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WPTT PM Drive?

PGHsalesguy said:
SR was supposed to swap 1360 for another channel years ago and that never happened to date, so you can bet this swap will never happen. Doing that swap would be committing business suicide on what little money 1320 does make now. Sr knows he would loose what little revenue he gets from the two stations and he never moves fast let alone at a competitive speed to other companies. 1360 should shut down to save money or go back to the old classic country or any other format that is fully automated, anything makes more sense at this point.
Click to expand...

Let's not kid anyone, one of the worst moves WPTT did was to move into the same building as the other two stations. When you have one sales staff and they know they can make a higher commission for selling spots on the other two stations, the third becomes an afterthought, regardless of what talent you have or had on the air. WPTT used to be able to sell out the majority of an entire Nascar season, yet this past season how many spots did they sell? One, maybe two? The programming didn't change, just the motivation to sell it. The same argument could be made for their high school football coverage, which has been a staple for years on Friday nights, again the programming hasn't changed, only the desire to sell it. If it wasn't for the one name that is left on that station, I would argue they couldn't sell time at all, and those sales come not from hard work on the sales department end, but rather the talent itself. So maybe while we are automating the programming, we could automate the sales staff as well, which seems to be equally useless.
 
fromtheinsideout said:
PGHsalesguy said:
SR was supposed to swap 1360 for another channel years ago and that never happened to date, so you can bet this swap will never happen. Doing that swap would be committing business suicide on what little money 1320 does make now. Sr knows he would loose what little revenue he gets from the two stations and he never moves fast let alone at a competitive speed to other companies. 1360 should shut down to save money or go back to the old classic country or any other format that is fully automated, anything makes more sense at this point.
Click to expand...

Let's not kid anyone, one of the worst moves WPTT did was to move into the same building as the other two stations. When you have one sales staff and they know they can make a higher commission for selling spots on the other two stations, the third becomes an afterthought, regardless of what talent you have or had on the air. WPTT used to be able to sell out the majority of an entire Nascar season, yet this past season how many spots did they sell? One, maybe two? The programming didn't change, just the motivation to sell it. The same argument could be made for their high school football coverage, which has been a staple for years on Friday nights, again the programming hasn't changed, only the desire to sell it. If it wasn't for the one name that is left on that station, I would argue they couldn't sell time at all, and those sales come not from hard work on the sales department end, but rather the talent itself. So maybe while we are automating the programming, we could automate the sales staff as well, which seems to be equally useless.
Click to expand...


Tough to sell a station that has no audience.
 
Let's not kid anyone here, WPTT is never going to get a 3.0 so if you are going to sell numbers, you are going to have a tough go of it. The programming doesn't help, running Laura Ingraham on 22 hour delay, Monica Crowley on 24 hour delay, Mike Gallagher on tape on weekends when his show is heard elsewhere in the market earlier in the week, George Norry which is heard elsewhere on a better signal, an evening drive that can be just about anything depending on the day, all of this works against anyone trying to sell the station. The only spots they are selling for the most part are the same ones that their only live talent had as sponsors 20 years ago on a different station. But those entities that have a history of being on the station for years now that I had mentioned and were selling when the numbers were worse than they are now aren't being sold either. And why would they be, if I can get a larger commission to sell a spot for another station under the same roof, why would I try to sell for a station to make myself a nickel when I can try to make a dollar by selling a spot on one of the other stations.

The problems with WPTT are many and if were listed here would make for an incredibly long entry, in short it is a rudderless ship that has little to no leadership or vision. All I was suggesting is that the poster who simply said automate it and be done with it was being a tad naive, the problems there are far from being just programming related.
 
I used to listen to the station a lot when they were Prime Sports 1360 (mid '90s)- officially the first sports station in the market.

Back then I don't recall the station appearing in the book.
 
Kudos to Pratte for providing the history lesson before I had the chance. Back then WPTT was lucky if it even showed up in the book, yet it was able to sell the very same niche programming that I had previously mentioned, yet now there is no desire to sell it. I could go one further and say that George Almasi, who has been at the station for ages now, used to be sent out on remote 4-6 times a year. Anyone care to call him and ask the last time he had a remote? Chances are you will find it was about half a decade ago.

I am not overlooking the programming problems WPTT has, far from it, I am just saying the problems run much deeper than just programming and until they are all addressed it really doesn't matter what is put on the signal, the station will still be nothing more than an afterthought in the Renda cluster.
 
The selling climate can't be all that bad if they have Trojan ads on 3WS.

That is one extraordinary salesman!

Imagine- selling condom ads on a station that gears to people more than 45 years old!
 
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