Yawn! Call me when Bobby Mo joins a real league.

Does anyone really care about football, other than the families of the guys playing?

We have a bunch of guys who either started at a BCS program or who had offers from BCS schools but things didn't work out. Bell, if he were still at Ohio State, would be getting national headlines. We have a WR from Wyoming who was all-conference last year. A DB transferred in from Florida who had a lot of playing time on special teams. Rawlins, if he wins the starting QB job, entrolled early at WVU. There's a back-up RB from Pitt, and a DL we just signed from NJ who should have been going to a BCS school but ended up coming late to DU. We also have some "homegrown FBS" types including a 300-lb center who is picked to be all-conference. If all of these kids step up, I think we can give Wagner a run for its money.

At least a lot of people will get to hear us smack Bobby Mo around on the radio.

I continue to say, we are currently #3 in the city of Pittsburgh. We need to fix that on the field and on the court. That is the only place we can turn it back around.

townsonkid wrote:

duq81 wrote:

Does anyone really care about football, other than the families of the guys playing?

same can be said for basketball, or any college sport that isnt in the BCS level, I believe.

You think 104.7 enjoyed having 34 people listen during Dukes games?  So of course they will try something else.  They would have been stupid not to.

Are all of the 12,000 who regularly attend games at Dayton friends and family?

townsonkid wrote:

duq81 wrote:

townsonkid wrote:

same can be said for basketball, or any college sport that isnt in the BCS level, I believe.

You think 104.7 enjoyed having 34 people listen during Dukes games?  So of course they will try something else.  They would have been stupid not to.

Are all of the 12,000 who regularly attend games at Dayton friends and family?

Still doesnt make a dime of difference in regards to radio.
Frankly, I wouldnt think 34 people from WPa would listen to a home DU football game. 
Doesnt mean they arent good, means people are out and about Saturday afternoons and not really sitting around a radio.

If you are so self-assured to throw around the figure of 34 people as the regular radio listening audience of Duquesne football games, please provide the source of your information.  Off the top of your head doesn't count.
 

I like you guys, you're all off your rockers, but I can dig that.
Take it easy, chessey.

levon1975 wrote:

They do still put a radio in cars don't they?
Also, I don't know all of the particulars of the deal, but the Dukes Football games will be on WJAS 1320 this season; which fine, because the games will mainly be daylight games, and WJAS seems to have a pretty strong signal at least in my area.
 
If RMU basketball is carried on AM 970 few people will actually hear the games on radio as this is a weak AM statiion that fades out around dark in the winter.  They may have to listen online.

 
104.7 is a better station to cover our basketball games.   My point of this was that ESPN970 and 104.7 are both Clear Channel stations.   Will Clear Channels still cover Duquesne basketball on 104.7 now that it is caring RMU on ESPN970?     The contract with Clear Channels was up at the end of last season. 

If not, we are screwed for basketball radio coverage.   KQV has Penn State basketball....to cover Penn State football you have to take Penn State basketball.   WJAS has Pitt womens basketball.   Who else is left?  If you think 970 has a poor signal at night, try anything else remaining on the radio dial.  Radio stations in town are either owned Clear Channels, CBS Radio (the Fan - Pitt won't let any other local college on a CBS radio station), or smaller stations like WJAS, KQV and 1360. 

godukes1970 wrote:

Let's put to rest the rumors and speculation about radio coverage of Dukes' basketball for the 2013-2014 season.  

In a response to my afternnoon inquiry to Bob Derda, Associate AD/ External Relations, I received an e-mail from Bob addressing the issue: "Regarding coverage, men’s basketball will remain on 104.7, women’s basketball on Red Zone Media, and the coaches' shows on ESPN 970.  The only change is football game broadcasts which have moved to 1320 WJAS." 

I don't believe that Duquesne was kicked to the radio coverage curb as some posters bemoaned.  Cheer up Duquesne fans!  

GO DUKES! Beat Albany!
 

This will be terrible news to all of the chicken littles on the board. I wonder if they are the same people who declared Bob Nutting the worst owner in sports, and that the Pirates would never again have a winning team. I guess they need something to complain about, and the Dukes are an easy target.

I don't think any of the posters who weighed in on this topic fall into the "chicken little" category, and I'd like to challenge the analogy to the Pirates.

I don't live in the Pittsburgh area any more so it's hard for me to know which end is up when it comes to local radio. I have access to Arbitron ratings (actually, it's not hard to do this; I do it because we do occasional radio interviews and I need to know audience reach) and as I mentioned above, WJAS does not participate so it's difficult to do any comparisons. But the info about the broadcast reach is out there, and while WJAS is what I sometimes call a "daylight" station I think it provides sufficient coverage for us. Plus, games can be accessed via the Internet. For those who have never listened, Alex Panormios and crew do a nice job both with football and women's basketball.

And yes, I listen to the games when I can. Of course, if I'm out of the house I don't have access, and I think the point that Kurt and others are making is that if they're driving around and it's game time, they want to hear the game.

They are fans. Whether they number 37, 370, 3,700, 37,000, or 37 million is not relevant. I consider 37 people who listen to football games on the radio, however, to be more relevant than one who poses as a fan on a Duquesne message board to poke fun at the 37.

Then again, I am one of the 37, and I'm proud to be part of that little clique. I think DU football is going to have a great year and I've circled the Monmouth game on my calendar.

