WPTT 1360 Overnight??

[pfa]

I'll occasionally tune in to 1360 latenights and was surprised last week to find that George Norry/Art Bell/Coast To Coast AM is no longer. Replaced by a syndicated show (who's name escapes me).

Thought 'Coast To Coast AM' was a popular show (nationally, from what I've heard)? Has another station picked it up? WPTT's website shows the old lineups. It seems the daytime content is unchanged (heard Lynn Cullen cackling in the background the other day...).

I know Coast To Coast is Internet-available, but...

Thanks for any Insider Insight

 

[Pratte4Life]

I don't know how to tell you this, PFA, but for the past four and one-half years "Coast to Coast" has been aired locally by the third-most listened to radio station in town.

http://www.wpgb.com/pages/coasttocoast.html

News/Talk 104.7

I actually have been surprised that News/Talk 104.7 was able to get away with taking at least two of the WPTT programs (both Coast to Coast and then-Matt Drudge, now Bill Cunningham on Sunday nights) away from WPTT WHILE THEY WERE STILL BEING BROADCAST BY WPTT!

Not that I think Coast to Coast and Bill Cunningham wouldn't rather be on 104.7. Of course they would.

But how does that work? Isn't there supposed to be some sort of contract that gives a station exclusivity to a market for a period of time?

And since evidently there wasn't, who could WPTT have possibly been marketing to by carrying the same show(s), even if the shows were there first?

"I'm telling you, boss, we've STILL got all the Coast to Coast audience in McKeesport driving around in classic cars with their factory radios still intact! Go down Lysle Blvd. in the wee hours and you'll see a traffic jam of Ramblers! We'll clean up!"

 

[Parttimer]

Well, first, it's overnight.

Secondly, CC has a little clout in these things vs. the Rendas of the world.

Third, 1360 has no night signal outside the upper Mon Valley as P4L correctly observed, so why would the syndicator not want to put it on FM, and why would WPGB care if it was still on 1360? It's filler anyway, it doesn't generate any income to speak of.

 

[Biz Listener]

I'll occasionally tune in to 1360 latenights and was surprised last week to find that George Norry/Art Bell/Coast To Coast AM is no longer. Replaced by a syndicated show (who's name escapes me).

So you're the one who tunes in WPTT at night! I've never heard from anyone who could actually pick up WPTT's signal after sundown.

 

[Pratte4Life]

Part- I understand that.

But what I'm asking is even though CC has hierarchy over Renda, how would that hold precendence in a theoretical contract?

And if such a contract did exist, I'm sure it ran out years ago.

What does it say that Renda just didn't care? Sure, if the aforementioned shows could get on two stations in the same market they'd be fools not to do so. But why would WPTT go along with it other than they just didn't care?

Maybe their signal only goes to McKeesport, but even so, they could pick up a network or sell to preachers or SOMETHING!

We can talk about the shortcomings of the AM band, but perhaps the leading shortcoming is too many station owners who just don't give a damn.

 

[Parttimer]

I think you're wasting your energy on this one. We've reached the point where virtually every operator large and small would shut it off at 7PM if they could get away with it. The business is buillt on revenues from 6a-7p and the rest is just overhead, they only leave it on because essentially the FCC equates "permitted hours of operation" with "required hours of operation" and no one wants it to be a challenge issue at license renewal time.

About the only exceptions are stations that cater to young audiences (and that's a rapidly declining audience for radio, they're online now) at night and sports play-by-play.

For years, KQV's entire business plan has been based on selling out AM drive time, the rest of the day is just gravy.

For that matter, the AM band would be a lot better off if more stations were just daytimers anyway, but that's another story for another thread.

 

[Pratte4Life]

Maybe so Part, but even so, here's my main point.

There's no excuse for half-assing.

 

[pfa]

Thanks, guys.

I don't know how to tell you this, PFA, but for the past four and one-half years "Coast to Coast" has been aired locally by the third-most listened to radio station in town...
...boss, we've STILL got all the Coast to Coast audience in McKeesport driving around in classic cars with their factory radios still intact! Go down Lysle Blvd. in the wee hours and you'll see a traffic jam of Ramblers! We'll clean up!"

Yeah, I DID know that, but had forgotten after turning PGH off one too many times after hearing a west-coast ball game...

Liked the "Rambler/Lysle Blvd." comment (driving to Brick Alley?? ;-)

 

[Boss Radio]

Maybe so Part, but even so, here's my main point.

There's no excuse for half-assing.

Nor is there any sense in expending expense and effort in programming hours when no one listens.

 

[argentarius]

Another of 1360's shows, Mike Gallagher, which they run pretty much all day on Sunday, is heard twice daily at midnight and 3 am on 730. 1360 needs a complete retooling of its lineup

 

[Pratte4Life]

Maybe so Part, but even so, here's my main point.

There's no excuse for half-assing.

Nor is there any sense in expending expense and effort in programming hours when no one listens.

Sure there is.

