WJPA, Washington, Pa.

[Greg Goodfellow]

Da dum da dum...14 WK, dah-dah-DAH! WHEE-ling!

Good times. I listened to WKWK-FM a few miles outside Sistersville, up a 'holler. What a GREAT radio station; the talent level there at the time was legendary!

BTW, got to listen to 'JPA Wednesday night when my wife and I heard our daughter's concert, but we had to get up near West Lib to get a satisfactory signal. If only we had something that sounded like that in our parts-someone has got to write the 'JPA story!

[db59]

WJPA is without a doubt one of the finest gems on the radio dial.  Their music variety is utterly fantastic, and they play the type of songs that I really enjoy hearing.  As their slogan goes, "Not the same old oldies".  My only wish is that they had a stronger signal that could reach out to more of the greater Pittsburgh area.  They are the type of oldies station this area so badly needs.

[Kurt Toy]

This past Saturday during the 10-11 p.m. hour the station played a song titled, I think, "Medicine Jar." Who did the tune and when was it released?

[db59]

"Medicine Jar" was released by Paul McCartney & Wings in 1975.  It was on the "Venus & Mars" LP.  This was one of the few songs by Wings that featured someone other than Sir Paul as lead singer, namely Jimmy McCulloch.  I got this info from Songfacts.

[Parttimer]

WJPA is without a doubt one of the finest gems on the radio dial.  Their music variety is utterly fantastic, and they play the type of songs that I really enjoy hearing.  As their slogan goes, "Not the same old oldies".  My only wish is that they had a stronger signal that could reach out to more of the greater Pittsburgh area.  They are the type of oldies station this area so badly needs.

Today they played "Can I Change My Mind" by Tyrone Davis. Right after "Suite Judy Blue Eyes".

I'm 53 years old and the PDs I've worked for will tell you I'm pretty much a walking music library. I have NEVER HEARD the Tyrone Davis version of the song (DVE listeners know the Roy Buchanan version with Billy Price on vocals). I only know it was Tyrone Davis because the jock intro-ed it. If they're playing that because it's the original version of a DVE song, that's just someone trying to be too cool for the room, or auditioning for a job at Sirius/XM.

Then they played a really awful disco-pop song with which I was also unfamiliar, followed immediately by two songs from the same early classic rock genre, Small Faces' "Itchycoo Park" and the Youngbloods "Get Together". The Beatles "Drive My Car" was in there somewhere too (trying to remember this as I was driving at the time).

Then some 80's stuff including "Baker Street", Linda Ronstadt's "It's So Easy" and Chicago "Just You and Me."

Plus the cheesy late 70's early 80's jingle package.

If this is what you like, you can get a version that's 100 times better on satellite.

Having said all of that, they are doing a ton of business, they still have the same car dealers on the air that were clients at WKEG in the 80's, they do a nice job with spots for local attorneys, and a bunch of Kennywood spots that are probably trade.

And they actually have to do this. Would anyone listen if they were just a watered down version of what the big boys are doing? Probably not. So good for them, they're successful, but to those who think this would be a really highly rated station on a full-market signal, I disagree.

[cingram]

I'm 53 years old and the PDs I've worked for will tell you I'm pretty much a walking music library. I have NEVER HEARD the Tyrone Davis version of the song (DVE listeners know the Roy Buchanan version with Billy Price on vocals). I only know it was Tyrone Davis because the jock intro-ed it. If they're playing that because it's the original version of a DVE song, that's just someone trying to be too cool for the room, or auditioning for a job at Sirius/XM.

"Can I Change My Mind" by Tyrone Davis went to #5 on Billboard's Hot 100 (#1 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart)
and was also a hit on KQV and WIXZ.  The song was played by 3WS for much of its history as an oldies station.
I've never heard, or even heard of, the Roy Buchanan version.

C.

[Parttimer]

I'm 53 years old and the PDs I've worked for will tell you I'm pretty much a walking music library. I have NEVER HEARD the Tyrone Davis version of the song (DVE listeners know the Roy Buchanan version with Billy Price on vocals). I only know it was Tyrone Davis because the jock intro-ed it. If they're playing that because it's the original version of a DVE song, that's just someone trying to be too cool for the room, or auditioning for a job at Sirius/XM.

"Can I Change My Mind" by Tyrone Davis went to #5 on Billboard's Hot 100 (#1 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart)
and was also a hit on KQV and WIXZ.  The song was played by 3WS for much of its history as an oldies station.
I've never heard, or even heard of, the Roy Buchanan version.

C.

I stand somewhat corrected... while you were listening to 3WS I was listening to DVE.....

[Boss Radio]

WJPA is without a doubt one of the finest gems on the radio dial.  Their music variety is utterly fantastic, and they play the type of songs that I really enjoy hearing.  As their slogan goes, "Not the same old oldies".  My only wish is that they had a stronger signal that could reach out to more of the greater Pittsburgh area.  They are the type of oldies station this area so badly needs.

Would anyone listen if they were just a watered down version of what the big boys are doing? Probably not. So good for them, they're successful, but to those who think this would be a really highly rated station on a full-market signal, I disagree.

The charm of WJPA is they don't have to play by the "rules," most of which have made 3WS unlistenable for me. 3WS has a horrendous morning show, and voice tracking has taken the life out of the other daytime shifts. The adjusted-demo music mix makes no sense to me.

The ratings are great, so I guess they're making money, but I absolutely NEVER listen to 3WS when WJPA is available.

[cingram]

The charm of WJPA is they don't have to play by the "rules," most of which have made 3WS unlistenable for me. 3WS has a horrendous morning show, and voice tracking has taken the life out of the other daytime shifts. The adjusted-demo music mix makes no sense to me.

The ratings are great, so I guess they're making money, but I absolutely NEVER listen to 3WS when WJPA is available.

3WS lost me as a listener when they stopped playing oldies (as I knew that format).  Of course, I am out of the
demo, so they wouldn't care about losing me, or others my age.

After all those years of hearing "I love my oldies on 3WS!", I didn't think they had enough "give" in that image to
play what they're playing now and still keep the name.  Guess I was wrong.

Fortunately, I live in the South Hills so I have access to WJPA, WPKL, WKZV or whatever may suit my old self at
the moment.  And in our cluster, 97.5/770 KFB is playing all the songs 3WS has forgotten.

C.

[Parttimer]

The whole discussion on the Tyrone Davis song is a great illustration of why deep doesn't work on mass-market stations.  The song is from 1968 as best I can tell, at which point I was 9 years old.  I lived in Florida during the heyday of 3WS as an oldies station. There was one decent oldies station in Orlando in the 90's and a marginal one for a while in Tampa Bay.

Clarke on the other hand probably wasn't a DVE or WYDD listener to the extent I was. I wouldn't be surprised if KVE plays the Roy Buchanan version (which frankly got most of its legs here because of the local lead singer, Billy Price). But call DVE and request it on the Electric Lunch or as Sean's afternoon deep cut...

So imagine thousands of listeners, with their own backgrounds.... the areas where everyone's tastes overlap get really small. That's why playlists shrink....