WAMO sold (Pittsburgh: sale, home, school)

[RedBall]

Originally Posted by 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.

I hate country too! .

No, but I feel you. The reality of it is that music radio is dying. All bets are off. When you can log onto Pandora via the internet and listen to break-free, commercial free music which adapts itself to your specific tastes, FOR FREE, there is trouble in radio land.

I went through this exact scenario when my favorite station, 96.9, went from classic rock to BOB FM, which blows.

[lifepgh2op]

Originally Posted by RedBall

When you can log onto Pandora via the internet and listen to break-free, commercial free music which adapts itself to your specific tastes, FOR FREE, there is trouble in radio land.

True, but I can't get Pandora in my car (at least not yet) and it (and satellite radio) just takes the local-ness out of it. Not to mention, I can tell by some of the people that call into WAMO, that this is their source for entertainment and music. Not all the listeners are fortunate enough to have access to things like Pandora. Like I said, to some people, radio is strictly about the songs they hear. But to others, myself included for WAMO, it's about more than the music...you get to know the radio personalities, the give-aways, activities, etc...all the "local-ness" involved that says "hey, this station is geared toward hip hop listeners in and around pittsburgh"

And I agree, it is due in large part to the new technology of radio and iPods, etc. It's just sad that Pittsburgh has to suffer the doom first, and it's not like the station is even going dark, it's being replaced by religious songs? or talk? I don't know which. Only hope is that the FCC doesn't approve this sale, but I don't know how those things work and if there would be any reason why they wouldn't.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by 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.

Well..............radio itself is dying. B94 and KISS are close, but I hope one of the two goes to a more predominately hip hop formant over a hip hop/rock/pop hybrid. It just happens that the first big radio station to die here was WAMO. While I think it is a big loss, especially for Pittsburgh's blacks it is now so easy to replace a radio station. Pandora for example you can get on a BlackBerry or IPhone and make your radio station based on your favorite artist or song.

[Little Mizz Pittsburgh]

This is a total embarrassment to the City of Pittsburgh. The first thing me & my friends do, when visiting other cities, is try to find the 'black' radio station when we're within city limits. Out-of-towners won't even be able to do that now, because there's about to be NONE. Its bad enough, Pittsburgh used to get clowned all the time for only have ONE. Pathetic!

96.1 will never compare to WAMO because they speed all their 'urban' music up. I hardly ever listen to WAMO, but I do enjoy it on Sunday afternoons and evenings due to them playing 80's hip-hop and R&B.

[lifepgh2op]

Originally Posted by Little Mizz Pittsburgh

This is a total embarrassment to the City of Pittsburgh. The first thing me & my friends do, when visiting other cities, is try to find the 'black' radio station when we're within city limits. Out-of-towners won't even be able to do that now, because there's about to be NONE. Its bad enough, Pittsburgh used to get clowned all the time for only have ONE. Pathetic!

96.1 will never compare to WAMO because they speed all their 'urban' music up.

haha I do the same when I visit other places...and I 100% agree, this is a total embarrassment to the city of Pittsburgh.

[RedBall]

Really? Embarrassment? Dramatic much?

[Benzman66]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

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

Nope, doesn't look like it.

Though a lifelong Pittsburgh resident, Porky and his wife Jeannie announced in June 2008 that they were moving to Florida. They completed their move from Pittsburgh's Brookline section to Tarpon Springs in August 2008.
Chedwick returned briefly to Pittsburgh in February of 2009 to celebrate his 91st birthday.


Info from Wikipedia
Porky Chedwick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[zip95]

WAMO is off the air because WAMO kinda sucked... Sorry but it's true. Sure, it's weird not having a hip-hop centric radio station, but o' well... Maybe something new and better will pop up.

The reality is that in many other large cities a hip-hop station will be the top rated station. That's because many other hip-hop stations attract a black AND white audience (see power 99 in Philly for example). Here in Pittsburgh, WAMO couldn't even keep the entire black audience... lots of people split time with KISS 96.1.

IMO, WAMO's problem was that it played exclusively to young poor ghetto culture, which perhaps worked great in 1980's Pittsburgh. However in 2009 the reality had changed, but WAMO remained the same. 2009's Pittsburgh has a ton of black and white working-to-middle class 20 and 30 somethings who grew up listening to hip-hop (many with college degrees). These are the people advertisers will pay big bucks to reach, and these people don't always want to hear that mindless repetitive crap from down south that WAMO always seems to be playing... Go to Philly or NY or DC and turn on the radio... You might hear something brand new, followed by Beyonce, an old Jay-Z, or a classic Dr Dre... Good radio stations understand how to mix new music with the songs that, in the 90's and early 00's, got played in both black fraternity parties and white fraternity parties... This is how hip-hop stations in other cities get such huge followings... they play good music that's appealing to a wide audience... And that's really the bottom line... WAMO didn't always play good music.

[Agbor]

WAMO was good until it seemed to slide into hip-hop only and not even good hip-hop at that..I would listen to a station in Pittsburgh if they had a station that catered to house,dance or club music or 60s-
90s,R&B...Some early Hip-Hop(when it first started) I can get into, but this current stuff stinks..or even
new R&B that is out...

[zip95]

Originally Posted by Agbor

WAMO was good until it seemed to slide into hip-hop only and not even good hip-hop at that..I would listen to a station in Pittsburgh if they had a station that catered to house,dance or club music or 60s-
90s,R&B...Some early Hip-Hop(when it first started) I can get into, but this current stuff stinks..or even
new R&B that is out...

Yep... You can probably sum it up with the decline of hip-hop coupled with WAMO's inability to broaden it's playlist beyond the declining hip hop...