Pittsburgh, PA Radio News

[ynkeesfn82]

This is for the people on this forum who are from the Pittsburgh, PA area.

1. Late last week Clear Channel dumped the all-talk format from 104.7 FM and flipped it to Country as BIG 104.7

2. Clear Channel teamed up with the new owners of WJAS AM 1320 and put the former talk programming from 104.7 onto WJAS AM 1320, replacing the Big Band and Swing Format.

3. Radio Disney has announced it is selling 23 or its 24 stations across the USA including AM 1250 in Pittsburgh. Radio Disney will be ending on AM 1250 on September 26th. If they don't yet have a buyer for AM 1250 (or any of the other stations for that matter) by that date, they station(s) will go off the air until a buyer is found. The on station RD is keeping is KDIS in Los Angeles.

[Hudsons81]

I doubt this will see much activity...the only regular I know of who is from Pittsburgh is TheFugitive. In fact, I don't even think a "Detroit, MI Radio News" thread on this site will work at all, since I'm the only regular from that region.

[TheFugitive]

Similar things are happening in radio in all markets, be they Detroit, Pittsburgh or wherever.

This news affects you as well since WFDF is one of the 23 Radio Disney stations up for sale that is likely to go dark.
Scarcely a decade ago Disney ripped this station away from Flint, built a very expensive 50,000 watt directional array
south of Detroit, and bought a station in Ohio and shut it down to remove interference.  Now it's all about to become an
expensive junkpile.

Already Detroit has seen the legendary Keener 13, which later became a liberal talk station, go dark as the license was donated to a nonprofit that can't seem to come up with a new transmitter site.

My father was quite upset to lose his standards on WJAS.   As a talk station they are pretty awful.
Lousy sound quality and all brokered garbage on the weekends.

Personally I am saddened by the pending potential demise of 1250.
I had friends who worked there during its heyday in the late '70's.

[TheFugitive]

I doubt this will see much activity...the only regular I know of who is from Pittsburgh is TheFugitive. In fact, I don't even think a "Detroit, MI Radio News" thread on this site will work at all, since I'm the only regular from that region.

Actually quite a lot of people with Pittsburgh ties should be hanging out on an Ames board.

GC Murphy Company, one of the key chains acquired by Ames as it expanded from its New England base,
was based here in McKeesport.  I met many old time Murphy managers during my time at Ames who were
from the Pittsburgh area.

For a chain that seemed to prefer small town and rural locations, Pittsburgh was probably one of Ames'
best markets.  Certainly the largest and most urban.

Although headquartered in Boston, the real nerve center for Hills Department Stores was the old Ops Center
in the Green Garden Plaza in Aliquippa.  Hills was fantastically successful in this market.  Those stores all became
Ames locations after the merger.

[Ameskid]

I doubt this will see much activity...the only regular I know of who is from Pittsburgh is TheFugitive. In fact, I don't even think a "Detroit, MI Radio News" thread on this site will work at all, since I'm the only regular from that region.

This board is basically made for East/Northeast-Coasters...

[Hudsons81]

I doubt this will see much activity...the only regular I know of who is from Pittsburgh is TheFugitive. In fact, I don't even think a "Detroit, MI Radio News" thread on this site will work at all, since I'm the only regular from that region.

This board is basically made for East/Northeast-Coasters...

...possibly as far west as Wisconsin?

[Ameskid]

I doubt this will see much activity...the only regular I know of who is from Pittsburgh is TheFugitive. In fact, I don't even think a "Detroit, MI Radio News" thread on this site will work at all, since I'm the only regular from that region.

This board is basically made for East/Northeast-Coasters...

...possibly as far west as Wisconsin?

And as far south as Florida. But that is besides the point, as most posters here seem to hail from somewhere in New England.

[TheFugitive]

I doubt this will see much activity...the only regular I know of who is from Pittsburgh is TheFugitive. In fact, I don't even think a "Detroit, MI Radio News" thread on this site will work at all, since I'm the only regular from that region.

This board is basically made for East/Northeast-Coasters...

...possibly as far west as Wisconsin?

And as far south as Florida. But that is besides the point, as most posters here seem to hail from somewhere in New England.

Makes sense as Ames was headquartered in New England.
As were two of its key component companies, Hills and Zayre.

[TheFugitive]

Couple of local updates:

- WWCS-AM 540 in Canonsburg has dumped Fox Sports Radio and replaced it
with Yahoo! Sports Radio.

