It's been a few weeks since WDRV returned to the garden variety approach of its forerunner WVTY and became Mix 96.1. The station touts itself as playing music from the 80s and 90s. Basically it means,a load of Bryan Adams (who made a wack CD IMHO),Journey,Pat Benatar and other 80s pop-rock dinosaurs mixed in with a tighter 90s playlist. The PD said that since sister station WDVE set the standard in a traditional market such as Pittsburgh,there was no chance for WDRV to succeed decently for money hungry Chancellor Media. It was even more touching of the responses left for their ousted morning host Bender and sidekick Jackie Cummingham. This was a station that had its feet in the 90s and was a polar opposite to the usual 80s based AC formats of Wish 99.7 and WLTJ-FM. The morning show had two hosts that were children of the 80s or came of age during that time. When WDRV went back to its previous format,the webmaster of Bender's site Bender Mornings said that they got almost 1800 hits in an hour and during the five days after,the Cumminghams recieved 450 e-mails,300 guestbook entries and countless phone calls. It tells you something about a show that people were beginning to connect with.

People were genuinley upset that a station and a show were let go because they didn't stack up to the big boys in Pittsburgh. Which is the biggest problem of them all in Pittsburgh.We have a tendency to look back in the past. There was a bonafied good call from Pittsburgh on Friday's Jim Rome show that said it all. The teams were always looking back and never looking ahead,the caller singled out the Steelers for staying with the past and basically said that Pittsburgh shouldn't be looking in the past.

Which is the case in radio,there's no innovation coming from Pittsburgh's commercial radio giants. They're offering various degrees of musical mediocrity to the masses. Yes,we're fortunate to have WYEP-FM,WQED and WDUQ-FM at the ready,but we need to start thinking young radiowise instead of talking about the old days of 4 Super Bowls. We tend to talk about how good KDKA-AM was and yet we never have anything for the younger listener. The PD at Mix 96.1 said it best that since DVE set the standard for radio in Pittsburgh,it's been a hinderance for other stations.

There had been some great examples of stations that came close to beating WDVE and yet failed. In the 80s,people certainly knew about WXXP-FM and how they came close to topping WDVE,only to die when the ad money wasn't there and the new owners didn't want a new music station in Pittsburgh. WNRQ-FM (The Revolution) did a bang-up job in bringing new music to Pittsburgh's commercial FM waves. WDVE started up an alternative version of DVE called WXDX and boom,in no time flat...WNRQ-FM was gone. It was certainly a bitter pill when the station died.

Pittsburgh radio needs youthful innovations. Pittsburgh radio shouldn't always rely on well-worn 80s rock for a bulk of the playlists. It gets to be very boring to hear Whitesnake and other 80s dinosaurs on Mix 96.1's playlists. Hmm,as I'm writing this,I do have to wonder how long will Mix 96 last? The station has no real identity. It's playing the same brand of AC that you can get on WLTJ and Wish 99.7 FM. the station is currently jockless. We'll see how long they can hold out before another format shakeup. I hate to say it...but a hot-talk FM or a CHR-dance station would fare better at 96.1 FM

Yep,all of the griping and sniping won't bring Bender and Jackie back to Pittsburgh. Yes,we had our shot and we lost. Basically,it was all business when the format was let go and they were let go. But it does mean that Pittsburgh radio programmers have to start thinking young if they want new ideas and fresh concepts to the airwaves. I always learned that it's great that if you can think and feel young,you can go all the way. Let's hope that Pittsburgh radio can discover the fountain of youth before the twentysomethings start getting grey hairs too soon.