The bad weather this week got me thinking that I have never told you how things work when the weather is bad and cancellations are all over. It gets pretty stressful is what happens. Here we are trying to do our radio shows and all you want to know is “Is School Cancelled?” It takes a lot of time to get the information and then confirm it, because you can imagine that we get calls from kids pulling a prank, then we get it on the air. We have to get it right! You’re counting on us to get it right so you know what to do with your kids if school is indeed, out for the day.

What we have to do is call in more help, someone who can just pay attention to the cancellation line, the fax machine for cancellations, the confirmations, and recording the latest list for all of our stations. Then, this person has to put the information up on the web site Operation Weather Alert.com. In fact, that’s where the information goes first, to the web site, then, he records the reports for all 9 stations. That’s why the list gets very long on a really bad day, because we cover Cranford and Venango Counties, plus we have listeners in Erie County, Forest County, and cross the line in Ohio, too.

Why do we got to this much trouble? Most stations just have a handwritten list that the jock reads off when he thinks of it, and if he cant read someone’s writing, he skips the school. What if that is the school you are interested in?
We do it this way cause it’s the most professional presentation possible. We don’t want any confusion as to which schools are on a 2 hour delay versus the school that is cancelled. You want to know, and you want to know now! We run the full cancellation list quarterly, as in every 15 minutes, so you will know when its coming next. If that’s not quick enough for you, we have the website that is constantly updated with the latest.

Now, I am not telling you this to say how good we are, we are good, and we are proud of the presentation of the most important information we deliver. That’s why we bring in someone to take care of this service. We are here to provide the services you need. News, Sports, Weather, and Emergency Information. In between, we provide entertainment, but when its needed, we crank it up to make sure you know what you need to know!

PUBLIC SERVICE...What does this mean to a radio station? It is a requirement of our license that we operate in the public interest. There are several ways to do it.

1. We announce community events for non profit groups.

2. Live broadcasts from Community Events for non profit groups

3. News coverage of Community Events for non profit groups

4. Interviews with non profit groups.

5. Coverage of Community Disasters and announcments related to them i.e. Severe Weather Announcments, Traffic Congestion, Police Announcments, etc.

Non Profit groups operate in the community interest with no profit taking allowed. Stations have to do some or all of the above and file what is called a Quarterly Report detailing just what the station did in the Public Interest.

On ANTS we do a lot of public service. You might not even notice them. We air Community Bulletin Boards listing an upcomming event, we do interviews with Public Service organizations like Amy Sasfai's A Public Affair, I do interviews on my Morning Show each week with the Hospital, United Way, Titusville Health and Aging, The Red Cross, Big Brothers and Sisters, the Chamber of Commerce in Meadville, Franklin and Oil City, The Council on the Arts, Career Link, Active Aging, and plenty more. We also have coverage of Community Events each day on the news.

Another way we do it is with Operation Weather Alert. You've heard it. When the weather is bad, primarily in the winter, we throw out most of our morning plan to get announcments in on Road Closing, Plant Closing, Event Cancellations, and most importantly School Closings. We also bust our humps to get all that information listed on the Operation Weather Alert.com web site. Why? Because its important to you and us!

We have also gone what is called "Wall to Wall" with News Coverage of major disasters. We did it with 9/11, we did it when there was a major power outage that blacked out just about all of western Pennsylvania several years ago. We fired up our generator at our transmitter site and broadcast from there to get you the information about what was happening. This is important stuff! If we didnt care about our community, why did we do it? Cause its our town too.

We do it because it is a requirement of our license, yes, but we would do it anyway. We live here just like you do and we are concerned with the health and welfare of our towns. 

So, if your group or church has an event you need publicized, let us know. Its what we do.

Class dismissed.

I get questions. Everywhere I go people ask me questions about how radio works and i thought I would take a minute to answer one of them.

I was at a dinner last week and someone asked me why we dont play any music on ANTS. This lady thought it would be nice to hear some music instead of all the talk programs. Its a good question and the answer....I comes down to one word, consistancy. Back in the 50's when you had only one radio station in town, they tried to be all things to all people. Thats why they did an hour of country music once a day, an hour of standards for an hour, a big band show, a cooking show, etc.

Today its different, with multiple stations serving each market, Satelite Radio, Internet Stations all competing to get you to listen. When this first happened, some wise man decided that if I played the same kind of music all the time I could get all the fans to listen to my station. Soon all the other stations did the same thing. Thats why you have a country station, a top 40 station, a classic rock station, a religeous station, etc in each market. They are all competing to get the most listeners to make their station more attractive to advertisers. 