- WDDZ-AM 1250 has remained on the air despite Radio Disney's previous announcement
that it would go dark on Sept. 26 (apparently none of the Radio Disney stations have to this point)

- The wife of Frank Dittig (a.k.a. Frankie Day, host of the Frankie Day Oldies Show on WKFB-AM 770)
passed away last week.

[Hudsons81]

- WDDZ-AM 1250 has remained on the air despite Radio Disney's previous announcement
that it would go dark on Sept. 26 (apparently none of the Radio Disney stations have to this point)

WFDF 910 is remaining on the air too despite that announcement.

And actually, their signal does still reach Flint, even though it's in rural Monroe County. However, none of their operations are in the Flint area any more-they moved their last-remaining Flint-area offices to Southfield in 2006, dismantled their transmitter in Flint and changed the city of license to Farmington Hills (both it and Southfield are Detroit suburbs).

[TheFugitive]

When I lived in Flint WFDF was playing big band music.  The studio was actually
in a house in Burton.  Transmitter down on Center Road someplace.

The strange one was WTRX.  The towers and transmitter/studio building were in the middle
of a trailer park.  Looks like at some point the station was losing money and they began
leasing out trailer lots all over the transmitter property.

[TheFugitive]

I don't know if it qualifies as "news"....since it happened in 1972....BUT....

Rush Limbaugh was telling a story the other day about his first radio job, which was right here
in Pittsburgh at 1360 WIXZ (pronounced "thirteen sixty wick-see") in McKeesport.  He worked
there for a few years under the name Jeff Christie, before heading across town to work at KQV
for a couple more.

He was doing the morning show and Lily Tomlin was in town to appear at some stand-up club.
This was in her Laugh-In days (or immediately afterwards) and she would have been a big draw.
Her promoters were calling around asking to bring her on morning radio shows to promote the
appearance, and WIXZ management said "sure!"

So Rush worked out an on-air phone comedy bit with Lily Tomlin.  Rush would pretend to make a crank call and Tomlin would pretend to be an employee at a local supermarket.  He asked her if they had TV dinners with raccoon meat. (what prompted this story was a news item about a grocer in L.A. being shut down for selling raccoon meat for human consumption)  She would then become indignant and outraged, threaten to report him to the ASPCA, and then Tomlin would switch to her Ernestine character (who had been eavesdropping) to dump on him some more.

Wow, Rush Limbaugh doing a comedy routine with Lily Tomlin?  Whoda thunkit??

She of course is one of Hollywood's leading Liberals, so likely she had to go into hiding
the next day after he told this story.  He claimed that tape of this bit convinced his mother
that he would actually make it in the radio biz.  "I had no idea you could be funny!"

I was also impressed that when posting this to Rush's website they were able to dig up the
actual 1360 WIXZ logos from that time.

[ynkeesfn82]

AM 540 which I believe is a Sports Station is up for sale, making it the 2nd Pittsburgh-area station that is currently for sale. The station is owned by Birach Broadcasting whom reportedly selling all their stations. It should be noted that most of Birach stations are a technical nightmare and most are not broadcasting within the legal parameters of their FCC licenses. The vast majority of their stations run leased-time Ethnic Programming. One interesting station they have is WNZK in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. During the day they operate on 690AM, but at night they switch to 680AM.

[TheFugitive]

I remember WNZK from when I lived in Michigan.  At the time a lot of their ethnic
programming was in Arabic (Detroit and Toledo have the largest ethnic Arab populations
in the US).  Was like tuning your dial to Radio Baghdad.  I became convinced that this
language could not be spoken, only shouted.

Did not know 540 in Canonsburg was for sale.  They did get fined some time ago for allowing
part of the protective chain link fence around their transmitter to collapse without repairing it.
Scary!  This was formerly on the grounds of a state hospital and way out in the boonies.
Today the land has been developed and there are $500,000 homes that come up right to
the edge of this transmitter property. I sure as heck would not buy one.

The other station I know is for sale is 1250, once the legendary WTAE.  These are two
of the best AM signals in the Pittsburgh area if anyone out there has a plan for what to
do with them.

I do believe that Mr. Birach is quite elderly, so not surprised that he is selling off his stations.
Did he ever get 1460 WPON back on the air?  That one had quite a following amongst the
oldies community.

[ynkeesfn82]

Was like tuning your dial to Radio Baghdad.  I became convinced that this
language could not be spoken, only shouted.

