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Who Cares?

So the wease is no longer "simulcasting" his show on 3 stations as of this week. WHTK (AM & FM) has decided to shelve the wease show in favor of an offering from fox sports radio. Any insight?
 
Couple things; Wease didn't need the simulcast because he was doing fine on Fox 95.1. And WHTK is a sports station and the suits at the Clear Channel Rochester cluster probably figure it needs 24/7 sports content. Fox is basically what they have at hand, since they're not likely to spend the money needed to mount a local morning sports show like WGR does with Howard Simon, and the best national sports show out there, Mike & Mike, is exclusive to ESPN which in turn is exclusively tied to Entercom's WROC-AM in this market. So Fox Sports wins pretty much by default.
 
I thought it was ridiculous that he was simulcast on 3 stations. If people didn't listen to him on The Fox, why would they on WHTK?

I think a locally produced show would be better. They could mention local sports in addition to the major leagues. But thats just me...
 
We had a report that six or seven white-tail deer on South Mountain in the Town of Bristol were having trouble getting 95.1 because of terrain shielding. (And fear of hunters.)

Then there's that guy with a crystal set on Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road that preferred listening to 1280. He especially enjoyed Wease mixed with IBOC sideband hiss.
 
Jeff Michaels said, "I think a locally produced show would be better. They could mention local sports in addition to the major leagues. But thats just me..."

It would be great to see that. Couple of reasons why it won't happen....

1)There's no major league pro team or big time Division I college program in the major sports (football or basketball) within 70 miles of Rochester, and those local hooks are what feed sports radio success.

2)The market for sports talk, such as it is, is divided between two stations when clearly only one can be well supported.

If there were bigtime major league or Division I programs in town, two sports stations each with a local morning show might be viable. If only one sports station served the Rochester market there also might be enough audience to make more local programming profitable.

Buffalo has the pros, and some mid-major college programs that are on the rise, so WGR prospers and has a strong locally originated presence. Can't see Rochester doing it any time soon, especially since the sports audience such as it is, is split between two signals when only one can be expected to prosper long-term.
 
Thats a load of crap. Many fans want to give their thoughts about their major league teams (Yankees, Mets, Bills, Sabres, Rangers etc.) but cannot get to phone into Mike & Mike to do so.

The Bills & Sabres are Major League Teams by the way and close to Rochester with many people travelling to see them play.

Paying attention to the local high school teams, as well as college teams would be beneficial, besides, the people in our area would want to hear about them, big time or not.

Thats the problem with radio programmers today, thinking that it wouldn't work because they're not big time teams. Its local and thats what people would care to hear about.

If I did a show, not only would it be a ratings winner, but it would utilize ALL the teams, local or not and give people a chance to hear about and give input about all of the teams.
 
The Bills & Sabres are Major League Teams by the way and close to Rochester with many people travelling to see them play.

This is the "get with the program" thinking that jocks get caught up in. :mad:

The seating capacity of the Ralph is 73,000 +/- and the HSBC Arena is 19,000 +/-.......ergo, the number of Rochester folks making the pilgrimage is ??? ....... let's translate that to radio ratings.......well let's not....my point is made.
Everything else is "fans" watching on the flat screen or listening on the Philco....nothing to design your format around.

Stick to small market, local content, power programming.....

HDBG
 
Jeff Michaels said:
Thats the problem with radio programmers today, thinking that it wouldn't work because they're not big time teams. Its local and thats what people would care to hear about.

If I did a show, not only would it be a ratings winner, but it would utilize ALL the teams, local or not and give people a chance to hear about and give input about all of the teams.

Everybody knows how to do local sports talk radio it until they sit behind the mic and have to carry four hours without a caller; or worse, the same three callers who called yesterday and the day before. Listen to WGR on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in June. It gets very lonely. WGR will at least have a direct line to the Bills this Summer. They'll need it because the Sabres didn't do the station any favors by failing to make the playoffs. WGR will drive the Spring book with a Sabres post mortem (Ernie in Black Rock: "Lindy's gotta go") and Bills draft previews and coverage. The Spring book all of a sudden became more of a challenge. Those are pro teams. Making the Greece Spartans, Fairport Red Raiders or St. John Fisher Cardinals sound riveting would be an even greater challenge. IMHO, that would get about a one share.
 
My friend Fred Miller has done a local & very successful sports talk show in Utica Rome for several years. First for Clear Channel and now for Galaxy. Utica doesn't even a N. Y. Penn baseball team anymore or any professional hockey. If you listen to Fred and his co-hosts they make American Legion baseball and Utica College hockey sound like MLB & the NHL. I have heard them talk about Little League! They get plenty of calls and really sound like they are having a blast -very professional. So if they can do it Utica, they sure as Hell do it in Rochester - if they put a little effort into it. And I know they talent is in the market to do it.
 
