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Unconfirmed: WRKZ call letters will go to Forever Broadcasting come April 2nd

F

feeball

Guest
My guess is that those call letters will be used for their Rocky format. Don't know if they will be used for a new Rocky station or to replace the call letters of one of their other Rocky stations.
 
Considering that almost no station even uses it's call letters except for the minumum station-ID mentions required by law, and instead go by nicknames like "Rocky", what difference does it make who takes over those calls?
 
Trust me when I say this, there are people out there who are interested in the most trivial of things. Don't believe me, watch an episode of Wheel of Fortune and listen to these people's hobbies. The fact we are on a radio board and are interested in radio stuff should give you an indication as to where I am going with all of this.
 
an indication as to where I am going with all of this.

Why play silly games about where you're "going with all of this" and just post what you have to say? If you have a point, make it. If it takes a few paragraphs to make your point, post a few paragraphs. But there's no advantage to dragging this out with post after post of little teasers.
 
Geez lighten up. I thought I made my point with that post. I read that post 5 times now and I am perfectly able to understand exactly what I was saying. What is your problem?
 
Re: Unconfirmed: WRKZ call letters will go to Forever Broadcasting come April 2n

Don't Let him get to you Freeball. He thinks he is funny being arrogant too all of you on here. But don't feel bad, just feel bad for him for he is forced to being arrogant on message board to please his ego.
 
Don't Let him get to you Freeball.

This, coming from a newbie making his very first post!
 
Yes, Mr. Realist, but that doesn't mean that the "Newbie" has not read your posts and reached the same conclusion most of us long ago reached about your general lack of netiquette, eagerness to argue purely for the sake of doing so, and manipulation of topics in order to repeat well-worn themes you've introduced elsewhere. What's sad, as others have pointed out, is that you *are* capable of making positive contributions to this Board (and have), yet undermine them entirely with behavior like this.

Feeball, there was no reason at all for your post to draw that response nor your clarification to draw further bile.

SkyWarrior, welcome aboard.
 
::) OK everyone...let's all put away our swords and get back to the topic at hand.

WRKZ's calls going to Forever Broadcasting...well, it's not exactly out of line. You've got the Froggies here in the 'Burgh bearing call signs like WFGI, WOGG, and WOGI, all variations of the moniker. Their properties in northwest PA, which bear the moniker "Kiss" go by WOXX and WXXO. So, Realist, while you make sense in your point that they're not really of importance other than the legal ID, Forever apparently does regard them as more than that by associating them somehow with a relative moniker.
 
you make sense in your point that they're not really of importance other than the legal ID

Which was all I said, yet the reactions seemed more like I had insulted God, motherhood, and apple pie.
 
Re: Unconfirmed: WRKZ call letters will go to Forever Broadcasting come April 2n

Thanks GrizzledVet. I have been reading for a couple months now, there is another Pittsburgh Radio Board that I skim across as well but this one if more interesting and has cooler people. lol.

As far as the WRKZ call letters, which station are they going to, or did Forever just buy them out and haven't decided yet?

I am curious when the new call letters take change, as of right now they are still at 93.7. I advise everybody to tape some of the jingles and the K Rock identity because in less than a week they might be a collectors item!
 
Re: Unconfirmed: WRKZ call letters will go to Forever Broadcasting come April 2n

SkyWarrior54 said:
Thanks GrizzledVet. I have been reading for a couple months now, there is another Pittsburgh Radio Board that I skim across as well but this one if more interesting and has cooler people. lol.

As far as the WRKZ call letters, which station are they going to, or did Forever just buy them out and haven't decided yet?

I am curious when the new call letters take change, as of right now they are still at 93.7. I advise everybody to tape some of the jingles and the K Rock identity because in less than a week they might be a collectors item!

They could be spreading the "Rocky" format to another area station and using the WRKZ calls for that, if not Steubenville. That's a possibility.
 