A lot of those leased-time ethnic stations are like that. And the owners don't care as long as the check doesn't bounce. ---- I was once an "intern" - READ UNPAID EMPLOYEE at WXCT 990 in Southington, Connecticut. (They were running an all-talk format). My boss lost the lease of the station in May 2007 and the new group leasing the station - a Spanish language Christian network out of NYC called Radio Cantico Nuevo had horrible sounding programming. A lot of the times is was over modulated and distorted. And one Saturday night a now former buddy of mine were riding around Southington and my buddy says to me "Marc, whatever happened to that station you used to work at 990 AM?" I punched up 990 on the car radio and there was woman yelling rapid-fire Spanish at the top of her lungs. This went on for at least 20 minutes. Every few minutes my buddy and I were like "Calm down lady, you're going to give yourself a heart attack." Aside from the fact they weren't using the local studio in Southington, I kept imaging myself picking up the newspaper the next morning and seeing a headline "Woman Found Dead of Heart Attack at Local Radio Station." - Of course that never happened. - The station now simulcasts the Spanish Contemporary format of their sister station WSPR 1270 from Springfield, Mass Monday-Friday. They still run Spanish Christian Programming on the weekend outside of 8:30AM-3PM on Sundays.

Then there's WRYM 840 in New Britain, Connecticut. Their studio and antenna are on Willard Avenue in Newington. They mostly play Spanish Music and go by the name "La Gigante". One night after Midnite I picked up the station (they forgot to cut to their low-power night time power) and I heard the creepiest thing I had ever heard. It was a Spanish language preacher talking really loud and in the background they were playing a sound effect of someone crying.

I do believe that Mr. Birach is quite elderly, so not surprised that he is selling off his stations.
Did he ever get 1460 WPON back on the air?  That one had quite a following amongst the
oldies community.

Yes he is quite elderly. Plus he's been taken advantage of by several people including his own son. There's a disclaimer on his website about it. I don't know if he ever got WPON back on the air. I should ask on one of the radio forums I belong to. He doesn't keep his website up-to-date. http://www.birach.com/

The website http://www.radiostationsforsale.net/ had this ad on in:

From RadioStationsForSale.net: Chicago AM ~ St. Louis AM ~ Buffalo NY AM ~ Suburban DC AM ~ Grand Rapids MI AM, Louisville KY AM ~ Flint MI AM ~ Ann Arbor MI AM ~ Little Rock AM ~ Tulsa AM, Detroit AM ~ Beaumont-Port Arthur TX AM ~ Sarasota Bradenton FL AM, Johnstown PA AM ~ Norflok-Virginia Beach AM ~ Pittsburgh AM ~ Des Moines AM stations available for lease or sale with significant seller financing to qualified parties For info contact Harold Bausemer 781-848-4201 or email radio@beld.net (2/15/15)

These are all markets where Birach owns stations which leads me to believe he is selling his stations.

[TheFugitive]

Wow, sad to hear he was taken advantage of by his own son.
Made me sick when it happened to Ted Williams and equally so here.

I had Lebanese next-door neighbors for a time.  They were a nice family, but
on summer evenings they'd invite a bunch of their cousins over and they'd
all sit outside enjoying beverages and chatting.  Until a very late hour....11,
midnight, 1AM.  They were having what I presume to be ordinary conversations
in Arabic, as no one seemed upset or angry.  But they were loud!  I got the
distinct impression that late-night confabs were part of the culture, and their
language was typically spoken at a very loud volume.

I'd take them back in a second over some of the screwball renters who have
been in that house since they left.

[ynkeesfn82]

The other station I know is for sale is 1250, once the legendary WTAE. 

I don't know what Disney wants for them but the 1250 The Pittsburgh Station, 1260 The Boston Station, and 640 the Philly station are the 3 biggest markets where Disney hasn't found a buyer yet. Most went to Religious Broadcasters, but 990 in Miami went to a Hispanic Broadcaster and is planning on putting Spanish language spoken word programming on it. The FCC approved the sale of Disney's 1560 in NYC last week to Family Radio Religious Group and the station is off the air as I type this.

[TheFugitive]

The most interesting station on that Birach sale list is WKGE in Johnstown, PA.

For many years this was WJAC, the big Johnstown full-service station.  10kW
in a very directional pattern that is shaped like an hour glass pointing north
and south.  That required some massive nine or ten tower array.  A few years
ago one of the towers failed or fell down, causing the signal to wobble and
interfere with WKNR in Cleveland.  The station has been off the air for a good
two years, as at this point the fact that they are on AM (and the local economy
in Johnstown has basically collapsed) means that likely you'd never recoup
the cost of the repairs.

