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If you could bring back a Central PA station, what station, format and era?
- Thread starter RockofHBG
- Start date
I could care less about the morning show - the music is garbage! There is so much great new rock out there but all they seem to play is the same old angry young man stuff.
No responses to my crack about the morning show? 
I should probably clarify that I have nothing against the X's morning show, they're all good people I'm sure.
But my overall point in the above post was that it seems like these corporate entities seem to put music last. And, for me, that's why I listened to the radio in the first place. If you have likable people on your morning show, great. But what good does that do you the rest of the day?
Maybe I'm in the minority in thinking their music format is terrible. But for someone who loves rock music and wants to go deeper than the latest crap from Nickelback, I find it disappointing that there are virtually no options in Central PA. WXPN is ok at times, but not something I could ever listen to all day long. For the most part the college stations around here play decent music, but the reception is horrible and the schedules are scatterbrained.
That's why I've gone to satellite. I love music enough to actually pay for it. I've found 100's of bands that would probably do quite well on FM if given a chance. But FM is a closed format. DJ's can't just play something because they like it and they want to share it with listeners.
This board is such an interesting place because really I've learned a lot about how the business side of radio works. I just find it surprising that music seems to be the last thing these stations think about. It's kind of sad because I think it's led to radio losing what made it so special.
I should probably clarify that I have nothing against the X's morning show, they're all good people I'm sure.But my overall point in the above post was that it seems like these corporate entities seem to put music last. And, for me, that's why I listened to the radio in the first place. If you have likable people on your morning show, great. But what good does that do you the rest of the day?
Maybe I'm in the minority in thinking their music format is terrible. But for someone who loves rock music and wants to go deeper than the latest crap from Nickelback, I find it disappointing that there are virtually no options in Central PA. WXPN is ok at times, but not something I could ever listen to all day long. For the most part the college stations around here play decent music, but the reception is horrible and the schedules are scatterbrained.
That's why I've gone to satellite. I love music enough to actually pay for it. I've found 100's of bands that would probably do quite well on FM if given a chance. But FM is a closed format. DJ's can't just play something because they like it and they want to share it with listeners.
This board is such an interesting place because really I've learned a lot about how the business side of radio works. I just find it surprising that music seems to be the last thing these stations think about. It's kind of sad because I think it's led to radio losing what made it so special.
Unfortunate as it may be, it's not about the music. It's about target demos, advertisers, and turning a profit. And if they see an opportunity to make more money with the current format, it's a no-brainer. Money > music.
I miss the Edge as well. I also miss YCR in the early 90's. But those days are loooooooong gone.
I miss the Edge as well. I also miss YCR in the early 90's. But those days are loooooooong gone.
FormerXer said:
Point well taken! It just seems kind of counter-intuitive to me. If music is the main programming of a station, why not try and make your station stand out by being the first to break new artists, etc? I don't know how much more effort, manpower or money that would take but you'd think someone would try it.
Breaking new artists is too risky and difficult these days. You are not hurt by not playing the song everyone loves. You ARE hurt by playing the song no one can stand. Unless you have the knack for picking every single song that will become a hit you could be playing a number of songs that never make it because no one likes them. People will go elsewhere.
As mentioned before, you are competing with too many other music sources today to take the chance of alienating the listeners with songs they may not want to hear. It is still a business that needs listeners to help generate the income to pay the bills.
As mentioned before, you are competing with too many other music sources today to take the chance of alienating the listeners with songs they may not want to hear. It is still a business that needs listeners to help generate the income to pay the bills.
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There has been an ongoing debate probably since the advent of Top 40 radio in the 1950s. Many people think that for a radio station to appeal to a wide audience, it needs to be musically broad and deep. Normal logic would dictate the more, different songs a station plays, the more popular it would be, right? This opinion has been shared by both those in and out of radio. It seems to be reinforced when you ask just about anybody's opinion, they'll tell you their favorite radio has too much repetition. So why doesn't a long playlist work? First of all, a radio station's reach is limited by its broadcast signal (at this point most stations' stream is not a factor). Secondly, real radio listening is quite short, whether measured by diary or PPM. A good station has an average TSL of two hours a week. If this fact were to change, it might alter the way radio stations are programmed. But in the real world, in order to get good ratings, a station must build a consensus. This is done playing very familiar and very popular songs often to cash in on the short TSL. There are relatively few songs, both old and new at any given time to make this work. So why the complaints? There is small percentage of a station's audience who listen far more than the average and that's where the complaints come from. Add this fact: no radio station can be programmed to any one person's taste and be successful, particularly when trying to build "consensus". Then add in that radio listening costs the consumer nothing , so there is no commitment to the station. Broadcast music radio is the original short attention span and instant gratification medium. More program directors understand this paradigm than ever before. But it's not new. Radio programming geniuses like Rick Sklar and Bill Drake knew this before many others. If you don't believe me, compare airchecks from WABC and KHJ from the 60s to any other station of that era, and you will clearly hear the difference. The short familiar playlist will probably always be what is needed to be mass appeal and highly rated.
Top 40 stations had somewhat longer playlists up until the mid 60's. Some markets like Hartford and New Haven Ct, and even WLAN in Lancaster had playlists of 60 songs up until the early 70's. Record reps loved these stations. Most stations had an average of 40 songs plus a pick hit of the week. As early as 1965, the major and large markets started dropping back to 30 songs with about 5 "hitbounds". Every time you tuned into one of these stations you heard a hit. Stations that held onto the larger playlists ran the risk of a "stiff" being aired during the short time a listener tuned in on his/her way to the store, school, or wherever. This led to "button pushing".....if you remember the old car radio presets. By 1968, this was the norm. Philly's WFIL and WIBG converted to the 30 song list around April of '68. You can see how the surveys evolved by going to the ARSA survey site at www.las-solanis.com/arsa or type in ARSA surveys in Google. This is a fun site....you could spend hours there.
actualy in the 70s and VERY early 80s I thought WSBA-fm (103.3) did the "Beautiful Music" thing better t han "nice" or WHP FM. I worked there at the time and they really had a strong focus on that format. and as I recall the ratings were pretty good.....( like #1..6a to 7p).johnnyu said:
While WJBR was a Delaware radio station, it came into Lancaster with good coverage, at least back in the mid 80s. I remember them doing the "Beautiful Music" format, which I thought they did very well at.
