With Beck, Rush, Hannity in a row I’d be very surprised if they made the swap because I have no idea where they’d land in the market.
They shot themselves in the foot not re-signing Quinn and Rose. I don’t know what the fallout was in the negotiations but Bloomdaddy is just so gawdawful I can’t put it into words.
When you’ve turned off people that listened to no other station on their dial morning, noon and night to just noon though I’m not exactly surprised.
Their lineup choices in the last 2 years have baffled me.
RadioInsight RADIO Iarticle: A Country battle could be in Pittsburgh’s near future. We try to stay away from format change rumors when we do not have DomainInsight to back it up, but when we hear the same thing from three different sources it’s hard not to look away. Our sources all indicate that Clear Channel is preparing to flip “FM NewsTalk 104.7” WPGB Pittsburgh to Country. Like many other Conservative Talk stations across the country, WPGB has lost its ratings luster in recent months. The station registered a 2.5 share in the June 2014 Nielsen Audio PPM ratings down from a 4.1 as recently as last November. That was the final monthly prior to the exit of Jim Quinn and Rose Tennent from mornings and being replaced by David ‘Bloomdaddy’ Bloomquist syndicated from sister 1170 WWVA Wheeling. A flip to Country would put WPGB in competition with CBS’ “Y108” 107.9 WDSY. In recent months, WDSY has risen from a 6.5 share in April to a 7.6 share in June to encroach on a pair of Clear Channel’s stations for the market lead. Rock 102.5 WDVE currently leads the market with a 8.0 share, while Classic Hits “94.5 3WS” WWSW is tied for second with WDSY. Clear Channel’s “96.1 Kiss” WKST-FM and Steel City Media Variety Hits “Bob-FM 96.9” WRRK are right behind with a 7.5 share each. There are still moving pieces in play such as what happens to the rest of the Premiere Radio Network syndicated voices currently heard on WPGB. With Clear Channel moving 106.3 W292DH Uniontown into Pittsburgh with 250 watts at 186 meters, (Coverage Map) one scenario we’ve had suggested is WPGB’s lineup of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity moving to what is currently Sports “970 ESPN” WBGG, with the Sports format moving to the translator. Another Country station does currently target the Pittsburgh market. Keymarket Communication’s network of “Froggy” branded stations circles the city including 94.9 WOGG Uniontown from the south, 103.5 WOGH Burgettstown from the west, and 104.3 WOGI Moon Township from the northwest. The Keymarket stations do not subscribe to Nielsen Audio’s ratings.
See post #7.