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WZZO Vs. WMMR

E

eyg2181

Guest
WZZO Vs. WMMR

Two Of The Greatest Rock Stations Ever, Both Been Rocking For 30 Over Years, But...What One Takes The Cake As #1?
 
if those are the only two choices, i'd have to say 'mmr. unfortunately, zzo is a very poor example of a rock station. just because a station has been the same format for 30 years doesnt make it amazing. wzzo could be playing so many better tunes.
 
Well, not that my opinion really matters, especially since I now live in Pittsburgh, but I grew up in eastern PA and listened to a lot of Philadelphia stations. In my opinion it was always between WMMR and WYSP who was the best station. Why don't I include WZZO in there? Because from where I lived in Lancaster County, I never even heard of WZZO until tonight. So, between the two, I'd say it has to be WMMR because it at least had a strong enough signal to make it to Amish country. And, between WYSP and WMMR, hands down 93.3 WMMR was the best. I've heard WYSP is now a FreeFM station...how sad is that?
 
Nowadays I do not think any of the stations are any good. WZZO has it's moments but largely is quite mundane. WMMR was a great station back in the days of Micahel Tearson and Pierre Robert but now they are pretty much terrible!
 
WMMR is a great station for rock lovers. I really only listen to Preston and Steve. WZZO really lost its touch a few years ago. They have become a mostly classic rock station. Playing a new song for every 10 or so classics.
 
Speaking of WYSP, I ran into Denny Somach the other day. Y'all might recall him from WSAN and WYSP.... then went on to be big in the music biz. He looks about the same as 30 yrs back.
 
ZZ0 wins all the way.
Philly has way too many freaks. Just go to shows in Philly and then in Allentown. The crowds are sooooo different. Stand in line at a concert in the two different towns.....you'll see.
I dated a girl who used to make fun of the Lehigh Valley. She said "they're still listening to Guns and Roses and Aerosmith up there". No longer my girlfriend! Now this was when WDRE was hot in Philly and grunge took over. ie: Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, etc. Everyone thought the new scene of flannel shirts and bedhead was cool. (Lehigh Valley has always been like that)
In Philly, they bought jeans with holes in them at the Gap or Nordstrom's for $105 and "new" flannel shirts for $65.

In the Valley, people have holes in their jeans....because THEY WORK. Actually the only real reason for holes in jeans. People wore flannel because it was warm and practical for the cold and chilly valley at night and mornings.
It was funny watching a young exec dirty himself up after work, park his BMW and to go to a concert at the TLA or Electric Factory in Philly.

Country music has the same thing.
Philly people buy the John Deere hat for the concert.


Rap dudes are the same with "Dickies"...work pants and Timberlands...work boots....Ha...such irony!

Give me ZZ0 anyday.
MMR and YSP are schizophrenic. After decades...they still don't know who they are. Severe identity problem.

Here's the final agrument...for me anyways.
People in their 40's and 50's can still listen to ZZO and enjoy themselves and know alot of the music. Philly stations have totally bent over to "new" rock which is not rock and no one recognizes.

A guy in his 40's can listen to ZZO with his son and both can have a good time. When a guy like me buys his kid a guitar....what sheet music does the kid want? The answer says it all. Zep, Aerosmith, Clapton, Hendrix.
The kid is not asking for Linkin Park or Three Doors Down or Nickleback

ZZO is like the OLD MMR and YSP of 30 years ago!

Just my rambling stereotyping (I admit it!)... humble opinion...
 
Wow! Wrong on so many levels. WZZO is just as guilty of playing Nickelback as WMMR. They're the same. The hipsters live in Center City. The boring rockers live in the Northeast and tend to be just as boring as the LV folks who hang out at Croc Rock!
 
drpickle is SOOOOOO right! not only that, but WMMR is a MUCH better programmed rock station than WZZO. WMMR mixes it up a bit better, yet somehow sounds more focused than ZZO at the same time. you'll hear live versions thrown in, often from Philly concerts that they got the live recordings from. i don't know how they get the clearances for that, but it makes the station sound a lot less predictable and a lot more local. they have more fun with it than ZZO does. whereas ZZO sounds AFRAID or sound like they have no identity, MMR sounds CONFIDENT and like they truly love what they do. plus, you feel like you KNOW the jocks on MMR. with all the people jumping ship from ZZO in the last 6 months, the jocks are faceless. the vibe of the listener is kinda like "who are these people and why should i care?" LOL it's all subjective, of course, but i don't even think it's a contest.
 
