WJPA, Washington, Pa.

[wrsg915fm]

Da dum da dum...14 WK, dah-dah-DAH! WHEE-ling!

Good times. I listened to WKWK-FM a few miles outside Sistersville, up a 'holler. What a GREAT radio station; the talent level there at the time was legendary!

BTW, got to listen to 'JPA Wednesday night when my wife and I heard our daughter's concert, but we had to get up near West Lib to get a satisfactory signal. If only we had something that sounded like that in our parts-someone has got to write the 'JPA story!

 

[db59]

WJPA is without a doubt one of the finest gems on the radio dial. Their music variety is utterly fantastic, and they play the type of songs that I really enjoy hearing. As their slogan goes, "Not the same old oldies". My only wish is that they had a stronger signal that could reach out to more of the greater Pittsburgh area. They are the type of oldies station this area so badly needs.

 

[Kurt Toy]

This past Saturday during the 10-11 p.m. hour the station played a song titled, I think, "Medicine Jar." Who did the tune and when was it released?

 

[db59]

"Medicine Jar" was released by Paul McCartney & Wings in 1975. It was on the "Venus & Mars" LP. This was one of the few songs by Wings that featured someone other than Sir Paul as lead singer, namely Jimmy McCulloch. I got this info from Songfacts.

 

[Parttimer]

WJPA is without a doubt one of the finest gems on the radio dial. Their music variety is utterly fantastic, and they play the type of songs that I really enjoy hearing. As their slogan goes, "Not the same old oldies". My only wish is that they had a stronger signal that could reach out to more of the greater Pittsburgh area. They are the type of oldies station this area so badly needs.

Today they played "Can I Change My Mind" by Tyrone Davis. Right after "Suite Judy Blue Eyes".

I'm 53 years old and the PDs I've worked for will tell you I'm pretty much a walking music library. I have NEVER HEARD the Tyrone Davis version of the song (DVE listeners know the Roy Buchanan version with Billy Price on vocals). I only know it was Tyrone Davis because the jock intro-ed it. If they're playing that because it's the original version of a DVE song, that's just someone trying to be too cool for the room, or auditioning for a job at Sirius/XM.

Then they played a really awful disco-pop song with which I was also unfamiliar, followed immediately by two songs from the same early classic rock genre, Small Faces' "Itchycoo Park" and the Youngbloods "Get Together". The Beatles "Drive My Car" was in there somewhere too (trying to remember this as I was driving at the time).

Then some 80's stuff including "Baker Street", Linda Ronstadt's "It's So Easy" and Chicago "Just You and Me."

Plus the cheesy late 70's early 80's jingle package.

If this is what you like, you can get a version that's 100 times better on satellite.

Having said all of that, they are doing a ton of business, they still have the same car dealers on the air that were clients at WKEG in the 80's, they do a nice job with spots for local attorneys, and a bunch of Kennywood spots that are probably trade.

And they actually have to do this. Would anyone listen if they were just a watered down version of what the big boys are doing? Probably not. So good for them, they're successful, but to those who think this would be a really highly rated station on a full-market signal, I disagree.

 

[cingram]

I'm 53 years old and the PDs I've worked for will tell you I'm pretty much a walking music library. I have NEVER HEARD the Tyrone Davis version of the song (DVE listeners know the Roy Buchanan version with Billy Price on vocals). I only know it was Tyrone Davis because the jock intro-ed it. If they're playing that because it's the original version of a DVE song, that's just someone trying to be too cool for the room, or auditioning for a job at Sirius/XM.

"Can I Change My Mind" by Tyrone Davis went to #5 on Billboard's Hot 100 (#1 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart)
and was also a hit on KQV and WIXZ. The song was played by 3WS for much of its history as an oldies station.
I've never heard, or even heard of, the Roy Buchanan version.

C.

