Talk on FM -- a waste?

[KeyTimes950]

This is an issue right now on the New York board since Merlin Media put a news station on the FM band. It prompted my adding these two cents:

I'll grant that music sounds better on FM, even though many of the oldie jocks in Pittsburgh prove that modern-day AM sounds better than the transistor radios we all used while growing up (an exception is Terry Lee when his computer-fed network isn't crashing on WLSW-103.9).

As for modern-day FM, I'll grant that Pittsburgh has become a battleground for talk as well as music, with Essential Public Media taking over news-jazz-NPR WDUQ-90.5 and making it news-NPR-BBC WESA-90.5 (and shunting jazz to HD2), KDKA-93.7 becoming the sports-talk station in the market (with WFAN sometimes available on HD2 and KDKA-AM on HD3), WPGB-104.7 becoming a top-five market station with conservative talk (with or without the Pirates depending on whether they're moving to the aforementioned KDKA-FM) and Steeler and Penguin talk stations on HD2s of WDVE-102.5 and WXDX-105.9, respectively.

Thoughts, folks?

 

[cingram]

No, it's not a waste, unless you only want listeners over 60.

FM trumps AM, especially in the most desirable demos. It was true 30 years ago, and it's even more
true today.

That said, I grew up with AM radio, I love AM radio, and I think it still has a role to play. It just isn't
king any more.

C.

 

[Boss Radio]

To people under 40, "radio" is FM. They didn't grow up with Top 40 music on KQV or 13Q, they heard it on B94 or 96KX.

 

[DXDXDX]

If some STUPID owner/management combination can bring it in for free by satelite, have some kids who want to play radio babysit it, fire all the real talent and thumb their nose at localism, you can bet it will be done. Frequency and type of emission is not a barrier to doing it on the cheap.

Radio is circling the drain because of ownership and management gross stupidity!

 

[Boss Radio]

Radio is circling the drain because of ownership and management gross stupidity!

That's true, but it has little to do with the demise of AM radio.

 

[uncamark]

Radio is circling the drain because of ownership and management gross stupidity!

That's true, but it has little to do with the demise of AM radio.

And a lot of the ownership and management have always been stupid, even at (or should I say especially at) the sainted family-owned stations (even if Arthur Carlson was a fictional character, the radio guys who created "WKRP" had based him on their bosses). It's just a different kind of stupid.

 

[FreddyE1977]

To people under 40, "radio" is FM. They didn't grow up with Top 40 music on KQV or 13Q, they heard it on B94 or 96KX.

As a long-time AM fan I am forced to agree. I passed by 40 awhile ago, and it was beginning
to fade away even when I was that young.

 

[PittsburghKid]

To people under 40, "radio" is FM. They didn't grow up with Top 40 music on KQV or 13Q, they heard it on B94 or 96KX.

I agree with Boss Radio. As someone who is under 30 (but quickly approaching it) people from my generation and those who are younger than me, don't listen to AM radio at all. And the reason we don't listen to AM radio is because most people from my generation didn't grow up listening to it. We grew up on B94, 961 Kiss, The X, in our day. 13Q, KQV, and the other giants many of you grew up listening to as children in the 1950s and the 1960s are stations that most of us never even heard of before. Well, I have, but that's just because I enjoy Pittsburgh Radio history and envy many of you who were around when these stations were at their peak.

Anyways, I don't think having talk radio on FM is a waste. In fact, I think its a great idea in getting younger generations to listen to talk radio. I think this is one of the reasons why 104.7 has been so successful in comparison to stations like KDKA-AM with younger listeners.

Long story short, while my grandfather may enjoy listening to his AM radio while driving his Chevrolet Celebrity down 376 going 45 miles an hour with his right turn signal on as he goes to the 4.99 senior lunch buffet special after church, for most young people its satillite radio, internet radio, and MP3 players. Do I think AM radio is dead? No. But I think it's fading into the sunset like those from my grandparents generation. And as a fan of AM radio and it's history, I do think that's a shame. However, its something all of us who have a passion for the history of local radio broadcasting must accept.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

I grew up with KQV and WEEP. I drive a new car, have 4 closets of clothes bought at Macy's and Nordstrom's within the past 2 years. I go to a gym and never eat at senior buffets. I drive 75 and don't go to church. My music of choice is Hot AC. Some of us fogies don't accept their age

 

[FreddyE1977]

I grew up with KQV and WEEP. I drive a new car, have 4 closets of clothes bought at Macy's and Nordstrom's within the past 2 years. I go to a gym and never eat at senior buffets. I drive 75 and don't go to church. My music of choice is Hot AC. Some of us fogies don't accept their age

Good for you! Do not go quietly into that good night.

 

[KFodor]

I grew up with KQV and WEEP. I drive a new car, have 4 closets of clothes bought at Macy's and Nordstrom's within the past 2 years. I go to a gym and never eat at senior buffets. I drive 75 and don't go to church. My music of choice is Hot AC. Some of us fogies don't accept their age

Good for you! Do not go quietly into that good night.