Re: Unconfirmed: WRKZ call letters will go to Forever Broadcasting come April 2n

kenhawk1160 said:
They could be spreading the "Rocky" format to another area station and using the WRKZ calls for that, if not Steubenville. That's a possibility.

Of course the "Rocky" format that's out there today is not the same Rocky format used in the 80's and 90's in Steubenville, which was kind of a cross between top 40, AC, and Urban music which was used to compete with WOMP. I think the WRKY calls are used in Altoona for a Rocky station and Rocky 99 in Johnstown uses similar call letters. I think that since there are more than enough Froggy stations in the Steubenville/East Liverpool area, flipping 103.5 to Rocky and either bringing back the old calls of WRKY or using WRKZ makes sense and also would actually give WEGW a competitor.
 
I think that since there are more than enough Froggy stations in the Steubenville/East Liverpool area, flipping 103.5 to Rocky and either bringing back the old calls of WRKY or using WRKZ makes sense and also would actually give WEGW a competitor.

I am genuinely curious about that statement. Are you saying that using those calls is a critical element of 103.5 acheiving success? Are you saying that if they were to start playing the music that you suggest they play, they wouldn't be successful without also doing the call letter change? Are you saying that call letters make such a big difference that they are the make/break factor in a station's success?
 
Are you saying that using those calls is a critical element of 103.5 acheiving success?

Answer: in that market, yes. There are as many people, if not more people who knew the WRKY call letters than that knew the station was called Rocky 103. If you were in the market, you would know this instead of asking questions to almost come off as somebody with nothing better to do than attack other people that post on these boards.


Are you saying that if they were to start playing the music that you suggest they play, they wouldn't be successful without also doing the call letter change?

Answer: no. What I am saying, and look at the entire post instead of taking out bits and pieces of it, is that the format that was used on there in the WRKY days did not fare weel against WOMP, which was another station in the area known for the call letters and their name because their name was WOMP FM. I am further making the statement that Forever Broadcasting has an obsession with matching call letters to stations. If a radio listener in Weirton, WV hears the call letters WRKY, they will think the station is back on the air and will listen even though the format might not be the same as the old station's format.


Are you saying that call letters make such a big difference that they are the make/break factor in a station's success?

Answer: not in all markets, but in a market like Wheeling, WV it can very easily shift listeners. Remember a few years ago Clear Channel tinkered with the idea of moving the WWVA call letters to another market, I believe it was either Cleveland or Akron. Their independent research found that people would no longer listen to the station if it was no longer WWVA. It depends on the market and the familiarity the market has with the call letters.

In a major market where format changes happen frequently, no call letters don't mean crap. But in a market where formats usually stay for years and changes in formats are seldom, call letters matter. Mark my words, take whatever the ratings are right now for 103.5 in Steubenville and if they go with using the WRKY calls in that market, see what their ratings end up being. I'm telling you because I used to live there the ratings will increase.
 
There are as many people, if not more people who knew the WRKY call letters than that knew the station was called Rocky 103. If you were in the market, you would know this instead of asking questions to almost come off as somebody with nothing better to do than attack other people that post on these boards.

I lived in Washington, PA back then. And I could pick up Rocky 103 on my radio. I listened to it from time to time, and even had a preset button for it on my car radio. And I still believe that as long as they call themselves "Rocky 103" every time they refer to themselves on the air, people will think they are "Rocky 103", regardless of what gets whispered on the hour and half-hour for official station ID's.

Then too, they can call themselves Rocky 103 on the air until the DJ's turn blue in the face, but no one is going to hear it unless they use some promotion through other media to inform the public that Rocky 103 is back, so the people can tune their stations to 103.5 to listen. Once you change the format of a station and chase away the old listeners, odds are that the old station pre-set button has been changed.