 

[Parttimer]

I'm 53 years old and the PDs I've worked for will tell you I'm pretty much a walking music library. I have NEVER HEARD the Tyrone Davis version of the song (DVE listeners know the Roy Buchanan version with Billy Price on vocals). I only know it was Tyrone Davis because the jock intro-ed it. If they're playing that because it's the original version of a DVE song, that's just someone trying to be too cool for the room, or auditioning for a job at Sirius/XM.

"Can I Change My Mind" by Tyrone Davis went to #5 on Billboard's Hot 100 (#1 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart)
and was also a hit on KQV and WIXZ. The song was played by 3WS for much of its history as an oldies station.
I've never heard, or even heard of, the Roy Buchanan version.

C.

I stand somewhat corrected... while you were listening to 3WS I was listening to DVE.....

 

[Boss Radio]

WJPA is without a doubt one of the finest gems on the radio dial. Their music variety is utterly fantastic, and they play the type of songs that I really enjoy hearing. As their slogan goes, "Not the same old oldies". My only wish is that they had a stronger signal that could reach out to more of the greater Pittsburgh area. They are the type of oldies station this area so badly needs.

Would anyone listen if they were just a watered down version of what the big boys are doing? Probably not. So good for them, they're successful, but to those who think this would be a really highly rated station on a full-market signal, I disagree.

The charm of WJPA is they don't have to play by the "rules," most of which have made 3WS unlistenable for me. 3WS has a horrendous morning show, and voice tracking has taken the life out of the other daytime shifts. The adjusted-demo music mix makes no sense to me.

The ratings are great, so I guess they're making money, but I absolutely NEVER listen to 3WS when WJPA is available.

 

[cingram]

The charm of WJPA is they don't have to play by the "rules," most of which have made 3WS unlistenable for me. 3WS has a horrendous morning show, and voice tracking has taken the life out of the other daytime shifts. The adjusted-demo music mix makes no sense to me.

The ratings are great, so I guess they're making money, but I absolutely NEVER listen to 3WS when WJPA is available.

3WS lost me as a listener when they stopped playing oldies (as I knew that format). Of course, I am out of the
demo, so they wouldn't care about losing me, or others my age.

After all those years of hearing "I love my oldies on 3WS!", I didn't think they had enough "give" in that image to
play what they're playing now and still keep the name. Guess I was wrong.

Fortunately, I live in the South Hills so I have access to WJPA, WPKL, WKZV or whatever may suit my old self at
the moment. And in our cluster, 97.5/770 KFB is playing all the songs 3WS has forgotten.

C.

 

[Parttimer]

The whole discussion on the Tyrone Davis song is a great illustration of why deep doesn't work on mass-market stations. The song is from 1968 as best I can tell, at which point I was 9 years old. I lived in Florida during the heyday of 3WS as an oldies station. There was one decent oldies station in Orlando in the 90's and a marginal one for a while in Tampa Bay.

Clarke on the other hand probably wasn't a DVE or WYDD listener to the extent I was. I wouldn't be surprised if KVE plays the Roy Buchanan version (which frankly got most of its legs here because of the local lead singer, Billy Price). But call DVE and request it on the Electric Lunch or as Sean's afternoon deep cut...

So imagine thousands of listeners, with their own backgrounds.... the areas where everyone's tastes overlap get really small. That's why playlists shrink....

 

[Boss Radio]

And shrinking playlists are the reason I go away...

At this point, I'd rather hear an unfamiliar song on WJPA (I might like it) than hear "Crocodile Rock" for the millionth time.

I don't argue with CC's 3WS strategy since the ratings are strong. I would probably do the same thing if I were programming the station. But I'd listen to WJPA.

 

[corporateradiosucks]

"Can I Change My Mind" is not deep on a 60s-70s oldies station. "Together" by the Intruders is deep.

 

[cingram]

The whole discussion on the Tyrone Davis song is a great illustration of why deep doesn't work on mass-market stations.

... imagine thousands of listeners, with their own backgrounds.... the areas where everyone's tastes overlap get really small. That's why playlists shrink.

