It's official..Pittsburgh radio is dead

[TheBigA]

I don't know if they "care," but they're going to report Rutgers' protests.

That's not how this story was reported. Clearly, the issue was the fact that Imus was a well-known radio host. If it had been some guy on a no-audience station in Duluth, it would not have been a story. But because he was big star on a popular station in NY plus syndicated on 80 other big stations, it was news.

Don't misunderstand me...there ARE dead radio stations. But there also are lots of huge radio stations that make an impact every day. What typically happens is that the station in the format someone likes changes, so they declare all of radio dead. When all that's happened is their favorite station sucks. So rather than try another station or another genre of music, they declare radio is dead. There are lots of great stations, but they probably are in formats that you might not like.

 

[Talk_Dude]

I don't think you'll find many people actually listening to radio, as in "paying attention to the content".

If that's true, "talk_dude," then why do so many people know exactly what Don Imus said about the Rutgers women basketball team? Or what Rush Limbaugh said about Obama? Or any of the many things said every day on the radio? As for music, I go to concerts where fans know every word to the songs being performed. They hear them 5 times a day on the radio. You mention songs that don't get airplay, and the people don't recognize them.

Sure, it's not the 1930s where the family gathered around the radio to hear Fibber McGee & Molly. That kind of uninterrupted listening went away a very long time ago. But people seem to know a lot about what's on the radio. They can tell you about an annoying DJ or sing a commercial jingle. I was at a concert near Pittsburgh recently where the only way people knew about it was through the local radio station, and it was sold out. Radio is still very much part of people's lives, and for the most part, they have no interest in paying for the other options.

People who never listen to Don Imus know what he said about the Rutgers women basketball team because it was reported in excruciating detail over and over by the news media, especially the interent. I've never heard more than one or two minutes of Imus in my life, and I never actually heard what he said about the Rutgers women basketball team, but I read about what he said.

As for radio being "very much" a part of peoples' lives, "very much" is about as precise as "some". So, I say that "some" people listen intently to the radio "some" of the time, you claim it's "very much". Until either one of us can come up with an exact number instead of vague quantities, neither opinion can be proved or disproved.

>>>If that's true, "talk_dude," then why do so many people know exactly what Don Imus said about the Rutgers women basketball team? Or what Rush Limbaugh said about Obama? <<<

Because it gets reported in other media.

If no one's listening, other media wouldn't care.

Then 'splain why people the media reports about the antics of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and the other "celebrity" bimbos who are famous for being famous? Almost no one watches Paris Hilton's movies, Kardashian was on a third rate celebreality show.

 

[Talk_Dude]

And now, the following. I realize this isn't everybody's cup of tea, or even many people's cup of tea.
It's two hours between a polka show and the Rosary, on a station that gets relatively little audience.
But, by God, it's two hours that'll never be dull. Not while I live and breathe.

http://www.clarkeingram.com/100626.mp3

C.

When you said that wasn't everybody's cup of tea, you sure weren't joking.

Was that from some archive tape from the 60's?

 

[TheBigA]

Almost no one watches Paris Hilton's movies,

Paris Hilton MOVIES? Really? I mean REALLY?

 

[cingram]

When you said that wasn't everybody's cup of tea, you sure weren't joking.

Was that from some archive tape from the 60's?

Saturday, 6/26/2010.

If it sounded like old Top 40 radio, then my goal was achieved.

C.

 

[VoteFM]

98.3 and 106.7 Is my favorite stations that i dont listen to :

 

[Talk_Dude]

Almost no one watches Paris Hilton's movies,

Paris Hilton MOVIES? Really? I mean REALLY?

Amazing, I know. But it's true.

 

[corporateradiosucks]

When you said that wasn't everybody's cup of tea, you sure weren't joking.

Was that from some archive tape from the 60's?

Saturday, 6/26/2010.

If it sounded like old Top 40 radio, then my goal was achieved.

C.

This is my whole pot of tea.

 

[xm41]

Almost no one watches Paris Hilton's movies,

Paris Hilton MOVIES? Really? I mean REALLY?

Amazing, I know. But it's true.

I didn't know she was in Wonderland. That was a pretty good movie. I guess she was just in a small roll.

 

[Schuyler]

http://www.clarkeingram.com/100626.mp3

When you said that wasn't everybody's cup of tea, you sure weren't joking.

Some judge of talent you are! One impeccable, high-energy talk-up after another, and you slam it? Are you deaf to the sound of a guy who enjoys what he's doing more than any number of overpaid card-readers? Here's hoping your hair catches fire during a Pepsi shortage.

Radio is in terminal shape when something this entertaining has to be brokered.

