Do you listen to "Pittsburgh's Man Station"? If you do you might be about the only one.
Ratings have been dismal for WTZN "The Zone," the talk-radio station launched April 2 as the replacement for "K-Rock".
Nicknaming itself "Pittsburgh's Man Station," WTZN promised to be the Maxim of Pittsburgh radio, giving manly men an outlet to talk about sports and breasts and everything else that gets guys going. The problem is they programed the station to a sterotype and not real people. We don't all sit around gawking at women, talking about sex and telling fart jokes. The ratings prove it. WTZN ranked 19th in listenership for the Pittsburgh market. That's not good for an FM powerhouse.
At the birth of this latest broadcasting disaster I predicted a short life span. 5 months in it may die even quicker then even I expected.
4 comments:
You pretty much described what I've heard of the McIntyre show. His radio show is indeed a train wreck.
Scott Paulsen, on the other hand, is very good. He actually has an intelligent show that I listen to during my commute home from 6:00 - 7:00. Its good to hear something other than a sports show in that time slot.
I don't mind Paulson from what I get to hear. However, there are 23 other hours everyday to fill!
I feel bad for Scott Paulsen. He's a talented radio personality and deserves better than Pittsburgh apparently has to offer.
I think that both McIntire and Paulsen are very talented. I don't blame them for any of what happened here. The missing link was ongoing, daily programming oversight.
Creative people need guidance and direction. Yes, Johnny Mac needed to do less T & A. It was funny in small doses, but not repeatedly. He also spent too much time chattering with Gab and didn't take enough phone calls and actually connect with his audience as much as I would have liked. And, because he couldn't really do politics, which is his strong suit, he was a bit of a fish out of water.
However, I think a strong programmer/producer could have taken the good writing, producing skills of both John and Gab and really helped target it better. My guess is, and I have no way of knowing this, that they were sort of left to their own devices. That can be fun for the talent, but, in the end, it doesn't serve them or the station well. Essentially what I'm saying is that the station needed PRODUCERS (caps intentional) for each show who weren't just glorified phone answerers. This needed to be dealt with like a TV station, where a Producer oversees the content and is responsible for the ongoing approach and vitality of the show. On top of that, those show producers needed to have one Exec Producer who kept it all together.
Also, every show on the station was massively different than the one that came before it. For the most part, that just doesn't work in radio. Music stations, even if their jocks have varying personalities, have the music to help them maintain a consistent sound. The Zone had none of that.
By the way, I also rarely heard anyone cross-promote the other shows on the station. In many ways it "felt" like everyone was going their own way, and not much like a team...which is should have.
in the end, even though it wasn't perfect, at least Paulsen and McIntire were DOING SOMETHING on radio, other than just reading liners. I'll miss both of them...and hope they can land back in the air in Pittsburgh soon
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