I will tell you from personal experience that you can put 100 people in a room, all of them from a relatively narrow
demographic segment (say 25-34 or 35-44), all of them screened to be preferential listeners to your station or its
format/type of music, all of them generally of the same gender, and give them those little dials, and play the little
snippets of songs for them, and they still don't agree on very much.

The problem is magnified when you're dealing with a market of two million people and radio stations that have half
a million listeners or more, as is the case here in Pittsburgh.

So, "deep cuts" don't work, nor does "gut instinct" work, unless your "gut" is somehow calibrated to the tastes of
the listeners. Nor does anecdotal evidence from family members, friends or neighbors ("We all love your station!")
count for much. I've seen these same mistakes made over and over, and the end result, invariably, is low ratings.

C.

 

[Parttimer]

And sorry to go off on my own tangent here, but the "Can I Change My Mind" conversation sort of fascinates me...

I talked with two good friends who are very successful oldies programmers in big markets, one grew up in Pittsburgh and the other also worked here.

PD #1 tells me this song sort of qualifies as a "Pittsburgh Oldie", KQV apparently played it to death. But he never played it in more than a light rotation where he is now, it's too R&B for his market, where they would rather hear Elvis.

My other friend, who grew up elsewhere, has never even heard of the song, and said that even if he knew it, he wouldn't play it..."not mainstream enough."

 

[laidback]

Clarke, Can I Change My Mind by Roy Buchanan and Billy Price was one of the most requested album rock songs in Pittsburgh during 1976. DVE playing it certainly hadn't hurt their ratings ! Just because you don't know it or probably don't know many other great artists music, the likes of Dave Mason, Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher, Little Feat, Roxy music, Robin Trower or Savoy Brown, to name a very few, doesn't mean that others do not find them familiar. I'm an old man and I've been exposed to everything from the early days of Porky Chedwick through the crap that is considered today's hit radio.
A lot sounds familiar to me!! Remember the guy that hired you, Bobby Christian. Bobby, researched to death Styx, Journey and Foreigner and aimed at DVE only to fail miserably. Many of these so called radio geniuses fed research groups information that they already knew the answers to. Just maybe this radio mentality that you speak of is the reason, as they say on this board, that "Pittsburgh Radio Sucks"!!

 

[cingram]

Clarke, Can I Change My Mind by Roy Buchanan and Billy Price was one of the most requested album rock songs in Pittsburgh during 1976. DVE playing it certainly hadn't hurt their ratings ! Just because you don't know it or probably don't know many other great artists music, the likes of Dave Mason, Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher, Little Feat, Roxy music, Robin Trower or Savoy Brown, to name a very few, doesn't mean that others do not find them familiar. I'm an old man and I've been exposed to everything from the early days of Porky Chedwick through the crap that is considered today's hit radio.
A lot sounds familiar to me!! Remember the guy that hired you, Bobby Christian. Bobby, researched to death Styx, Journey and Foreigner and aimed at DVE only to fail miserably. Many of these so called radio geniuses fed research groups information that they already knew the answers to. Just maybe this radio mentality that you speak of is the reason, as they say on this board, that "Pittsburgh Radio Sucks"!!

Larry, I was always a Top 40 listener. DVE was of interest to me as a market force and a competitor, but not as
my primary musical choice.
Re: Bobby Christian, the station did fine as a rock-leaning Top 40 until B94 came along and carved out the young
listeners. It also helped that B94 leaned rhythmic and that the face of music was changing in the early 1980s as
they signed on (after several years of post-disco revulsion).
96KX failed because it went too far after DVE, hiring Terry Caywood for PM drive (great guy, great talent...wrong
station), and playing album cuts like "Pledge Pin" by Robert Plant (which was clearly DVE's territory) while ignoring
artists like Lionel Richie (which B94 ran with). Remember, I was Asst. PD through all of this.
In the end, 96KX was never going to be perceived as anything other than a Top 40 station.
Nothing wrong with research, but as Eric Clapton once sang, it's in the way that you use it.

C.