 

[KeyTimes950]

98.3 and 106.7 Is my favorite stations that i dont listen to :

I think you meant "are my favorite stations," but, K-Love actually is quite well done for the format. Yes, as it is based in California it is hardly an example of "public interest, convenience and necessity" as once required by the FCC but, honestly, how many stations are?
I actually have both as pre-sets, K-Love as an alternative to the news-talk I often monitor (KDKA, KQV, WPGB and NPR on WDUQ as it happens), 106.7 as a curiosity piece as it seems the operators are slowly filling in some personality between the Masses, rosaries, Bishop Brandt's teaching and 400-year-old music ... and, of course, the dead air.
By the way, to those who criticize and to those who defend WAOB, two things are quite true: (1) St. Joseph Missions clearly did not intend to compete with secular radio and doesn't do so, but (2) it is an honest effort by people with more money than radio savvy to invest their time and treasure into serving their Lord and His church.
It ain't perfect, it won't win Marconis and no one expects they'll do so, but it has just as much a place on the supposedly dead Pittsburgh airwaves as that mix aimed at soccer moms and hoochie mamas. (I still can't get over that comment!)

 

[Parttimer]

98.3 and 106.7 Is my favorite stations that i dont listen to :

I think you meant "are my favorite stations,"

No, I think he said what he meant....

 

[TheBigA]

it is an honest effort by people with more money than radio savvy to invest their time and treasure into serving their Lord and His church.

It strikes me, as an outsider, that it's an opportunity for someone WITH radio savvy, as you put it, to offer their services to the Church to assist them in their mission. Perhaps some former broadcaster who happens to be a Catholic and understands their mission might make a presentation. Because I think they will appreciate that guidance in a way a commercial owner might not. Just a suggestion. It won't get big ratings, it won't be sexy, and it won't get a lot of free record label swag. But who really cares about that anyway?

 

[Parttimer]

They'd probably have to do it as a volunteer, but it's a worthwhile thought.

 

[Talk_Dude]

Almost no one watches Paris Hilton's movies,

Paris Hilton MOVIES? Really? I mean REALLY?

Amazing, I know. But it's true.

I didn't know she was in Wonderland. That was a pretty good movie. I guess she was just in a small roll.

She is the last name in the credits. Apparently, it was a cameo.

And yet, despite having done virtually nothing, she's still one of the queens of the tabloids, and her actions are reported. Which disproves the assertion that only people in the media that people pay attention to have their actions reported in the media.

http://www.clarkeingram.com/100626.mp3

When you said that wasn't everybody's cup of tea, you sure weren't joking.

Some judge of talent you are! One impeccable, high-energy talk-up after another, and you slam it? Are you deaf to the sound of a guy who enjoys what he's doing more than any number of overpaid card-readers? Here's hoping your hair catches fire during a Pepsi shortage.

Radio is in terminal shape when something this entertaining has to be brokered.

Well, excuse me! I apologize if I'm one of the millions of people who got bored with "One impeccable, high-energy talk-up after another" and stopped listening to AM Top 40 many, many, years ago. I think maybe the lyrics to one of those songs you only hear on oldies stations applies here. "But that was yesterday, and yesterday's gone."

But if you enjoy blasts from the past, more power to you. My mom would be thrilled if they'd play more Glenn Miller and other Big Band music on the radio. My aunt would love to hear radio shows like "Lights Out". My mother-in-law never misses a polka show. I think it's great that there are little stations where folks who are into nostalgia can hear stuff from the good old days.

 

[Whiplash]

Put Clarke on a station 24/7 or just run old airchecks of him. I'd listen!!

 

[cingram]

Some judge of talent you are! One impeccable, high-energy talk-up after another, and you slam it? Are you deaf to the sound of a guy who enjoys what he's doing more than any number of overpaid card-readers? Here's hoping your hair catches fire during a Pepsi shortage.

Radio is in terminal shape when something this entertaining has to be brokered.

I don't pay for the time. In fact, I get paid. It's understood, however, that if the time slot is sold to a brokered
program, I'll lose the slot and have to find myself another one.

And thanks for the "one impeccable, high-energy talk-up after another." Again, I realize that most people aren't
necessarily interested in that kind of radio...but it's what I do.

C.

 

[Pratte4Life]

And maybe it shows that Pittsburgh radio is not dead.

 

[Talk_Dude]

And maybe it shows that Pittsburgh radio is not dead.

It is, after all, routine hyperbole. Radio isn't dead. It's just really, really old. It's sick, it's weak, it barely gets around any more. It's at death's doorstep. It has one foot in the grave. Pick your favorite cliche. Anyone who says Pittsburgh radio is dead isn't lying, they're only exaggerating. Anyone who can find the tiniest glimmer of life left in it and exclaims, "It's alive!" is technically correct.

 

[FreddyE1977]

for our next example I would submit to you WPYT-AM 660, a station that is routinely running dead
open carrier whenever I tune by them (except yesterday afternoon, when they were running some
program that was so badly overmodulated I literally could not understand a single word they were
saying). It's as if the transmitter is hooked straight to a PC where someone is always surfing around
looking for the next streaming link or something.

Yes, I do believe that brings WAOB one step up out of the cellar.