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What are Pittsburgh's Biggest Radio Failures?

F

F.M.Hertz

I noticed that this topic was running on a couple of other boards on here for various cities such as Boston. Just throwing this question out there to get some feedback.

Please, however, don't complain about some of the things that are always being complained about (ex. The format of The Fan or how bad a station is now.) What were some of the things over the years that were done with the best of intentions but when executed went horribly wrong.

I think it would be neat to see what the posters on here remember.

Thanks.
 
WTAE hiring Jack Bogut away from KDKA and moving Obrian and Gary to the FM side. Both morning shows were successul before the move and both bombed after the move was made.
 
loeper said:
WTAE hiring Jack Bogut away from KDKA and moving Obrian and Gary to the FM side. Both morning shows were successul before the move and both bombed after the move was made.
Click to expand...

After that they hired David Lawrence and the fails just kept a comin'.
 
How about O'Brien and Garry doing mornings on Mix Jamz?

WEEP's talk format in the mid-70s.

WWSW's switch to "Double Country" in the late '70s.

Michelle Madoff as a talk host on KDKA.

WTAE's fling with "Hot Talk," which had Doug Hoerth talking about porn stars.
 
Boss Radio said:
How about O'Brien and Garry doing mornings on Mix Jamz?

WEEP's talk format in the mid-70s.

WWSW's switch to "Double Country" in the late '70s.

Michelle Madoff as a talk host on KDKA.

WTAE's fling with "Hot Talk," which had Doug Hoerth talking about porn stars.

Yeah in my opinion, it was horrible when O'Brien and Garry did mornings on Mix Jamz 100.7. One could they didn't enjoy working there because
of the music.
Click to expand...
 
The talk format on 93.7 that featured McIntryre, Scott Paulsen and Dennis Miller.

The failure of Sheridan broadcasting to find a commercial buyer who would have preserved the original WAMO-FM.

The Don and Alan morning show on Y97 (Mid 80's... right before the station went all Classic Trax.... probably no one will remember this because they had no listeners).

And with apologies to my friends who were stuck working there, Energy 105 (cast included Dave Labrozzi, Rich Anton, Mike Frazer and the infamous Stereo Quad Suzie Wadd... lots of good people stuck with a really bad format).
 
loeper said:
WTAE hiring Jack Bogut away from KDKA and moving Obrian and Gary to the FM side. Both morning shows were successul before the move and both bombed after the move was made.
Click to expand...

That one is certainly way up there. KDKA ditching Doug Hoerth for the inexperienced blabbermouth
Michelle Madoff comes pretty close though.
 
RJ Kanary said:
Does HD Radio on either AM or FM count ?

RJ
Click to expand...

HD radio at least HD on AM should count everywhere.

Hey lets put HD in AM radios. But lets make the AM tuners so crappy they won't be able to get any stations.
 
Parttimer said:
And with apologies to my friends who were stuck working there, Energy 105 (cast included Dave Labrozzi, Rich Anton, Mike Frazer and the infamous Stereo Quad Suzie Wadd... lots of good people stuck with a really bad format).
Click to expand...

WOW, I forgot all about that until those last 4 words (Stereo Quad Suzie Wadd, not "a really bad format"). I can't remember...were they playing New Kids, the Cover Girls and all that 90s pop that is fun to hear as a snippet now but led to "Give us Nirvana, please God" when it was everywhere 24/7? Or were they riding the hair metal horse until it died?
 
FreddyE1977 said:
loeper said:
WTAE hiring Jack Bogut away from KDKA and moving Obrian and Gary to the FM side. Both morning shows were successul before the move and both bombed after the move was made.
Click to expand...

That one is certainly way up there. KDKA ditching Doug Hoerth for the inexperienced blabbermouth
Michelle Madoff comes pretty close though.
Click to expand...

Not really, Evenings aren't as important as morning drive, and the Bogut-to-WTAE move needlessly screwed up both WTAE and WHTX. Considering his TV show flopped, too, you can make the case that his hiring adversely affected all three broadcast properties on Ardmore Blvd. It also blew a big hole in the budget. And to think Capt. Showbiz and John Conomikes were popping champagne corks when Bogut signed his deal...

BTW, ditching Hoerth wasn't a bad idea. He had abysmal numbers at KDKA. But hiring Madoff was a huge blunder. They had to stick Pintek on with her to have someone who knew how to do radio. So when she went away, Pintek took over the show and that was his start as a talk host.
 
Chad-Stevens said:
Re: Energy 105 - I have an aircheck of the format launch laying around somewhere

Anyone else remember WWCL "Classy 101"?
Click to expand...

I remember the TV ads they ran before launch asking Pittsburgh what kind of station they wanted.
 
WEDO-810 after a sale in the 1970s. Mind you, McKeesport itself has faded in the years that followed, but WEDO did not help itself dumping the CBS Radio Network. It's a daytimer, but with one heck of a signal for a daytimer given its non-directional clear channel. It has tried a number of formats, from "suburban music" to business talk. It now hangs on because doctors, ethnic hosts, oldies deejays and ministries buy up the time. "Golden Age of Radio" sounds terrific, but it and the daily double of Doug Stephan's "Good Day" are indicative of a station that has inventory to offer and not enough would-be clients to fill it. Its biggest loss in recent years might have been the move of its summertime "Rappin' on Racin'" programming to webcasting.
 
KeyTimes950 said:
WEDO-810 after a sale in the 1970s. Mind you, McKeesport itself has faded in the years that followed, but WEDO did not help itself dumping the CBS Radio Network. It's a daytimer, but with one heck of a signal for a daytimer given its non-directional clear channel. It has tried a number of formats, from "suburban music" to business talk. It now hangs on because doctors, ethnic hosts, oldies deejays and ministries buy up the time. "Golden Age of Radio" sounds terrific, but it and the daily double of Doug Stephan's "Good Day" are indicative of a station that has inventory to offer and not enough would-be clients to fill it. Its biggest loss in recent years might have been the move of its summertime "Rappin' on Racin'" programming to webcasting.
Click to expand...

Personally, I miss "The Mighty Memory Mobile." It was one of the inspirations for my weekly countdowns on KHB,
which held forth on Saturday afternoons for a couple of years.

C.
 
One "failure" I believe is evident might be the lack of an all sports radio station in town until 1995 (Prime Sports 1360), and even then it was kind of half-hearted since 1360 had no real night time signal or real local programming outside of perhaps a high school football broadcast or something similar.

Similarly, when WTAE adopted the format circa 1997, Doug Hoerth still did mornings, Paul Harvey still did his updates, there was paid programming that dealt with everything but sports on Sunday morning, etc.

And then they lost the play-by-play contracts of Pitt, the Steelers, and the Penguins!

Why did it take 8-10 years after the all-sports format came to be for Pittsburgh to get an all-sports station? The format was doing incredible things in nearby markets- WFAN in New York, WIP in Philadelphia, WKNR in Cleveland. Why couldn't anyone here see that, or if they could, why was it half-hearted attempts to work like the "Post-Gazette Radio Network?"

Why couldn't anyone else see that Pittsburgh and sports talk was like bread and butter until a decade had passed?

I can theorize how full-time sports talk coming to the market sooner could have changed the content of what we have today. But that's for another discussion.

My question is how much money could have been made if the switch for a station to go to all-sports talk had occurred in the '80s or early '90s rather than the mid-to-late '90s, when every other city had the format?
 
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