When John Moschitta took a trip down the Pennsylvania Turnpike from the PD chair at WQXA/Harrisburg for the same position at WXDX/Pittsburgh, never did he envision that almost a decade later he would be sitting as OM for WDVE and WXDX and riding a streak of five straight books at No. 1 12+ by the legendary rocker ‘DVE. Not only is ‘DVE riding a hot streak in the market overall, but the morning show has been #1 25-54 since the spring of ’93 – and that includes an impressive run against Howard Stern when he used to be on local radio. FMQB caught up with Moschitta to discuss the pride of Clear Channel’s Pittsburgh cluster.

You have to be feeling pretty good with WDVE on top of the Pittsburgh ratings for five books in a row. What are the main factors as to why that’s happened?
’DVE is doing exactly what its listeners want.  We’re playing the right music mix.  We’ve got really strong personalities.  We’ve got the huge morning show in Jim Krenn and Randy Baumann.  And we’re tied in with all the right things in the city that are vital and strike an emotional cord with the listeners. Being the flagship of the Steelers doesn’t hurt and really helps our cume. KDKA – the first station ever on the airwaves – had been the No. 1 station forever. Their audience is mostly 65 and over.  Couple that with the fact that one of our sister stations is an FM News/Talk – 104.7 PGB – that signed on a couple years ago and it has definitely hurt them a little bit as well. 

WDVE’s been a Rock for thirty-eight years.  It’s pretty uncommon for that to happen. Talk about the music mix and how you maintain your position going into the future while still attracting younger listeners?
Part of the reason why we bring new and younger people into the mix starts with the morning show. It’s a show for guys, whatever age they are, whether they’re 18 or 54 years old, but it’s a broad show and also draws in women as well.  They talk sports, do a lot of comedy and are very topical, whether it’s local or national. They help start it all by drawing people to the station in the morning. Beyond that, music is cyclical and right now, you can probably talk to a 20-year-old guy that loves Led Zeppelin just as much as Nirvana.  Some of the music on ’DVE has transcended generations in this town, such as AC/DC,Zeppelin, Van Halen and Ozzy. As far as new music goes, that’s kind of fluid with the times.  Twelve year ago, ’DVE was one of the first stations to play Hootie And The Blowfish.  If there’s a decent heritage artist we can play, fine.  If there’s a new artist we can play, that’s fine too.  We work very hard trying to figure out what the audience wants and not shoving some of the new music down their throats.

The music is going to shift with the times, but the station has been consistently branded as “DVE Rocks” for 38 years. How much do you think that has helped the station’s position?
It goes back to delivering on listener expectations and also being able to tap in and have that emotional bond with them too.  Outside the morning show, we’ve had personalities on the air for 15-20 years.  Michele Michaels in middays sometimes has better numbers than the morning show does because she’s formed this bond with the listeners and she hasn’t failed to meet their expectations, whether it’s musically or whether it’s just talking to them on a personal level. People live vicariously through what we do, whether it’s having bands up here or doing really cool promotions or doing really different shows.  Our broadcasts are the same as going out and shaking hands and kissing babies. Pittsburghers definitely have a bond with the radio station, and so far we’ve not failed to meet their expectations.      

Talk about the strength of the morning show. What drives them on a day-to-day basis and why are people coming to them? They have that natural drive to be the best in the market.  You’ve got to understand, besides ’DVE being No. 1 12+ for five books, the station has been No. 1 25-54 persons since the Spring of 1993.  The same goes for the morning show.  Whether it was Jim Krenn and Scott Paulsen or Jim and Randy right now, they want to be the best.  Every day they want to put on an entertaining and funny morning show.  They have all the ingredients to do that. They have a passionate, loyal audience, and ultimately it comes down to they’re meeting the expectations of their listeners.   

It goes without saying that the Steelers are a huge importance to the station.
Yes, but we just don’t go: “Hey, we’re the Steelers station” and throw the games on Sunday and not do anything to back it up. Mike Prisuta, our morning show sports guy, is in the locker room everyday. We even have him on in afternoon drive for a segment with Sean McDowell.  The morning show has on guests, whether it’s players or analysts. We have Hines Ward and Deshea Townsend who do a show on Tuesday nights for an hour, and it’s not Xs and Os. It’s them having fun for an hour with Tunch Ilkin, one of the analysts on the broadcast.  Hines has been doing this show for a few years now. On draft day we do a big show down at Heinz Field. So we embrace the whole Steelers experience and we do that with all our sports teams.  We also have the Penguins and our cluster just signed the Pirates, so we have three major sports teams on FM.

That’s interesting when you see other companies walking away from sports contracts because broadcast rights just aren’t as exclusive or profitable as they used to be.
Yes, but you need to think outside the box.  We do a ton of ancillary programming.  With the six stations we have here, you can hear all sorts of Steelers’ ancillary programming.  You have to be creative on how to generate revenue and everyone in our cluster embraces it.  Look at KISS, for example, Hines Ward listens to that station, so [WKST morning show] Mike & Big Bob have him on.  Since we run the game, we have access to all the calls, so we can spread those across the cluster.

