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Is It Time For A Split?

S

Stranger

This part of the site is called "Altoona/State College." Maybe it's time to split it in two, since the two communities don't have a whole lot in common. The segment is pretty much dominated by Altoona comments, which is fine. But the two communities don't really cross-polinate, and the interests of one area don't often resonate with the other.

The discussion here is dominated by a handful of people, largely malcontents who have no confirmed or obvious connection to the business of broadcasting and like to hurl rocks from what they think of as their Olympian perches. The central concern here for a time was whether Forever was a tool of Satan or just a business run by a bunch of people who don't get it. Nowadays, we don't even get the alleged "insider" info from any of the local companies.

State College types: When was the most recent time anyone said anything about 3WZ? When was the last time anyone had anything to say about WOWY? Where is all the commentary about Qwik Rock? Does anyone have anything to say about the latest changes at WBLF? The middle of the road guy went away and now there's yet another right winger on in his place.

Does anyone have anything to say about the changes at WRSC, either AM or FM?

Does anyone care about Chuck Herzog who suffered a debilitating stroke? Chuck has been a fixture for a long time, working both for Magnum and for Forever.

Has anything of note happened to the Allegheny Mountain Network whose roots run deep in practically every central PA community?

Where's Dave Shannon?

What's with WPHB? What happens there when the two old vets decide to pack it in?

Anyone care about the incrasingly boring WPSU and it's co-owned and increasingly mind numbing "The Lion?"

There may be all kinds of stuff going on here, but all we read about is the cost of cooking oil.
 
Don't worry. Dave Shannon will turn up. He has for years. Sometimes no news is good news and instead of offering criticism or half baked ideas of merging, why not add some meaningful comments of your own. I've got a fry wagon business to get going again and I'm sure Satelite Man is more than busy with installations with the price of cable going up and all. We can't do everything on this site. Take some initiative and don't cast stones. As for cooking oil, yep, it is up this season and I'll probably be raising the price of my fries. Gasoline is over $3.00 a gallon where I fill up (one of the few full service gas stations in the region but I pay extra for the service).
 
Back in January while driving on a trip to a market with HD radio, I am pretty sure I heard Dave Shannon's voice on a station in West Virginia. Meant to bring it up here at the time, totally forgot about it. I have totally forgotten the call letters now.
 
I believe he can be heard some afternoons on Newstalk 1240-WRTA. He's come by my fry wagon a couple of times and always says the fries are the best and it must be because I use real potatoes and cut/slice them "on the spot" before I throw them in the grease which, by the way, is getting expensive these days.
 
Things have settled down in these markets, haven't they? No format switches in SC for like 9 months?

FWIW, 1390 is one of the weirdest messes in the industry with conservatives in the morning, liberals in the afternoon and conservatives at night. Seguing from Neil Boortz to Ed Schultz is like seguing from Barry Manilow to AC/DC. WTF?
 
it's interesting that, troy craig, who has been in state college radio for almost a decade left the new qwk morning show and noone has said a word. they haven't really replaced him yet. any word?
 
Troy has left the building. Going on to greener pastures, not radio. But most who know him think he will be back. Qwik most likely is looking for a replacement. Wow, someone actually said something about radio in State College! And not a mention of cooking oil!
 
joepa4ever said:
Things have settled down in these markets, haven't they? No format switches in SC for like 9 months?

FWIW, 1390 is one of the weirdest messes in the industry with conservatives in the morning, liberals in the afternoon and conservatives at night. Seguing from Neil Boortz to Ed Schultz is like seguing from Barry Manilow to AC/DC. WTF?
Click to expand...

Hang in there. Schultz is horrible. Momma won't put up with him much longer and you'll have someone like Gordon Liddy in his place.
 
Well, Stranger, at least you got some activity going on here. Let me offer a couple observations.

Most humans would be sad about what happened to Chuck Herzog, but not that many people outside 4ever and Magnum ever met the guy. He got the same year-plus market manager tenure as all Forever's SC managers, but (unfortunately) let Monte B. serve as the face/voice of his administration--and then a few months at Quick II before the stroke hit him. I suppose everyone would wish the guy the best, but only in the same sense you'd wish the same for anyone you don't know.

And Quick II is really the only thing interesting going on at the moment, isn't it?

Maybe we could all pitch in ten bucks on a pool to guess what year Frog II beats Frog I in anything. Then again, how would we know?

Hard to get excited about a market that Arbitron won't survey again. Hard to get excited about stations that are just computers in darkened studios.
 
I thought I read somewhere that Arbitron was going to resume rating SC.

As for Herzog, you are, of course, right. But since many here are connected to one or the other of the two companies he worked for, you'd think there'd be some mention.

Quick II is the only real story right now, yes.

Darkened studios are a blight upon the air. But that's not a State College problem, it's pretty near universal.

Thank you for a thoughtful and reasonable response.
 
what did anybody expect when one company was able to purchase and/or control just about
every signal in the market, either directly or otherwise? said company
does not exactly define the term "innovative" - it just took several years
for the few creative people in the market to leave or be replaced.

so you're left with the kind of "safe" (i.e. don't upset any advertisers) radio
programming that doesn't excite anybody.

one can only hope for change...unless you choose to listen to an independent
station like wphb (philipsburg) or wqbr/the bear (lock haven). different music,
different viewpoint.
 
i think state college mornings in general are interesting. you have the old guard of kevin nelson, steve jones, and jeff brown doing good radio. newer voices like froggy's show and magic 99 have developed listeners and i think qwik 2 mornings are terrible without troy and apparently they do too. several former qwik rock guys have been approached about replacing todd but noone went so far.
 
Be careful about what you type on here, regarding SC radio people. They're egos are so big, they might get a lawyer to send you a cease and desist letter. Yeah, it happened to me....
 
I'm having trouble right now getting my fry wagon back into Centre County because of a no compete clause in my contact. I am hoping Satelite Man can pull some strings for me.
 
from friday's radio online....finally, some market movement:


WBRX-FM (Mix 94.7)/Altoona, PA, drops satellite programming and hires Roger Corey for mornings beginning May 3.
 
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