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Renda Rumors

What do you mean Bogut makes money? How can someone who is in his 70's and appeals to a 75+ year old audience do anything positive with cash flow after you take out his ego fed salary? WJAS needs to establish itself as an oldies station where 3WS has stepped away to try and protect the DVE mothership. They have started to add more 60's to the mix but you also need hosts who still have it to draw a listener in, otherwise it makes you feel like your listening to the nursing home bingo game all day long. Yes, they were big names but people that spend money nowadays are too young to know who they are let alone if they are still alive.
 
Snafu said:
Old Man Renda brought in a new consultant whose main purpose in life at this moment is to just anger everyone in the building for no apparent reason except Old Tony himself. There has been more than one phone call from Tony Jr. to keep someone from walking.

The consultant has no previous ties to the market and no understanding of it. He apparently wants to blow up the morning show and automate mid-days. He doesn't get Bogut and Cardille at all.

There will be no changes at WPTT unless the signal swap goes ahead. Old Tony is still counting his pennies and trying to decide if he still wants to do it.

You couldn't get Paulsen back in a radio station right now at gunpoint. Of course he did that once before and Geno begged, pleaded and wrote a big enough check. Maybe he'll do it again and maybe he'll pull a Rege Cordic.

What's to get? Their demo is not as profitable as a demo as say a 15 year younger demo is for selling to many clients since it is all over 70 years old right now! That demo needs lowered before all the nursing home residents die off and they loose all their listeners.
 
PGHsalesguy said:
What do you mean Bogut makes money? How can someone who is in his 70's and appeals to a 75+ year old audience do anything positive with cash flow after you take out his ego fed salary? WJAS needs to establish itself as an oldies station where 3WS has stepped away to try and protect the DVE mothership. They have started to add more 60's to the mix but you also need hosts who still have it to draw a listener in, otherwise it makes you feel like your listening to the nursing home bingo game all day long. Yes, they were big names but people that spend money nowadays are too young to know who they are let alone if they are still alive.

Are you really a salesguy? If so, how can you say the adjustment in 3WS music is protecting WDVE? There's more overlap with DVE than ever. When they were playing "Wooly Bully" and all the British Invasion stuff, there was no overlap. Now they're both playing Springsteen and Mellancamp.

If you think Renda didn't figure out a way to make Bogut cost-effective, you know nothing about Tony Renda.
 
Pratte4Life said:
I know a couple of years back WJAS started playing more modern songs that wouldn't alienate an older audience. Stuff like Celine Dion.

It was lauded by many radio insiders as a way to keep the station fresh and perhaps alive a bit longer.

We're doing that at WISR and have been for some time. You'll hear Celine and newer MOYL artists like Cyndi Lauper (I mean her newer stuff), Michael Buble, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, and Norah Jones. Mix that up with some of the standard hitmakers of the 60's and 70's and you have a very eclectic mix that's successful.
 
Boss Radio said:
If you think Renda didn't figure out a way to make Bogut cost-effective, you know nothing about Tony Renda.

Ditto on that, Boss. Bogut and Cardille aren't really doing this for money. They don't have to work. They made their money in their prime, and Chilly made lots of money with his travel agency. They're basically doing this for something to do, and my understanding is it's a four-and-out-the-door deal. The morning man at Renda's WPXZ puts together a stellar morning show, and he has pretty much the same arrangement. Doesn't make a great deal of money, doesn't need to...has plenty of outside interests.
 
1250WTAE said:
Out of town consultants. What a waste of time and money!

They're not ALL bad. Some of them you have to raise your eyebrows at, but others are OK. Mike McVay has his office in Cleveland, but he's from here and understands the makeup of markets like Pittsburgh. He'd be the first one I'd call.

We'll use the late great Rick Sklar as another...he came to town with the Energy 105 concept and gave us Mike Frazer, who has been in this market for almost two decades now. Though Energy was too blasted expensive to survive (their jocks were paid VERY well) its ownership at that time, we got a talent that had staying power in this market after only a little more than a year on the air.
 
Take WJAS to a real oldies format? That hasn't worked anywhere and died a quick death everywhere it was tried.

Nothing wrong with tweaking the format with AC artists as they have done for years. Remember Bogut was the morning guy on WSHH for years playing AC artists. Jack is very cost effective! And I agree no one is better than Tony Renda at that.

As far as consultants: two poor examples! Mr. McVay may be from here, but has failed many times, and Energy 105? Really poor example! That station blew up quick.
 
Sales guy (?), there are people WAY under 75 who listen to WJAS - I'm talking people who weren't even born when the Carpenters were popular.

Bob Dearborn would be awesome.
 
1250WTAE said:
As far as consultants: two poor examples! Mr. McVay may be from here, but has failed many times, and Energy 105? Really poor example! That station blew up quick.

I didn't say every consultant had to be perfect. I can name a lot more who are far worse, TAE.

McVay apparently was successful enough to own about a dozen radio stations before he divested them after the first round of new ownership rules went into effect. Let's also not forget about the consultants who have the same problem as PD's these days...they're paid to manage the programming aspect of the station but upper management sees it fit to interfere, as they're the ones writing the checks. No PD or consultant will be successful working under those conditions.

Energy 105 "blew up quick" for reasons that were not Rick's fault. Though Rick was seen by many as being underhanded, he was still very good at what he did. WABC during the Cousin Brucie years was just ONE of his many successes.

As the former GM of its AM sister station after NRJ was long gone, there were a lot of problems internally that hastened that station's demise. Drug use among staffers, a Sandles resort promotion with a non-existent grand prize, morally offensive on-air behavior, two different owners fighting with one another, and some staff members having to wait for their paychecks are just a select FEW. Had every problem I just mentioned didn't exist or was somewhat less of a chore, it would have fared better.

If you don't believe me, look at Mix Jamz, which came on the scene not long after Energy faded. They took some lessons from the old WNRJ and it worked very well. It only died because Dick Oppenheimer sold the station to EZ and Tex didn't want that kind of competition against B94.
 
Thanks for the inside info. None of us would have known that was going on.

Energy 105 was another version of Mike Joseph's "Hot Hits".

We're talking WJAS, and while it should and can be tweaked, it shouldn't be changed.
 
1250WTAE said:
Thanks for the inside info. None of us would have known that was going on.

Energy 105 was another version of Mike Joseph's "Hot Hits".

We're talking WJAS, and while it should and can be tweaked, it shouldn't be changed.

Agreed. It has to evolve, like what we once knew as "easy listening", has now evolved into Smooth Jazz, and has done very well in some markets under that new branding and repackaging. The WJAS presentation can do the same thing if it is to have any hopes of attracting new listeners, and it can be done.

I agree with you on the previous post you made insofar as a "real Oldies" format. 3WS tried a brief attempt at separate programming during the Shamrock years with 50's and 60's on the AM side, with the 60's and 70's on the FM. You'll remember it died a grisly death. The oldies audience here just isn't big enough to support another station. They're going to remain loyal to 3WS...they've evolved into including 80's hits in their libraries, but their audience can tolerate sitting through a couple of tracks here and there and wait to hear their next favorite song.
 
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