has the Steelers and the Pens. CC has Krenn, Baumann, Michaels, McDowell and Madden, even Savran, arguably the 6 most popular local personalities in the market ... the Fan has a bunch of guys with New York accents.

This was CC's strategy from day one. It worked here becuase DVE was the cash cow that fed the beast. It hasn't worked nearly as well in other places. The product's not that good, but it's all relative.. what else is there?

 

[TheBigA]

The product's not that good, but it's all relative.. what else is there?

Hmmmm....let's see: The internet, satellite radio, and the mp3 player.

 

[cingram]

CC has the best signals, the most programming resources, and almost no competition. 3WS is awful. The X should be 2 radio stations. 104.7 is a satellite talk box, but it has all the key conservative content to itself. CC has the Steelers and the Pens. CC has Krenn, Baumann, Michaels, McDowell and Madden, even Savran, arguably the 6 most popular local personalities in the market ...

Don't forget Quinn, who has had 40 years of nearly continuous success in Pittsburgh. CC saw that Quinn was the
linchpin that held WRRK together, and grabbed him. Similarly, Madden is on the X, although arguably he doesn't fit
well there. This conveniently keeps both Quinn and Madden out of the hands of other broadcasters in the market.

This was CC's strategy from day one. It worked here because DVE was the cash cow that fed the beast.

Not quite; I would make the argument that "the beast" feeds the cash cow that is DVE. 3WS is more cheaply run
than it used to be and exists to keep Bob-FM out of DVE's territory; the X, except for Madden, also is run cheaply
and exists to keep an alternative rocker from challenging DVE; WPGB, except for Quinn, is run cheaply, with nearly
no other local content (even the newscasts come from Cleveland), and it exists to keep KDKA out of position with
respect to DVE, Ellis Cannon is long gone and they won't have the Pirates to worry about next year; 970 exists to
fulfill certain contractual sports obligations that were incurred by DVE. Only Kiss stands alone and they would not
have eliminated B-94 if the latter hadn't repeatedly shot itself in the foot. Should Kiss ever beat DVE I am certain
that actions would be undertaken to ensure it never happened again.

Don't make the mistake of thinking what happens in that building is about any station other than DVE...because it
isn't.

C.