Savage said:
Then there's that guy with a crystal set on Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road that preferred listening to 1280. He especially enjoyed Wease mixed with IBOC sideband hiss.

I thought he was frying bacon in the studio.
 
I know I could make it work. I have a 4 person team who would appeal to the many different types of people, we could carry the show with or without callers. I do guarantee that there would be callers.

Give me a 6a-10a show for a 6 months and I guarantee ratings!
 
I know I could make it work. I have a 4 person team who would appeal to the many different types of people, we could carry the show with or without callers. I do guarantee that there would be callers.

Give me a 6a-10a show for a 6 months and I guarantee ratings!

A 4 person team 6-10am...surely you jest ;D ;D ;D ;D
You guarantee ratings ??? ???
Are in your freshman year of radio ??? ??? ???

Bartender, set up another round for this guy.....
 
Jeff Michaels said:
I know I could make it work. I have a 4 person team who would appeal to the many different types of people, we could carry the show with or without callers. I do guarantee that there would be callers.Give me a 6a-10a show for a 6 months and I guarantee ratings!
If you're so certain, approach the GM. Present your six month guarantee. Set a benchmark for performance. Post a bond. Put your paychecks up against the bond. If you hit your benchmarks, you get to keep your pay. If you fail, even by one tenth of a point, you and your cronies pay the bond back to the station. If that scenario doesn't work, buy the time slot, sell it yourself and show 'em how it's done. Clear Channel is firing people by the score. Do you really think a GM is going to hire a new morning sports host, let alone a four person morning show? Let me guess, you're a comedian on the side.
 
See, the thing wrog with radio these days is that alot of GM's and PD's don't think outside the box. Syndie programming and no local content. Thankfully some (like Finger Lakes Radio Group) take chances and try things from time to time.

I said 4 because, though I'd make it work with 2, Adding 2 more, including a woman to a sports show, would attract more people. The extra people would be so more listeners could relate to them.

I do an internet sports talk show that gets alot of listeners every week. We only do a jam packed 3 hour show weekly and replay it all week, but we could EASILY do 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Also, though I've never been in a real radio Program Director job (Did it quite well for 2 years in college though), I could make ANY station gain ratings with my vision.
 
heydaybegone said:
I know I could make it work. I have a 4 person team who would appeal to the many different types of people, we could carry the show with or without callers. I do guarantee that there would be callers.

Give me a 6a-10a show for a 6 months and I guarantee ratings!

A 4 person team 6-10am...surely you jest ;D ;D ;D ;D
You guarantee ratings ??? ???
Are in your freshman year of radio ??? ??? ???

Bartender, set up another round for this guy.....

HDBG, I think he's serious and don't call him Shirley! ;)
 
Also, though I've never been in a real radio Program Director job (Did it quite well for 2 years in college though), I could make ANY station gain ratings with my vision.

Compelled to tell this board you've never had a real radio PD gig?? I think everyone here had that figured out.
 
C'mon, guys. Isn't it nice that there's a youngster out there full of p*ss and vinegar? Remind you of anyone from your distant past?

Reality's likely to slap him around soon enough.
 
It's been done before. Back about 15 years ago, 4 college friends from Maryland approached management at WJFK in DC with the idea about four guys just hangin' around talking about sports. OK, they weren't talking, but arguing about sports. It was loud and unrehearsed. This wasn't intellectual sports talk. This is what you hear in a bar. Four college friends. No radio experience. No radio names. They were real guys with real personalities, and they were exposed on the radio as what they were. They made fun of each other and called each other names. They were terrible, but people grew to like them. Maybe not all of them, but they took sides. Then we got to know their families and share their marriages, children, and divorces. It was reality radio. It started with a four hour weekend show. I doubt they got paid. Maybe one of them got paid, and they split it. It took a while for it to gather steam. WJFK had Howard Stern, G. Gordon Liddy, and Don & Mike. At some point, these guys got 7 to midnight. Then Howard left. Guess who got the gig? They called themselves The Sports Junkies. Look it up.

Having said that, DC is a four sport town. Plus top college teams like G-Town and Maryland. These guys took the chance. They were tireless self promoters. And they weren't afraid to be themselves on the radio. They weren't radio guys. Just real people. Sometimes that works. But it also makes some real radio people cringe. They're still on the air now. They're still the same four guys. That's what people like about them.
 
Im hardly young, I've been around radio and DJ'ing for going on two decades. However, I never seem to be in the right place at the right time or given the chance.

Hopefully that can change!
 
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