That's all well and good...but, if you're over 55, I can guarantee you that neither Macy's or Nordstrom's give even 2 minutes of consideration of advertising on AM stations to reach you. Perhaps an ad in the AARP magazine should they wish...but they won't advertise on stations whose audiences are over 55. That's why the original oldies formats went away.

 

[KeithE4]

I grew up with KQV and WEEP. I drive a new car, have 4 closets of clothes bought at Macy's and Nordstrom's within the past 2 years. I go to a gym and never eat at senior buffets. I drive 75 and don't go to church. My music of choice is Hot AC. Some of us fogies don't accept their age

Good for you! Do not go quietly into that good night.

That's all well and good...but, if you're over 55, I can guarantee you that neither Macy's or Nordstrom's give even 2 minutes of consideration of advertising on AM stations to reach you. Perhaps an ad in the AARP magazine should they wish...but they won't advertise on stations whose audiences are over 55. That's why the original oldies formats went away.

And that's why the news, talk, and sports formats are moving to FM in droves, and AM stations are either being sold to religious or non-Spanish-language ethnic broadcasters, or are just being turned off altogether in the case of some really small stations.

You have to go where the young-to-middle age listeners are. They do not listen to AM, and may not even own a device (you know, what they used to call a "radio" before such things became obsolete) that can tune to Medium Wave frequencies.

 

[PittsburghKid]

I grew up with KQV and WEEP. I drive a new car, have 4 closets of clothes bought at Macy's and Nordstrom's within the past 2 years. I go to a gym and never eat at senior buffets. I drive 75 and don't go to church. My music of choice is Hot AC. Some of us fogies don't accept their age

You are not only younger than me Ms.MusicRadio, but you are also my hero! I wear old people clothes (so I have been told) drive an old car really slowly on 376, go to church regularly, and I love the lunch buffet specials! Though, I do listen to pop music when I drive. But if there was a Pittsburgh 90s music station on terrestrial radio that played music (from my younger years) I would listen to that instead. I would love a reincarnated version of 96.1 The River to re-emerge. Because even since the 1990s, what is considered popular music has now changed. The stuff this younger kids listen to nowadays just isn't as good as the bands which I enjoyed, Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, The Verve, etc.. Ack, now who is the one who is getting old? He He.

You have to go where the young-to-middle age listeners are. They do not listen to AM, and may not even own a device (you know, what they used to call a "radio" before such things became obsolete) that can tune to Medium Wave frequencies.

Actually, now I am wondering about something that someone may have an answer. Are there any AM stations that were somewhat well known in Pittsburgh and that are now gone? I mean, that have gone completely dark? Not like certain stations which were big music and then talk stations but now play Disney music with AM quality sounds....

 

[Parttimer]

Are there any AM stations that were somewhat well known in Pittsburgh and that are now gone? I mean, that have gone completely dark? Not like certain stations which were big music and then talk stations but now play Disney music with AM quality sounds....

The only Pittsburgh AM that's totally gone is 1590 WZUM. They haven't been relevant since the 60's or early 70's though.... and were a rock station that played polkas in the morning.

1080 (WEEP) was Top 40 in the 60's, a big country station in the Urban Cowboy days and has been religious now for many years.

WKPA 1150 in New Kensington was a viable local station through the 70's, but ended up being donated to Rev. Loran Mann's ministry.

1110 WKZV in Washington probably should give up but hasn't.

 

[KeyTimes950]

I actually wanted to comment on MsMusicRadio's remarks. My father-in-law, God rest his soul, was very much the same sort of person she is. However, one of the more memorable comments I recall from him was his asking why Rush Limbaugh and the Pirates were no longer on the radio. He was not into FM, and when he went to New Jersey on a late-in-life trip to look at lighthouses, I referred him to my favorite station there, KYW-1060, with its all-news format.

Are there any AM stations that were somewhat well known in Pittsburgh and that are now gone? I mean, that have gone completely dark? Not like certain stations which were big music and then talk stations but now play Disney music with AM quality sounds....

The only Pittsburgh AM that's totally gone is 1590 WZUM. They haven't been relevant since the 60's or early 70's though.... and were a rock station that played polkas in the morning.

1080 (WEEP) was Top 40 in the 60's, a big country station in the Urban Cowboy days and has been religious now for many years.

WKPA 1150 in New Kensington was a viable local station through the 70's, but ended up being donated to Rev. Loran Mann's ministry.

1110 WKZV in Washington probably should give up but hasn't.

If recent reports are correct, it's possible WKZV has given up.

On the other hand, I do not knock what Rev. Mann has done with WGBN. He was there to pick up AURN after WAMO went off the air, and mixed its news programming and Bev Smith into an often-listenable station. For all intents and purposes, AM 1150 today is Pittsburgh's most intelligent urban station and a pretty good example of mid-level radio, not quite a KDKA or KQV but hardly a WEDO or WWNL (the old WEEP). And a lot livelier than WESA.