Top 40 Radio in Pittsburgh (high school, college, live)

[Perryview22]

I've been listening to the radio a lot at work recently, and I was thinking I would like to request a song.

Is there a top 40 station here where you can request a song?

[Craziaskowboi]

Lemme do it before somebody else does...

ZOMG WAHT TEH FOCK IS U LISSNING TO THAT $HIT FOR THEY HAVE KNOW TALENT ITS ALL PREFAB CRAP THEY NEVER HAD THAT WHEN I WUZ GROWZING UP MUSICK WAS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>REAL<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< BACK THEN GOD I MISS TEH DAYS BEFORE PEOPLE SOLDE OUT PICKSBRUGH RADIO SUX RADIO STATIONS IS BETTER EVREYWEAR ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

OK, got that out of the way...

96.1 Kiss FM and Star 100.7 are both Top 40 stations, and they probably have their request line listed somewhere on their websites. You might also consider e-mailing or texting them requests too. I know a lot of radio stations do that now.

[Benzman66]

From being a former DJ in college/high school days & still keeping in the mix with the current day operations of radio stations, I can tell you almost 95% of the stations anywhere are now voice tracked (pre-recorded liners), so the chance of getting a live dj otherwise than morning drive it going to be rare.

DJs can now do a 4 hour show by recording 20 minutes of liners each day and letting the automated jukebox choose and mix the songs.

[greg42]

Actually, setting aside the music, what I was going to say was: what is this, the 80s? And then of course the answer is yes, because the 80s never really left Pittsburgh. Making a song request to a radio station is something I basically haven't thought about since then. I don't even listen to the radio for music anymore, haven't in a decade or so.

A lot of the big radio is like Benzman said so I don't know how possible requests are. A better chance if you want to support a local radio station by listening and for making a request is WYEP. But that's not top 40 at all. Gnutella has given you the top 40 stations I guess, can't really confirm because I haven't kept up with all the format changes.

[Perryview22]

Originally Posted by greg42

Actually, setting aside the music, what I was going to say was: what is this, the 80s? And then of course the answer is yes, because the 80s never really left Pittsburgh. Making a song request to a radio station is something I basically haven't thought about since then. I don't even listen to the radio for music anymore, haven't in a decade or so.

A lot of the big radio is like Benzman said so I don't know how possible requests are. A better chance if you want to support a local radio station by listening and for making a request is WYEP. But that's not top 40 at all. Gnutella has given you the top 40 stations I guess, can't really confirm because I haven't kept up with all the format changes.

...Way to go there, making me feel old and out of touch, hehe.

[youngabe]

96.1 is good for requests...the DJs usually ask for them on the air. Also, 96.1 does a lot of giveaways and whatnot during the day. To my knowledge, a live DJ is pretty common on 96.1 specifically.

[Benzman66]

Originally Posted by youngabe

96.1 is good for requests...the DJs usually ask for them on the air. Also, 96.1 does a lot of giveaways and whatnot during the day. To my knowledge, a live DJ is pretty common on 96.1 specifically.

Nope, KISS is one of the voice tracked stations, as most Clear Channel owned ones are. Mikey & Bob is the only live show. Sometimes the others might pull a live show, but rare. If you try calling at those times, the line will probably be constantly busy except if they are doing a giveaway, where the office staff or board op will answer the calls.

Of course they hope you request a current song, which will come up in rotation anyhow at some point within an hour, but give them a rare or one off the list recently and good luck in your wait.

[youngabe]

Originally Posted by Benzman66

Nope, KISS is one of the voice tracked stations, as most Clear Channel owned ones are. Mikey & Bob is the only live show. Sometimes the others might pull a live show, but rare. If you try calling at those times, the line will probably be constantly busy except if they are doing a giveaway, where the office staff or board op will answer the calls.

Of course they hope you request a current song, which will come up in rotation anyhow at some point within an hour, but give them a rare or one off the list recently and good luck in your wait.

I usually listen to KISS while at work. Mostly during the workday when they do giveaways I usually hear the DJ says, "Congrats to {insert name}" ... aside from giveaways, they could easily be voicetracked. Usually around 5, they do the Freakshow question of the day and air that caller too. I'd be interested to know what all they do live and what all they don't on a given weekday, morning to early eveningish.

[Benzman66]

It is up to the program director as to when they do live shifts. The morning shows are always live, but as far as the rest of the day, most of the time when they are "on air" per se (voicetracked) , that person is usually in the building doing production work (cutting commercials, copy, etc) in another room, so it is very easy to cut a quick liner with someones name and insert it to the computer system.

If they are doing a live remote, special event, then the jock is usually doing the show in person behind the mic, but the music & mixes are still done by the computer. In all reality, all they have to do is flip a few switches every 15 mins or so.

Now in some instances, many radio stations have jocks from other markets cutting the local liners. I can't remember exactly her name, but the girl who use to be on 10-2 before Tall Cathy was hired, actually was stationed in Detroit or somewhere and did her show live out there, but would cut the liners for all the other stations that carried her including KISS that morning and upload them to each affiliate computer, so it would give her a "local sound" in each market. I think 3WS is doing this right now with one of the male jocks.

Not as much fun now days for the jocks. They are basically button pushers. Back when I was in, we cued records and backtimed into commercial breaks and at the top of the hour news, which is a lost art now.

[raubre]

Originally Posted by Benzman66

It is up to the program director as to when they do live shifts. The morning shows are always live, but as far as the rest of the day, most of the time when they are "on air" per se (voicetracked) , that person is usually in the building doing production work (cutting commercials, copy, etc) in another room, so it is very easy to cut a quick liner with someones name and insert it to the computer system.

If they are doing a live remote, special event, then the jock is usually doing the show in person behind the mic, but the music & mixes are still done by the computer. In all reality, all they have to do is flip a few switches every 15 mins or so.

Now in some instances, many radio stations have jocks from other markets cutting the local liners. I can't remember exactly her name, but the girl who use to be on 10-2 before Tall Cathy was hired, actually was stationed in Detroit or somewhere and did her show live out there, but would cut the liners for all the other stations that carried her including KISS that morning and upload them to each affiliate computer, so it would give her a "local sound" in each market. I think 3WS is doing this right now with one of the male jocks.

Not as much fun now days for the jocks. They are basically button pushers. Back when I was in, we cued records and backtimed into commercial breaks and at the top of the hour news, which is a lost art now.

I originally wanted to go into radio until all of that changed. I saw it becoming less listener friendly as early as the early 90s. Now it's just atrocious. Thank goodness for my iPod. WYEP is the last of the real radio stations in this market (not counting college radio)