Southwest of Pittsburgh. What happens to CC Wheeling?

[kenhawk1160]

You really need to jump in your and get our of PA every now and then.

I do that from time to time. But, since this is the Pittsburgh board, what happens in other cities isn't all that relevent in here. And, from what I've heard, satellite feeds are satellite feeds, voice tracks are voice tracks, and canned, fill-in-the-blanks formats are canned, fill-in-the-blanks formats, no matter how large or small the city that is home to the tower is. A Jack or Bob station in one town is pretty much a clone of a Jack or Bob station in any other town.

It's like eating at a McDonald's franchise. It's the same where ever you go.

You don't even have to get out of Pennsylvania, Realist. Go to towns like Butler, Latrobe, Indiana, Sharon, Uniontown, Waynesburg and tune your station to the local one in each town. Every one is different. I find that those stations have much more character and appeal than anything I'd find in the bigger markets.

 

[Radio_Realist]

Go to towns like Butler, Latrobe, Indiana, Sharon, Uniontown, Waynesburg and tune your station to the local one in each town. Every one is different.

Been there, done that. Didn't hear any significant differences. Yes, they were different from each other. All stations are different from each other to some degree. But the amount of difference was slight. There was nothing special, unique or noteworthy about any of them. Each of them was just another radio station, not totally identical to any other, yet so similar to all the others that only a radio industry insider would notive the subtle differences.

It's like snow flakes. Each six-sided crystal is unique, yet each one still looks just like a snowflake.

 

[kenhawk1160]

Go to towns like Butler, Latrobe, Indiana, Sharon, Uniontown, Waynesburg and tune your station to the local one in each town. Every one is different.

Been there, done that. Didn't hear any significant differences. Yes, they were different from each other. All stations are different from each other to some degree. But the amount of difference was slight. There was nothing special, unique or noteworthy about any of them. Each of them was just another radio station, not totally identical to any other, yet so similar to all the others that only a radio industry insider would notive the subtle differences.

It's like snow flakes. Each six-sided crystal is unique, yet each one still looks just like a snowflake.

No pleasing you, is there? Too bad. Bottom line is, they must be doing SOMETHING right, since all of those stations I mentioned are profitable.

 

[Radio_Realist]

they must be doing SOMETHING right

I didn't say they were doing anything wrong. I didn't say they didn't have good programming. All I said was that there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between any of the small market stations. They were pretty much all interchangeable. And, there's not really a dime's worth of difference between what the small market stations sound like and what the big city stations sound like. The names of the businesses in their commericials was about the only real difference.

But I never said that was a bad thing. If they're making a profit, maybe that just proves that presenting a bland, cookie-cutter sameness to the audience is the path to profit.

 

[kenhawk1160]

And, there's not really a dime's worth of difference between what the small market stations sound like and what the big city stations sound like. The names of the businesses in their commericials was about the only real difference.

WHERE did you get an incredible idea like that??? How can you possibly say there's NO difference? Or even a dime's worth? There's plenty of difference up and down the dial. You need to dedicate more time than just five minutes if that of dial flip-throughs.

 

[Radio_Realist]

You need to dedicate more time than just five minutes if that of dial flip-throughs.

From 1999 until 2005, my work required me to drive all over Western PA, Eastern OH, and Nothern, WV. My car radio was my only companion during those trips. I will acknowledge that I only tuned in stations that played formats that I enjoyed listening to, so I never sampled a CHR or Dance format station. But I whenever I drove out of the range of a station that I enjoyed, I used the scan button until I found another one that I liked, and I usually left the station set there until I reached my destination or drove outside the signal area, whichever came first. Though I didn't do any meticulous note-taking, I would guess I generally stayed tuned in to most of the stations for at least thirty minutes or longer before driving out of signal range.

The only exception was when I found a station that was playing something I liked, but that subsequently played something that really sucked. For example, if a station caught my ear because it was playing a classic rock song that I liked, but then played something like "Tell Me Something Good" by Rufus, anything recorded by the 1910 Fruitgum Company, or any disco, I hit the scan button. There's no incentive that could get me to sit through music like that if I didn't have to.

By doing that, I never found any stations that sounded noticeably different from any of the other stations that I found.

 

[Radio_Realist]

For the record, I had to take a long drive through the counties to the north of Pittsburgh earlier this week, and once again used my scan button to sample the stations from the smaller towns between Pittsburgh and Meadeville. I stand by what I say. They all sounded good. And any one of them could have been broadcasting from almost anywhere in the country, and aside from a very few mentions of local events, it would have been impossible to identify which city or even what region of the country the stations were located in.

The closest thing I could compare the small town stations to would be McDonald's franchises. They might have been locally owned, but all appeared to be operated from the same high-quality, national rules and procedures manual.

Granted, stations using some sort of variety hits formats didn't sound like stations using a Hot AC format. But every variety hits station sounded pretty much like every other variety hits stations, aside from using a different single-sylable man's name as their identifier. All of the oldies stations sounded like all of the other oldies stations. I have to admit that tight playlist stations like 3WS only get boring after two or three days of listening. Any oldies station with a different 300 song playlist from the one you're familiar with will sound fresh and new the first time you hear them cycle through their list.