Regarding the comparison to the Pirates, there is a significant differernce. Money.

The Bucs ran a cheapskate operation for many years, even trading away talented young players as soon as they started to emerge as stars. In recent years, MLB started to punish George Steinbrenner for spending big bucks on trying to put the best team he could on the field by taxing him for going over a certain payroll level. That money was distributed to the other MLB teams to spend according to their own discretion. Many owners - including the Pirates for several years - stuffed the cash into their own pockets, screwing their own franchises and fans.

The Pirates his paydirt a couple years ago when the Yankees made two trades that helped turn the Pirates franshise around. The first was a boatload of young talent, including Ohlendorf, Karstens, Melancon, and Tabata, for a damaged Damaso Marte and an over the hill Xavier Nady. Marte helped us win a World Series, but basically never pitched again. Nady got hurt, got cut, and bounced around as a backup for a couple of years. How has that trade worked out for Pittsburgh?

The second trade was AJ Burnett for a bag of peanuts, candy coated popcorn and a prize. Along with Burnett came the money to pay his salary - money that's still on the books as Yankee payroll. George isn't writing the checks any more, but his sons are.

Finally, you can look at Russell Martin as a further gift from the Yankees. He wanted to return to the Bronx, but given that the Yanks are still paying Burnett's salary along with several other hefty contracts, Hal and Hank decided they didn't want to give Martin a multi-year deal. Thus in a third and more discrete way, Yankees money contributed to the Pirates' success this year.

Yes, Pittsburgh did draft, develop, and promote a bunch of young talented players. With Burnett being a gift and the Yanks still paying payroll tax, it made all the difference in the world as far as permitting the organization to develop to where it is today. That's the good news for the Pirates.

The bad news is that if the Yanks' aging and high paid vets retire or otherwise move on (e.g., get suspended and can't come back), it will stanch the flow of Steinbrenner money out of the Bronx and create a nice pot to sign some younger stars in the years to come.

That CF roaming around PNC Park right now will look good in pinstripes when that time comes. ;o)

Taking that converstaion to the Dukes, if you could somehow financially penalize Pitt, which thrives on taxpayer money and the income of a BCS football team, and throw a few million at Duquesne athletics, you would actually see true parity between us and the school in Oakland, and the school in Coraopolis would become as much of an after-thought as yesterday's lima beans.

Are you sure about Melancon? When he was in the minors he was touted as Mariano's replacement. I thought the Yanks shipped him as part of the deadl. Was it another reliever? 

Ohlendorf, Karstens and Tabata have certainly given Pittsburgh some good moments the past couple of years. After the '09 Series, Marte and Nady did the same thing as the KC Royals ... took money for nothing.

I'm sure that at the time I thought it was a good trade though. How's that for an admission?

Melancon was traded from the Red Sox in the offseason along with Jerry Sands, Stolmy Pimentel and Ivan deJesus for Joel Hanrahan and Brook Holt. Daniel McCutchen was the other pitcher in the Nady deal.

I still like the Nady/Marte deal even if some of the initial shine has warn off. Ohlendorf and Karstens once again prove why you can never have too much pitching. That said, it's impact on this season has been minimal. Tabata has been hot and cold, but he's still a below average right fielder.

Can't blame you for thinking that was good trade. Nady was having a career year and with the exception of Tabata none of the prospect were highly regarded.

That said, I give the Pirates front office a lot more credit for building this thing from the ground up and they've been making some quiet but strong decisions since the Nutting regime took over from investing more in Latin America to using revenue sharing to aggressively pay down debts (yes debts) left by previous ownership. In 2007, I was as anti Bob Nutting as anyone, but in the end I was completely wrong about him.
 

Last edited by steve19981 (8/21/2013 11:25 am)

ElDuque wrote:

The Bucs ran a cheapskate operation for many years, even trading away talented young players as soon as they started to emerge as stars. In recent years, MLB started to punish George Steinbrenner for spending big bucks on trying to put the best team he could on the field by taxing him for going over a certain payroll level. That money was distributed to the other MLB teams to spend according to their own discretion. Many owners - including the Pirates for several years - stuffed the cash into their own pockets, screwing their own franchises and fans.

Two things are incorrect here. The first is that the current owners are responsible for the years of futility. The Bucs are on their third ownership since the collapse. The current owner is in his 7th year of running the franchise. The two former owner(s) were indeed guilty of what you say, but the current owner, has made the correct moves, which is evident in the progress the team has made over the last few years. Second, it's a myth that the Bucs traded away their good players. During the entire 20 year run of futility, the Bucs traded away two good players who were near the top of their game. The Aramis Ramirez trade was just awful, and the worst thing they did during the entire disaster. The other player was Jason Bay. We got a lot of good mileage out of Bay, but paying him the big bucks would have been a disaster, as he pretty much hit the wall soon after he left here. The other good players we had, Giles, Kendall, Jack Wilson, and Freddie Sanchez, all spent their primes in Pittsburgh. The Bucs problem was not a failure to keep good players, it was a total failure to draft, and develop players worth keeping. Even the Yankees can't win when the farm system isn't producing. The bulk of the great Yankee teams under Joe Torre was home grown. The current regime has pumped tons of money into player development, and now the farm system is absolutely loaded.