What has been the early feedback of adding the Penguins broadcasts to WXDX?
It’s been good.  It’s interesting to see with the young players the Penguins have, they’ve generated a new type of fan base. Younger people are definitely going to the games. Last year they had something like thirteen sell-outs, and they’ve already passed that this season.  The response to the broadcast has been good.  We were lucky enough to get Mike Lange, who is a Hall of Fame broadcaster for the Penguins.  He had been on TV for years, but FSN decided not to renew his contract. The Pens hired him to do the radio broadcasts, and having Mike on with his trademark signature calls is such an important voice on the radio station and adds to the broadcast. And like with the Steelers, we do a lot with the players across the cluster. As it’s standing right now, it seems like the Penguins on The X is a pretty good fit.  It also helps that the team’s doing well.

Clear Channel has launched quite an array of online programs. How effective have you found these?
It’s a big initiative with Clear Channel to have those platforms and integrate some newer technologies with the stations. We’re bulking up our resources with a Web team here in Pittsburgh, but we’ve been pretty aggressive so far with trying to make the Web a brand extension. One example is that we’ve started a segment on the ’DVE morning show with comedians where we get them to sign a release and video tape their appearance for online use. The X is doing a lingerie show around Valentine’s Day with Finger Eleven. We had a couple of the girls come in and filmed them so when you go to The X’s Web site it has a dynamic lead with the girls talking to you saying: “Hey, you know, we’ll see you at the Lingerie Show.  Click for more.” When Bill Cowher announced his resignation, we asked one of our Web guys to go down and videotape it, and then we posted it up on the Web site. We just need to get creative like we do with the radio station. We’ve got to get better at providing content for people.

Three years out from Howard Stern’s exit on The X and a little over one-year removed from his exit out of the market, The X’s morning show has yet to regain traction. Could the same be said of the station overall? Are you comfortable with where The X is?
I don’t know if we’re ever going to get the numbers we had when Howard was on. But the station, as a whole, has finally emerged from that shadow, so to speak, not that he cast it, but more of the shadow cast by all the stuff that went on when Clear Channel dropped him, and then his coming back in the market on another station.  The X brand has always been strong, and we just needed to do things to continue to grow it, such as adding the Penguins. But we’ve moved on from that time.  We’re on the second morning show now since his departure. We hired Tim Benz from the local ESPN affiliate.  He does a young, sports driven show mixed with The X’s music that is kind of off center, twisted and topical. Tim has only been on since July.  He’s got one full book and was tied for fourth in the Fall Book.  He’s in the ballpark and we’re heading in the right direction.

You specifically have become known as a programmer that relies on research.  Give me your take on why a reliance on testing songs is important to the success of the station?
Yes, we use research as a tool; we just don’t rely on it.  If we used research to be the be-all, end-all, we probably never would have played Johnny Cash. [Music Director] Vinnie [Ferguson] and I know what the station is and understand our audience. We’ll put songs on to test a record or get a feel for it, but, yes, I also rely on research to get a read on songs.  It’s good to have that as a tool, but I’m not saying research is a be-all, end-all. We also look at sales and, hell, we still use our gut every once in a while (laughs). Name any other radio station out there that played Killswitch Engage and Johnny Cash.  We just don’t happen to follow the charts.  I understand the frustration when someone says: “Oh, but look at the sales on this record” Okay, it’s selling, but that might not be the audience that’s listening to the radio station.  It’s tough.  Ultimately, we obviously want to play songs people are into. The bigger issue for us is that we have so many different types of cliques and groups of people who like certain things and don’t necessarily like something else.  That’s my biggest issue right now. There are probably a ton of listeners who listen to Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and really dig it.  And I can tell you that there are just as many people who don’t like it.  Then there are people who don’t like Bullet For My Valentine, but there’s a good amount of people who do.  Our biggest frustration is finding those records that transcend to where everybody likes it.  There are very few of those.

But do you want to build your whole station on middle-of-the-road records?
That’s why we play Killswitch Engage and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and that’s why we play Rise Against and Bullet For My Valentine.  On our radio station, bands like Three Days Grace, Tool, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and to some extent, Johnny Cash, transcend. It’s our tough job to try and find the different records. Ultimately, you can’t please everybody.

Might HD Radio be the answer to that?
It all depends on the market. We have four FMs in the market that are up and running with HD already.  Our HD channel for The X won’t go up until the second quarter of ’07. In working with the Radio Alliance and figuring out what works for the market, that’s how we’re going to determine what we’re going to do.  WDVE’s HD side channel is Blues.  We sponsor the Blues Fest that comes to Pittsburgh every year and it has thousands of people show up.  There is a thread of Blues on WDVE, whether it’s Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimmy Hendrix or Eric Clapton.  So it seemed like a natural format to complement ’DVE.  Some people may look at it other ways, but we’re going to do something completely different than what our main format is.  You have to look at the market and see what the hole is out there.

Has it hit you yet that come November you will have been in Pittsburgh for ten years?
Yeah, I know.  And now I’m really stuck here because I married a Pittsburgher.  It doesn’t seem like ten years. It seems a lot shorter. I really don’t have any opinion on it one-way or the other.  It’s been fun.  It’s definitely been interesting, and I’ve definitely been a part of a lot interesting events that have gone on, but it really doesn’t feel like ten years.

** QB Content by Michael Parrish**