Personally, I still loved the FM 97 days of St. John (not the real one), Gary Maxwell, and Q106 with Jim Cook.
Personally, I still loved the FM 97 days of St. John (not the real one), Gary Maxwell, and Q106 with Jim Cook.
B
Beatlesfan64
Guest
The hottest station in central PA in the mid 80's was none other then WIYQ - Ebensburg / Johnstown.
Serving 37 counties and 3 states.
The saddest day was when they turned off the transmitter - after the last Joe Joe's Polka Swing program on a Sunday and went to Rock and Roll.
The reason why I say this is because the station was so laid back that they gave the station to the college kids on Saturday nights and allowed them to play as they wished and they turned a normally country music station into one of the Heaviest of Heavy Metal stations in the country.
A really good FM station from the same era was Glue 92 out of Johnstown PA. I probably still have some tapes of intro's of theirs from back in the 70's - 80's
Glue 92 - You got it!
Serving 37 counties and 3 states.
The saddest day was when they turned off the transmitter - after the last Joe Joe's Polka Swing program on a Sunday and went to Rock and Roll.
The reason why I say this is because the station was so laid back that they gave the station to the college kids on Saturday nights and allowed them to play as they wished and they turned a normally country music station into one of the Heaviest of Heavy Metal stations in the country.
A really good FM station from the same era was Glue 92 out of Johnstown PA. I probably still have some tapes of intro's of theirs from back in the 70's - 80's
Glue 92 - You got it!
RockofHBG said:
I guess instead of complaining about what FM doesn't give me, I should be thankful for what XM and the net does give me! Otherwise, I'd probably go without music in my life.
It is a free country my friend, so listen to paint drying if you so desire. It always amazes me on how and why people complain about radio. Do they call and post blogs about how McDonald's doesn't serve prime rib on the menu and how it would be a much better restaurant if they had a better variety of burgers? Or why doesn't Lowes carry 50 brands of air conditioners? There's a lot of great brands of weed wackers that Sears doesn't make available. I guess it must be the extremely personal nature of radio. You have one in the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, car, office, etc. When you allow radio in your life, it may make you feel like you have some equity. Please try and remediable this quote:
I subscribe to XM and to Rdio... I have almost 17,000 songs in my iPod.
I can still listen to most stations on the dial here in Central Pa and be entertained.
XM's content musically speaking is not that far removed from what I hear on many Pop. AC and Rock stations. I don't care if Jamaica annexes the state of Pennsylvania, A reggae station, (as much as I'd love it) will never get off the ground on the dial here. All thats happening, is that radio is going the way of TV.
Cable TV was alive and well when the cast of Friends were asking for a million dollars an episode, and getting it.
The Rivers, Roses and Peaks will still be around, most stations (if they are smart) will continue to tweek their content with the times, and the consensus of their listeners.
If you think you're going to unlock some great musical door free from rotation, and cycling the same stuff by switching to Sirius/XM, your sadly mistaken. Every channel I listen too from the bird, rotates their list. And that awesome deep track from Arcade Fire will become as mundane as Black Dog by Zeppelin after a while. Every medium has great elements that can keep me tuning in. But none of them have the be all and end all. Unless you only want to hear Howard say the F word, or hear all 43 minutes of Thick As A Brick by Tull.
I can still listen to most stations on the dial here in Central Pa and be entertained.
XM's content musically speaking is not that far removed from what I hear on many Pop. AC and Rock stations. I don't care if Jamaica annexes the state of Pennsylvania, A reggae station, (as much as I'd love it) will never get off the ground on the dial here. All thats happening, is that radio is going the way of TV.
Cable TV was alive and well when the cast of Friends were asking for a million dollars an episode, and getting it.
The Rivers, Roses and Peaks will still be around, most stations (if they are smart) will continue to tweek their content with the times, and the consensus of their listeners.
If you think you're going to unlock some great musical door free from rotation, and cycling the same stuff by switching to Sirius/XM, your sadly mistaken. Every channel I listen too from the bird, rotates their list. And that awesome deep track from Arcade Fire will become as mundane as Black Dog by Zeppelin after a while. Every medium has great elements that can keep me tuning in. But none of them have the be all and end all. Unless you only want to hear Howard say the F word, or hear all 43 minutes of Thick As A Brick by Tull.
V
VinylRecords
Guest
Looks like I am by myself on this one...
WHYL AM 960 when it played "doowoppin oldies".
What ever the call sign of 92.7 was before it went Jazz. It was competing with WSOX, and lost. Then WSOX dropped "Oldies" for "The Greatest Hits of all Time". I would not agree, but what do I know.
WRAW 1340 in Reading that was owned by Cheap Channel. I think that was my favorite. Then it took a turn toward Religion. But I did not get over that way much to be able to hear it.
WHYL AM 960 when it played "doowoppin oldies".
What ever the call sign of 92.7 was before it went Jazz. It was competing with WSOX, and lost. Then WSOX dropped "Oldies" for "The Greatest Hits of all Time". I would not agree, but what do I know.
WRAW 1340 in Reading that was owned by Cheap Channel. I think that was my favorite. Then it took a turn toward Religion. But I did not get over that way much to be able to hear it.
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