Whatutalkinabout - The Bearman and Keith have been on the air together for 19 years. Pierre Robert is the only MMR fulltimer that can top that stat with his 25+ years on air now in the same shift, which is nearly impossible to do anymore with this industry. Randy Kotz has been on the air for that long, but in every shift imaginable at several stations.

Tori's been onair at WZZO for at least 7 years, more recently in afternoons. Mike Foxx (overnights) has been at the station since the late 80s. Barry Dawson's been around a couple of years. There is one new person on air at ZZO, that being Kelly Travis. And I've never heard her sound like she doesn't love her job...she always sounds like she's having a good time.

Did Blake and Chris leaving really make a dent in the on-air presentation? To me, Blake sounds bored all the time on air, and that didn't change when he moved. Chris Line, well, I guess you could give him points for being enthusiastic, but his delivery reminds me of a college freshman on air.
 
The Bearman & Keith -- i'll give you that one...LOL. we're comparing WMMR and WZZO here and there's just no comparison. who else on ZZO is "heritage" other than B&K? just about every jock on MMR can be measured in DECADES served and they still sound like they're having fun. i guarantee you the remaining jocks on ZZO don't have the name recognition in the Valley that the MMR jocks have in Philly. aside from Bearman & Keith, ZZO lost the two jocks that DO....within weeks of each other. then they hired a midday jock that QUIT AFTER 9 DAYS. (the midday person they have now was not their original choice for that gig). and it has nothing to do with market size. MMR is just a better managed radio station. it comes down to leadership, staung focused, and constant quality control.
 
EXACTLY...LOL...but the regular ZZO listeners know that there has been a big scramble in the lineup lately. never a good situation to be in.
 
One more thing to think about - MMR and ZZO are both heritage rock stations. But MMR is in a major market, which means more resources and more focus from upper mgmt. You may not remember that MMR faltered quite a few times in the last 20 years, most notably the fall of DeBella and the advent of the disastrous "Sports Rock". Preston & Steve have brought them the best numbers they've had in a long time.

Now back to the Valley. Yeah, ZZO went through some lineup changes. They're still doing well among Adults 25-54 (and the male demo)...MMR doesn't even show up in the numbers up here.

WLEV - that's another story. They've had 5 morning shows and 3 different brands in the past 5 years. Now that's a recipe for success.
 
i agree with you. but it's irrelevant that MMR doesn't show up in the valley ratings. i was comparing each station to its place in its own market...and MMR clobbers ZZO in that comparison. they've both been around for about 30 years and have the same format, but MMR has a MUCH better profile in their local market than ZZO does. the "average time served" for the fulltime ZZO jocks just went from, like, 11 years to about 3.2....LOL. and ZZO seems to have lost all "stationality" lately.....
 
whatutalkinbout said:
and ZZO seems to have lost all "stationality" lately.....
Click to expand...
C/O ClearChannel.

It's still kind of hard to compare the two, but if we're strictly talking about the music and jocks, I think MMR has a better music line-up, but I think Jock-wise, I think MMR has a SLIGHT advantage over ZZO. P&S are more entertaining, but B&K are a Lehigh Valley staple and are still fun to listen to (when they're actually talking and not playing music). Pierre is heritage, but he gets old and stale at times, but compared to Kelly, I think they are evenly matched. I still can't get over Kelly coming from country and trying to be a rock chick (just the same as Chris going from rock and trying to be a country boy). Jaxson isn't too bad, slightly entertaining, but I think Tori gets my vote here, mainly because the things she says sometimes are so off the wall, they're funny. As for nights, Matt Cord wins by a landslide. Much more professional, articulate in his breaks, organized, and just plain sounds better. John is a great guy, don't get me wrong, but is he night-time material?
Like him or hate him, Chris was perfect in that time slot. He was energetic, quick with a joke and great phoners.

</two cents>
 
B&K are the only things over there that are "staples" - even the WZZO call letters don't mean NEARLY as much as they used to around this area.

and in the case of B&K let's not confuse "staples" with "still compelling"......
 
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