F.M.Hertz said:
Why not just blow up 100.7 to begin with and start over?
My thinking and a lot of other posters on here and at other boards is that KDKA-AM should simulcast on there, and that the station's news-talk format be brought into the 21st Century. That means start from scratch. No more octogenarian trivia shows late at night, revamp the entire midday line-up, and no quack doctors or tradios on the weekends.
It can be done. This is the time to do it.
Hard to believe I free-lanced for KDKA a quarter-century ago. (I did, from stations in Cambria and Centre counties, in a time when KDKA still used reports from outlying stations.)
Ergo, I've tuned in to KDKA for much of my career, which as of March 1 will be 36 years out of college. So, I'm not an octogenarian, yet.
But I digress. I wish a station here could be 24/7 with the sort of format I enjoy hearing from KYW in Philadelphia. The problem is, Pittsburgh no longer is a market where a station can go 24/7 with an intensive news-talk format or even the mixed bag of WPGB-104.7, which has local news out of Cleveland 12.5/5 and forget it on anything resembling a holiday.
You've offered a challenge, let me try it, though I confess I will provide more talking points rather than a real argument, as I'm realizing there a good reason why I was never hired as a program director ...
First off, yes, simulcast KDKA-AM on an FM. (I'd love KQV on an FM, too, but that's another forum topic.)
Honestly, I have to check the FCC rules about this and am not sure CBS could pick up another FM in a market of this size where it owns two TVs, an AM and three FMs. (Could there be an LMA with someone else?)
Having said that, then, which format do you blow up? It won't be a sports format into which CBS has invested a lot on the current KDKA-FM. It won't be a country format which does well against the Keymarket Frogs. (Can you imagine the Frogs having a monopoly on country?)
OK, is WZPT, that strange mix of old B94 and the original Star 100.7, the one to go? Let's see what happens with Bubba and his co-hosts in morning drive. (I'm not making that up, this was what I found on WZPT's website after JR's departure.)
Now, let's look at the format, which is live almost 24/7 (I think Handel on the Law and some Sunday night fare may be the exceptions) and local with some interesting innovations. (Jim Bohannon is part of the KD mix for local promos and that overnight show shared with WCCO and KMOX is a rarity.) Maybe KDKA should promote that live factor more.
The KDKA Morning News is meant to be a radio version of a Good Morning America with a few tweaks such as the news quiz that always spills past the 8 a.m. tone for top-of-the-hour news. The need is to fine tune it so it stands out against, say, NPR's Morning Edition or WPGB's Quinn and Rose (I'm serious) or even the newly-tweaked sports FM called WDVE. (I apologize, I'm not sure how to do that.)
A point some have made is something that also could and should be done here, especially if CBS would bring the sort of lessons in that WCBS-AM and KYW teach along with those from WFAN and the other sportsradios. News should be local 24/7, even if you clip a minute off CBS news-on-the-hour and put some local headlines in. Accuweather is 24/7, local news can be as well.
I frankly do not like Marty Griffin's Inside Story. I'll probably be called a hater for it. But do you take this bombthrower off? Probably not. KD needs this lightning rod. People tune in to hear what he has to say next.
Flip Mangino and Mike Pintek. Mangino would keep listeners awake with a viewpoint that clearly isn't Limbaugh but isn't Lynn Cullen either. Pintek would be a nice bridge between the Afternoon News block and Bohannon.
"No more octogenarian trivia shows late at night." Sorry, I like Dr. Knowledge and Miss Information. And what do you listen to on the radio between midnight and dawn on Saturday and Sunday?
"No quack doctors or tradios on the weekends." I remember "Trading Post" as a DAILY show on old WEDO-810 when it was CBS for Pittsburgh. As for "quack radio," which I really can't stand, provide an alternative that pays bills and you can retire the Dr. Winers of the world.
Thank you for putting up with this post.