The Holy Grail of radio is what is called the P1. These are people who call your station their favorite. They like the music, they like the personalities, the whole package. They listen alot, primarily to you. They might sample the others, but they always come bacck to you, as long as you keep doing what they like. If a country station should start planying Pop music, for instance, they would be less likely to listen to you. If you let go their favorite jock, this too is a turn off. They want what they like every time they turn on the radio. If you dont give it to them, they will look for someone who does. If you are a music station and suddenly they do a talk show, bam! they are gone to someone else. If you are a talk station and you start playing show tunes, Bam! They are gone.

Even the Variety station, the so called "Bob" stations are carefully crafted not to chase you away. They say they play "anything", but do they? No. They will never play a gospel song, a Broadway Ballad, a comedy record. They have carefully look at the audience they are aiming for and only play things that would appeal to that group. So you sneak a pop sounding country hit in, a rock record that has broad appeal, some 70's, 80's and 90's turnes that are "tested" to appeal to the broadest audience it can. There is nothing wrong with this, its just careful programming by the Program Director.

Every professionally programed station does this. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they miss. 

Lets try a hypothetical. Suppose you have a station that plays a rock tune followed by a country song, followed by a gospel song, a disco hit, then a rap record. Who would this station appeal to? Very few really. If you were listening to "Staiway to Heaven", and then "Shall we gather at the river" comes on, what do you do. YOU CHANGE THE STATION! If you are loving the latest George Strait hit and on comes a blistering Rap tune, what do you do? YOU CHANGE THE STATION! These are four works that get a Program Director fired. After all, his job is to turn you into that P1 we were talking about before. 

Even talk stations are programed that way. If you are looking toward getting an audience that is as broad as possible today, you play the controversial talk shows. The hottetest talk show in the country today is Rush Limbaugh. If you want your station to have "conservative credentials", you have to have him. Then you build around that with Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, the top 3 shows in the nation. In the evening, the audience and the attitude changes a bit, that why we do Dave Ramsey at 8. The audience still is conservative and they care about money and building wealth. This works. See what I mean, you figure out what listeners you want to attract and build a station for them. You wouldnt plop down a "girly" advice show in the middle of the afternoon, that could be a major turn off for your target audience. You also wouldnt put a Liberal talk show(if one existed) in there either. 

You even see TV networks do it. Spike appeals to men, Lifetime to women, ESPN to sports fans. You see,,,it works. Thats why we do it. 

And this ends Radio 101 Part 1. If you have any questions about this wonderful world of radio, drop me a line at wmgwboss@yahoo.com and we can address it next time. See Ya!

    Sometimes I like to give you an idea of what we are doing behind the scenes. Well this time of year its time to start planning for the Football Season. You have to start now to ensure that you have your ducks in a row with the first week of September comes along.

    Some changes are in store this year, as always. Vic Kress has decided to step down as our color commentator for Bulldog Football so he can concentrate on his first love, the Gators. Ray Reisdorf will again the voice of the Dogs and we will introduce a new color man later this summer.
Tim Continenza, who joined our Sports Team last fall for Basketball will helm the Franklin Knights and the Titusville Rockets this year. Returning will be Jim Sandok who grew into a great color man last year with Football and Basketball.

    Now, you might have noticed I have not mentioned the Oil City Oilers. Well, we had to face facts that since we lost our transmitter in O.C. we needed to alter our Southern Strategy. I have wanted to do the Rockets in the worst way for several years, but logistics prevented it. (It has something to do with how we get our signal to the various transmitters. Engineering mumbo jumbo you don't care about.)
Bottom line is we are doing a split schedule of Knights and Rockets games this season and I couldn't be more excited to get back to the Rockets. Not to say the Oilers will be totally absent, there are several "crossover" games where they play the Knights, the Rockets, and the Bulldogs.

    Meadville Hockey will be back in the fall from the House of Chills, the Meadville Rec Complex with Gary Clark and Dick Tedesco at the mike. The Dogs have changed their league affiliation for this year, so we are expecting some very exciting Hockey.
NFL Football will be back as well with the Westwood One lineup including the Triple Header each Sunday, Monday Night Football and Thursday night football.

    And Don't forget the Penguins. They were new to our lineup last year and we will have them again this year on nights we don't have Football, Bulldog Hockey or Basketball.
I know this keeps us really busy during the winter months with alot of schedule conflicts. I came up with a phrase for how we pick which games to run. LOCAL TRUMPS!!
If it comes down to a local Team or NFL or Penguins, we are going to choose the local game every time. After all, we are your local radio station.   