For example, regardless of what call letters are now being used on 96.9, I changed that preset on my radio to something else when I heard them follow a really great classic rock song with "Tell Me Something Good" by Rufus (featuring Chaka Khan). They are now banished from my radio. The chances of me ever stumbling across 96.9 are slim and none. If they have adjusted their format, cut back on the train wreck segues, and otherwise made attempts to make their station more appealing, I'll never know about it.

Likewise, if the people who own 103.5 (or anyone else, for that matter) thinks that changing the official, legal station ID is some sort of critical and effective method for re-capturing lost listeners, they have another think coming.

It depends on the market and the familiarity the market has with the call letters.

It also depends on whether or not the call letters are used as a station identifier instead of a nickname. WWVA (which is the initials of Wheeling, West Virginia) was what the station was called and referred to for longer than either of us has been alive. What is important is the name by which a station is known. If a station is known by it's call letters, as many are, then those call letters are important. If a station is mostly known by its nickname, then the call letters aren't very important.

Mark my words, take whatever the ratings are right now for 103.5 in Steubenville and if they go with using the WRKY calls in that market, see what their ratings end up being. I'm telling you because I used to live there the ratings will increase.

Mark my words. If they use the calls WRKZ (which is what you put in the title of this thread), or any random sequence of four letters that begin with "W", but they call the station "Rocky 103" whenever they refer to it, then their ratings will increase if they also make the necessary format changes and they promote it well.

It boils down to several things that they need to do in order to increase ratings:

* Improve the product by changing the format, as you have suggested.
* Promote the new sound of the station using other advertising media to get listeners to tune them in and sample them.
* Adopt and use the nickname "Rocky 103".
* Change the call letters.

Of those four, the first three are critical. If they don't do any of the first three, they'll fail.

Of those four, the last one is trivial. If they do the first three and don't do the fourth, they'll succeed.
 
Re: Unconfirmed: WRKZ call letters will go to Forever Broadcasting come April 2n

Isn't the premise of this discussion incorrect? I don't think the FCC allows calls to be instantly transferred from one station to another within the same market.
 
I get what you're saying. I know that in Steubenville and in Wheeling WRKY is almost more known than Rocky 103 because they used both. It was not a thing of call letters every thirty minutes or so and the rest of the time use the station name. I used to have to deal with this stuff for years because people I knew always listened to Rocky 103 and I absolutely hated the station. The closest I have heard to the old Rocky 103 format was in the final days of WOMP FM before it became JACK FM. All I was trying to say is that Forever Broadcasting has a love affair with getting call letters to actually represent stations. Look at all of the Froggy stations and even Cool 105 for proof of what I am saying. And I believe, I firmly believe that the average listener in Wheeling, West "By God" Virginia would associate WRKY better with Rocky than WRKZ. I could be wrong, it won't be the first time, so get used to it.
 
Re: Unconfirmed: WRKZ call letters will go to Forever Broadcasting come April 2n

Boss Radio said:
Isn't the premise of this discussion incorrect? I don't think the FCC allows calls to be instantly transferred from one station to another within the same market.

You might be right. But let's say for the sake of another major argument that Forever Broadcasting takes the WRKZ calls and places them in Altoona, PA to replace the WRKY calls used in that market. Then Forever Broadcasting decides to place the WRKY calls in Steubenville, Ohio. Would this be an FCC violation?
 
Re: Unconfirmed: WRKZ call letters will go to Forever Broadcasting come April 2n

feeball said:
Boss Radio said:
Isn't the premise of this discussion incorrect? I don't think the FCC allows calls to be instantly transferred from one station to another within the same market.

You might be right. But let's say for the sake of another major argument that Forever Broadcasting takes the WRKZ calls and places them in Altoona, PA to replace the WRKY calls used in that market. Then Forever Broadcasting decides to place the WRKY calls in Steubenville, Ohio. Would this be an FCC violation?

It would not be a violation. Forever has done callsign shuffling regularly with 1340 in Connellsville. After the purchase of the now-defunct WCVI, it became WPNT, then WYJL. Since it's been dark since the beginning of this year, all that is now academic.
 
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