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Pirates move to 104.7 may be as bad as the Pens to 3WS

Maybe it's just luck or fate but the Pens move to 94.5fm, in my opinion, was not very good. The fate of the team changed. Radio can't control that. Your fans need to know where you are. 3WS and 970am both very good stations were just no match for KDKA. A strong AM as your flagship gives hope for suburban FM's to join the network. Otherwise it's more of the same. We all have heard of some members of a network that really aren't members(they miss games). So now the Pirates are taking a game off of an institution and placing it on 104.7. From my experience, 104.7 is becoming a tough sell. Signal wise would you not try to have the Pirates on a grandfathered powerful FM like 92.9, 94.5, 102.5, even 72,000 watts of 105.9 or 93.7fm
rather than 104.7? Well there is the promise of cross promotion. All of the DVE people will be drawn to the games on 104.7. Did this happen with the Pens? Not in my opinion. I had a chance to study the book this week and focused on 12+ hour by hour. Oh I can hear the critics now.. 12+ who cares about that. I was told that the numbers under 35 in the book are being averaged because the sample size is not large enough.
KDKA is still a flamethrower. Even WJAS kicks butt on Sunday Morning. Totals numbers tell a story! I regained a whole lot of respect for many stations that we so often hear are dead. I think the Pirates and KDKA are making a mistake by parting company. I look at Youngstown and when Clear Channel came to town they decided that Youngstown is Cleveland Indian and Cleveland Brown land. They still did not figure out that we are all one around here "thinking of our late mayor. There is a state line between Sharon and Youngstown and Wheeling and Washington. But we LIKE the Steelers, Pirates and Pens. College and High school sports are totally different(that's where we fight). Many people ask what difference does a local radio station make? Would the fall in New Ken been has great if they had retained 104.7 and local news on 1150?
As of a few weeks ago there is no local Cadillac or Pontiac dealer in New Ken. There is still money in the market. I heard about the cable money in that market. but a local station makes a difference(look at Butler and Washington and Uniontown).
Having the Pirates on KDKA "local station that runs more Local News and Local Weather is a better advantage than a cluster that turns the lights off after 7pm. This is not a rap at Clear Channel. they do a nice job in Pittsburgh in many areas. But the Pirates are now another child competing with the Steelers, Pens, Pitt Football.. lady panthers basketball and the washington wildthings and NASCAR. I have see the promise of the power of WWVA being added to this mix. And as I think of it, being that the majority owners of the Bucs are from wheeling.they might be impressed. As I looked at the top 20 stations in the book. 50,000 day 10,000 night (please correct me if I am wrong) WWVA did not have an impact in this market. But the pgh stations usually place in the wheeling books.
 
The Pirates are looking for more wraparound programming, which they'll get from CC. With KDKA, Bill O'Reilly was on as soon as the post-game show from the ballpark was over. The weekend games popped up in the middle of the infomercials.

The CC stations will do more promotion for the Pirates. The Pirates are building a studio inside PNC Park for remotes.

Val Porter from DVE hosted a lot of the in-game audience participation segments at Pens games, as did Alan Cox from the X.

KDKA did little to promote the Pirates, and its geriatric audience isn't buying baseball tickets anyway. They were the last major sports team in town that wasn't on FM and people under 40 don't listen to AM in any great numbers.

KDKA has been bitching internally for years that the Pirates are killing them at night. Their argument is the Pirates are off the map halfway through the season and they can't develop any consistency with evening programming because of all the baseball pre-emptions. Here's where they find out if that's right.

KDKA is not an "institution" any more. It's a failing radio station that has lost two-thirds of its audience over the last 20 years and has horrible demo problems with the listeners who remain.
 
1. WWVA is 50kw-U.

2. Remember the Pens radio slot used to be WDVE.
 
Fallout from the Pirates' move to 104.7

Maybe it's just luck or fate but the Pens move to 94.5fm, in my opinion, was not very good.

That move helped cement sports on FM in the Steel City.

WDVE has been the Steelers flagship for, say, 10 or so years now. 3WS used to be the Penguins station and soon will be the Pitt flagship. 105.9 is getting the Penguins starting in October. 104.7 is the current Pitt flagship and soon will pick up the Pirates.

3WS and 970amboth very good stations were just no match for KDKA. A strong AM as your flagship gives hope for suburban FM's to join the network.

3WS is a grandfathered Class B signal, 50 kw ERP/810 ft. HAAT. Fox Sports 970 is highly directional and has no signal in the north suburbs at night.

Unless KDKA picks up Penn State next year 1020 could very well die a slow death.
 
The engineering marvel (8 well-engineered towers day and night) which is 970 kHz has no signal in the north suburbs, despite its towers location in the Ross area.

But 970 also has no signal in the south suburbs either, really. Hence, why the FM caught on so quickly in Pittsburgh--the terrain is horrible for AM, and suburban sprawl took many areas out of the coverage area of the old-line AMs (WTAE, WWSW/WBGG, KQV).

So, the need to "seem bigger" sparked a bit of fanciful play in Double-Double's old legal ID:

"WWSW AM 50,000 watts FM Pittsburgh"
 
KD will regret the move because now there is no reason for anyone under 60s who isn't camped on the far right wing of politics to tune in.

The Pirates will get the exposure they crave and a marketing partner that they never have had with KD.

KD's signal is an issue now as well. They've been on a backup tranmitter for months now and there is great fear that adjecent channel splatter from WBZ will kill the signal from the middle of the state out even once they are back on the prime stick.

There was no good reason for the Bucs to stick around.
 
Johnny Morgan said:
So, the need to "seem bigger" sparked a bit of fanciful play in Double-Double's old legal ID:

"WWSW AM 50,000 watts FM Pittsburgh"

Anyone else old enough to remember, ``...and that's a 2 on the Beaufort scale'' at the end of WWSW weather back in the day?
 
Snafu- With McIntyre the drawing card, as well as Griffin, Moore, and Hansen, I don't think you can call KDKA a liberal station.

I would say they tilt to the left.

True, there is Honz, but I can't remember when he was considered relevant and no conservative is going to listen to him over Rush and Hannity.

Bill O'Reilly has been pushed to a slot nobody will listen to him on.

But the thing is out of all those guys I think the best talent is Chris Moore and he gets, what, three hours a week or something?

I just shake my head. I remember when Pittsburgh's voice to the rest of the country had Stargell and Parker leading the Pirates to first place, the friendly, engaging and mature personality of Perry Marshall, John Cigna, or maybe even a laugh-a-minute with a then in his prime Doug Hoerth.

Now people are theorizing that Steve Jones would be an improvement over what they have now.

Ouch.
 
thefalcon said:
I have see the promise of the power of WWVA being added to this mix. And as I think of it, being that the majority owners of the Bucs are from wheeling.they might be impressed. As I looked at the top 20 stations in the book. 50,000 day 10,000 night (please correct me if I am wrong) WWVA did not have an impact in this market. But the pgh stations usually place in the wheeling books.

WWVA makes most of its money with the brokered religion at night. They will not displace that for the Pirates.
 
I won't dispute that KDKA sounds its absolute worst today, but let's not get carried away with the supposed good old days.

Perry Marshall was responsible for turning a once-lively all-night show into a haven where seniors called in to complain about their aches and pains. And Hoerth bombed on KDKA, ratings-wise. They lost their night time audience when Cigna went to mornings in '83. Hoerth was one of many they tried in that slot without success.
 
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