WAMO sold (Pittsburgh: college, club, moving to)

[ditchdigger]

And there I found that WAMO is #8 with a 4.5 market share. Pretty respectable...

Unless the advertisers interested in WAMO's unique demographic aren't a good source of revenue, I'd have to think somebody in the radio industry is smart enough to fill the gap that'll be left.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by ditchdigger

Unless the advertisers interested in WAMO's unique demographic aren't a good source of revenue, I'd have to think somebody in the radio industry is smart enough to fill the gap that'll be left.

Radio is bizarre. Right now, it's running scared of satellite and IPods and a lot of their decisions make NO sense.

Since I'm not in Pittsburgh, I can't say what stupid insanity the radio heads are pulling, but I can out here in CA.

In 1995, BIG 98 had the number 1 morning radio show (aside from KGO news talk which wins all the time here) with Darien O'Toole. She was getting higher ratings than Howard Stern.

To be honest, she was getting higher ratings because Howard was on a third rate low wattage station out of San Jose, and his coverage was awful. But -- she was getting them. BIG 98 stunk up the rest of the day... and switched formats and DUMPED her.

Then Live 105 dumped whoever they had in the AM and put on Howard. Ratings gold.

Then Howard went to satellite and Live 105 went back to something else Morning Zoo, but CBS took a do nothing station that they were touting as all podcasts all the time -- I think they called the idea "Jack"? And made that Free FM. Stuck on Adam Corolla.

There was all this press, and all this hype about the Stern replacements -- I think you guys got hosed with David Lee Roth...

And not a word here. Not an ad in the paper, not a bus back billboard, not a single flipping word. Not a single penny spent on it.

They at least put some money behind that stupid Jack radio crap -- I remember the ads about "You don't know Jack"... but Free FM? Like it didn't even exist.

Darien O'Toole went to New York on the (non)strength of beating Howard Stern and failed so abysmally she started drinking. She wound her way around a few more stations before landing back here at ... Free FM.

She at least got some bus back advertising! And Darien wasn't even in the morning drive! She came on after Adam. She was drinking heavily by then and was screwing up rather badly -- once, during a Las Vegas simulcast she asked Dave Dameshek (who I think is back in Pittsburgh doing a sports radio show) about that b*tch Rachel Perry... Darien thought they were off air. That was a common mistake she made.

She was so badly drunk during a segment with Dave Atell (comedian) she passed out and he took over... she got fired over that one... and sadly died a year or so later.

And as sad as that was -- you have to admit that's sort of exciting radio... and STILL not a word about Free FM... which then got moved to AM... and then got dumped.

1550 AM (formerly Free FM -- yeah -- on an AM band) went BACK to podcasts and also Money Talk radio, syndicated programs that I found interesting... but then that got dumped.

Because they dumped our oldies classic rock KSFO and made it Moving 99.

Female oriented adult contemporary. Talk about gawd-awful! And the TV ads of butts shaking to this bad music -- tons of them, with great media buys all over cable (cheap ad dollars) AND network (expensive ad dollars)

So they decided to take the podcast/money talk radio -- that was rating SO badly that they requested it not even be listed in the radio ratings charts... and made it the new KSFO.... 1550 AM is the oldies classic rock station...

Using canned "True Oldies Channel" feed out of New York.

With some ad dollars spent on telling people.

By the way -- this is all CBS radio, whatever they are calling themselves at time they did it.

I guess what I'm saying is -- don't expect radio to make sense. It doesn't anymore. Back when we were promoting indie wrestling shows, my husband thought it would be great to buy some ad time on the local radio stations to advertise.

Television was WAY cheaper, and we ended up going that route. And we never made any more promoting wrestling either.

[nuwaver88]

I think I am this close to breaking down and getting satellite radio for my car. So many yinzer types still hold WDVE in high regard. I am sorry folks. It is garbage. This is from someone whom loves all kinds of rock. They have no free form and never surprise. That makes for bad radio.
See the thread that I started last fall "WDVE not my cup of tea" As for WAMO, It is not much different than 96.1 KISS or B94. I used to listen to WAMO in the early 80s when they were playing groups like Shalimar, The GAP band, S.O.S. Band, etc. Nobody wants melody any more. It is all about attitude and acting like a bad a**.

[Hopes]

I'm disappointed in Pittsburgh radio too. This is a rock town (compared to the rest of the country) and the stations are just terrible. I agree that WDVE has gone way downhill. It's the same songs over and over---not any serious music. I can't stand listening to the DJ's talk---they're so impressed with themselves and all I want is music. My teenager is burning me CDs. I guess I should look into satellite too.

[PeterRabbit]

Porky Chedwick is 91. Does he still DJ? He was the best thing about WAMO.

[Benzman66]

Pork is retired and living in Florida I think.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Benzman66

Pork is retired and living in Florida I think.

Really? I think I saw in the paper last year he died in Florida.

[lifepgh2op]

To me, this is a huge loss for the city of Pittsburgh. Probably a lot of the people reading this don't care, because they don't listen to WAMO. If you are into hip hop music, you know that WAMO is one of the best radio stations out there for it. I've lived in a few other cities and to me, HOT 97 in NYC IS the epitome of Hip Hop, but WAMO came pretty close, especially for a city of this size.

WAMO has so much history in the Burgh, being around for something like 55 years? My parents grew up listening to it and I did, as well. According to the PG, it's pointless to try and protest this as it is basically signed, sealed, and delivered but I wish there was something that could be done. A metro of this size should have a devoted "urban" or hip hop station, just as there are country stations, etc. This station carried all the way up into Youngstown, and down into SE Ohio, Northern WV, maybe Garrett County, Maryland, and I don't know how far out east into Central PA and up into NW PA. This is a true loss for this area. I truly hope that another station takes over as a dedicated hip hop station, but please don't suggest KISS or B94 alter their lineup because that will show you know nothing about the culture of Hip Hop stations and how much more it is to the listeners than just the songs that are played.

[RedBall]

Hip hop is terrible. Good riddance (imho).

[lifepgh2op]

That is fine if you don't like Hip Hop, but this is a perfect example of why people say Pittsburgh has no racial diversity. What radio stations do we have majority of? Country, Rock, Pop, etc...all stations catering to a white audience.