    I will do my best to keep the weekly schedule posted at the top of the Sports page here on the website, on the air, as well as on our Facebook Page. If you are not a fan of the page already just go to our front page and click on the Facebook Widget to become a fan.
As always I want to know what you think and any ideas you might have. Just drop me an email at wmgwboss@yahoo.com or just comment on our wall on Facebook.

Here we are, it isn't even Summer Yet and the events are piling up. This week is the Thurston Classic Balloon event in Meadville and the Antlers and Anglers Show at Port Meadville Airport. Next up is the Rocky Grove Firemans Fair and Libertyfest Parade in Franklin. Soon enough is Oil Heritage Festival and Parade in Oil City, then Oil Festival and Parade in Titusville, Crawford County Fair, just to name a few events. And soon enough is High School, College, and NFL Football. Holy Mackrel! Time is flying by way too fast.
Its this that reminds me to stop and smell the roses. I lost a good friend recently reminding me that we are all mortal, all subject to the weakness of the flesh and alive for a finite period. This shouldn't depress you, just remind you to enjoy your life as often as possible. When you are shaking hands with Elvis and Michael Jackson, its too late. Frank Sinatra said it well...."Regrets, Ive had a few, but then again too few to Mention". I hope to leave with as few woulda's, could'a, should'a as is possible.
If you are not taking time each day to enjoy your life, I hereby authorize you to do just that. Tell I boss I told you too. Ill take the heat for ya. That's the kind of guy I am!

Techfest...I love technology. It is all over at Techfest. Its important to note that world class work is being done in this little corner of Northwest Pennsylvania. Thanks to computers and robotics, shops around her are turning out products that would have had to go to big shops 10 years ago. Thanks to the software and robots, one machine make make a very intricate part that has tolerances that would have been impossible. There are plenty of people in the field and they are making money. The ones who have survived have been the ones who keep training themselves. If this sounds like too much work to you, Ok, move on. To the guys that enjoy what they do and are proud of what they accomplish, extra training is nothing. Like in just about any field, those who stay current live, the slow witted die. Its a fact that today the contracts and therefore the money goes to those who are the best at their job, and to stay the best, you need to keep improving you. Thats what you are investing in...you! Techfest shows us how to get that done. Hooray for manufacturing in 2010. It might not look like the old days, but it is keeping us working. Nuff Said.

You might be wondering why we have a Facebook site set up when we have a perfectly good website just sitting here. Well, its easy. Facebook allows me to send out stuff I think you might want to know immeadiately instead of going on the air and telling you there is something new on the web site. Will Facebook replace the Web Site? No. The Web Site allows a vast array of content you cant do on "Social Media". We have plenty of news resources on the site as well as the Poll Question, Programs, Web Site of the Day and more. They compliment each other, each has its use. If you want to keep up with Sports Schedules, Contests, and general observations, just go to the front page and click in the Facebook box to become a Fan. My goal is a modest one.....World Domination!!! Well maybe I'll set my sights a little lower. I want everyone of you online to become a Fan. Is it realistic? No, but as Kacey Kacem said, "Keep reachin for the Stars."

I must admit I was somwhat leary of the Penguins chances as the season went along. The werent the powerhouse they were last year, but then maybe are shaping up. They had some trouble with Ottawa, streaching the season out to7 games. I thougt the triple overtime game was going to be the last, but they got it together and won the last one. Now, its Montreal. At least they are a closer match, seed-wise to the Pens. I thought if it had been Washington, all was lost. I have high hopes for this next series that starts Friday night at Mellon Arena and continues Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Go Penns, we're pulling for ya. Catch all the games on The Allegheny News Talk Sports Network. Its a shame the TV contracts are so messed up, with NBC getting one game and Versus the rest. I dont know about you, but I dont have the Upper Tier of channels on Armstrong, so no TV for me. Thats Ok, I prefer Mike Lang on the Radio.

Hi gang, its been a while since I have written, but I mean to correct that in the future. I admit it, I have been lazy, I have let the Weekly Polls go by the wayside and I mean to correct that. Starting this week we are doing polls again. I want to find our more about your likes and dislikes. This week I am asking you about the shows we have that you like. Next week week I will ask about the ones you hate. I am not saying this will change anything, but you never know. Its one vote per person, please. I want some accurate date, and if someone elects to stuff the ballot box....well you see what I mean.
In the weeks to come, I will be mixing in current events, pop culture stuff, pretty anything I am curious about. If you have an idea for a poll question, drop me a line at wmgwboss@yahoo.com.