WPTT has looked at themselves as the left-wing alternative to WPGB. But what the lefties say is that for every Cullen there's a Monica Crowley, for every Alan Combs- a Laura Ingram.

Okay- then run Air America overnight. Heck- run their morning show (does nobody listen then, either?).

And to tell you the truth, I think you could sell that overnight stuff as add ons for the advertisers to the liberal shows.

They give a damn enough to sell the air time to high school football on Friday nights in the fall when the signal can't be heard- and I don't believe MSA only puts on the McKeesport Tigers on the station.

Sell time in hourly blocks. I noticed a station in Las Vegas that does this and literally has 24 different programs (or thereabouts) throughout the day on an AM 970 signal that can't be significantly better than WPTT's.

Or, then, there's my idea. Charge $100 to everyone on the internet who posts wanting Doug Hoerth back on the air. Tell them they can go off from midnight to 5 a.m. ranting against the decision to take him off and the station in general as long as they don't say the seven dirty words.

If everyone who HAS posted with the passion they have about Hoerth buys in to it, there will be a limitless supply of people wanting to take WPTT to task and the station soon will be able to auction off the time- thus making the midnight to 5 a.m. time slot their most profitable time of the day.

 

[Pratte4Life]

Oh, and thank you for the comment on Ramblers and Lysle Blvd.- PFA.

There's actually an element of truth to that statement.

I've worked in radio, for crying out loud! If I wanted a car I had to know the inventory of every cheap used car lot in the Mon Valley!

 

[argentarius]

WPTT has looked at themselves as the left-wing alternative to WPGB. But what the lefties say is that for every Cullen there's a Monica Crowley, for every Alan Combs- a Laura Ingram.

Okay- then run Air America overnight. Heck- run their morning show (does nobody listen then, either?).

And to tell you the truth, I think you could sell that overnight stuff as add ons for the advertisers to the liberal shows.


AAR no longer has a morning show. Their 6-9 am slot is filled by the previous day's Ron Kuby Show. I think 1360 should replace Ingraham with Lionel from 6-9 am. It would also be yesterday's show, but it would be more consistent with their alledged progressive lineup. Keep Cullen for now, then add Ed Schultz live from noon to 3, and Randi Rhodes from 3-6, and move Thom Hartmann to 6 pm, keeping Colmes at 10, then run AAR overnight-John Elliot and an hour of Lionel reruns is their current overnight lineup. Schultz and Rhodes are go-getters and would likely put some effort into the opportunity of being on in Pittsburgh, even if only on a lesser signal. It would at least give this station a clear niche, and Pittsburgh talk listeners an alternative voice from the same old same old on KD and 104.7. (O and on Sundays, drop Gallagher and the consumer guy and run Stephanie Miller best of's, and Alan Colmes (since the signal is horrible when he is on it would be fresh programming to most listeners)).

 

[Pratte4Life]

I wasn't aware of Air America not having a radio show (was anyone else, either?), but certainly your post has some merit.

I guess what bothers me is the lack of a morning show. Move Cullen into mornings. Hire someone else who will work cheap and sell- whatever his political affiliation may be.

The thing about WPTT is that they haven't just half-assed the overnight hours by running the same thing as 104.7, but they half assed everything.

Good example is when the station carried Neil Boortz. Here is one of the most listened to talk shows in the country.

Additionally, Boortz paid for his own promotion. Boortz bought billboards.

And he was gone in about four months.

So they jettisoned their one bit of promotion- a guy who would have made their entire lineup stronger.

 

[Biz Listener]

Move Cullen into mornings.

As somnambulant as she sounded the last time I heard her, I don't think there's enough coffee in all of Columbia to wake her up enough to do a morning show.

 

[Pratte4Life]

You're probably right, but don't you see where ANYTHING is better than just rerunning the previous afternoon's syndicated show in morning drive?

 

[argentarius]

You're probably right, but don't you see where ANYTHING is better than just rerunning the previous afternoon's syndicated show in morning drive?

But it is what they are currently doing, running 22 hour old Ingraham in am drive, and then again in pm drive. At least Lionel and Randi Rhodes would bring a more consistent format. If they are actually willing to hire someone local, my vote is for Mike Romigh for PM drive

 

[Biz Listener]

You're probably right, but don't you see where ANYTHING is better than just rerunning the previous afternoon's syndicated show in morning drive?

Almost anything would be better. Listening to Cullen yawn is one of the very few things that wouldn't be. Listening to Mark Madden fart would be another. I'm not sure which of those two would be worse.

 

[pfa]

Could not recall the new overnight guy who prompted this post, but I think it was Dennis Prager?? Seemed a waste of time (guess that's why he's overnight).

Have not listened since

 

[OldSchoolWoman]

Overnights on 1360 was a robojock in 1959 or so. Probably the first. They called it the "musicmachine". I'll do an overnight show for free. Just let me do it from my home in sunny F-L-A. I would love to talk all the people in the Mon Valley who are up all night watching UFO's.