So who is putting in a bid?

[ynkeesfn82]

The most interesting station on that Birach sale list is WKGE in Johnstown, PA.

For many years this was WJAC, the big Johnstown full-service station.  10kW
in a very directional pattern that is shaped like an hour glass pointing north
and south.  That required some massive nine or ten tower array.  A few years
ago one of the towers failed or fell down, causing the signal to wobble and
interfere with WKNR in Cleveland.  The station has been off the air for a good
two years, as at this point the fact that they are on AM (and the local economy
in Johnstown has basically collapsed) means that likely you'd never recoup
the cost of the repairs.

So who is putting in a bid?

9 or 10 towers? Yikes. That would likely be too cost prohibitive to fix. Not to mention the NIMBYers. There was a station down in New London, Connecticut WNLC 1510 AM. They played Big Band, Swing, and Adult Pop Standards. 10KW used something like 8 towers. About 18 years ago one of the towers caught fire knocking the station off the air. They determined that it would be too cost prohibitive to rebuild the site and the turned in the license to the FCC and bulldozed the remaining towers. They moved to 98.7 FM in East Lyme and have since flipped to Classic Hits.

[TheFugitive]

Here in Pittsburgh there is a 50kW daytimer on 1080.  When I was a kid their
call letters were WEEP and they were the big country station here in town.
They are daytime only because they have to protect WTIC up there in Hartford.

They apparently got a construction permit to go 5000 watts, 24 hours directional
with a huge array of ten or eleven towers.  It was never built, I suppose because it
would have been such an incredibly expensive project.  Even though enough people
were still listening to AM at the time to make it viable.

Supposedly this was going to be built in Mt. Oliver.  One of Pittsburgh's
worst neighborhoods.

1080 is still 50kW daytime only and runs religious programming as WWNL.

[ynkeesfn82]

The Radio Disney affiliate in Pittsburgh has been sold to Salem Media Group for $1 million. They already own WORD/WPIT. Radio Blog Northeast Radio Watch expects Salem to install its Conservative Talk format on AM 1250 and will most likely be known as "1250 The Answer" as most of Salem's talk stations are known as "The Answer."

http://www.fybush.com/nerw-extra-disney-sells-in-pittsburgh/

[TheFugitive]

You know, I had a strange feeling that was going to happen.

Salem currently owns WPIT-AM, which airs their talk lineup (Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved)
in the evenings.  

However, WPIT only runs a post-sundown power of 25 watts.
I'm frankly amazed that makes it to my house.

The former WTAE runs 5000 watts directional, day and night, and has one of the
best AM signals in town.  

Though it would have been nice to see them go back to playing Top 40 as they did
in their heyday.  I have a good friend who was a DJ there at that time.

[TheFugitive]

Lots of speculation here as to whether Quinn and Rose will be offered the morning slot if, as expected, Salem turns 1250 to a Conservative Talk format.

Their show was canceled by WPGB 104.7 over a year ago, shortly before that station
flipped from talk to country.  Supposedly they had a deal to do mornings on 1320 WJAS
when they flipped to talk, but Quinn reportedly scotched the deal in a dispute over
internet streaming rights.

Jim Quinn has had a long, colorful, and at times checkered career on Pittsburgh radio
(including prior stints as a DJ on both 1250 and 1320 back when they were playing music).

As Salem is an ostensibly Christian organization, there is some thought that Quinn may be a bit too rough and tumble for them.  They should like Rose though.  She worked for the local Christian television station, WPCB, for many years.

[TheFugitive]

The Radio Disney affiliate in Pittsburgh has been sold to Salem Media Group for $1 million. They already own WORD/WPIT. Radio Blog Northeast Radio Watch expects Salem to install its Conservative Talk format on AM 1250 and will most likely be known as "1250 The Answer" as most of Salem's talk stations are known as "The Answer."

http://www.fybush.com/nerw-extra-disney-sells-in-pittsburgh/

Salem Media confirmed in their quarterly earnings conference call with investors yesterday
that is indeed their plan for 1250.

[TheFugitive]

And in more Pittsburgh radio news, WRRK (BOB-FM) has landed atop the ratings for the second
month in a row.

http://www.pbrtv.com/wrrk-reaches-the-top-for-the-second-month/

This is notable because WRRK is one of a dwindling number of stations that are under local ownership
(not owned by IHeartMedia, CBS or Cumulus).  WRRK and it's sister station WLTJ (Q 92.9), along with
the alternative weekly City Paper, are owned by Steel City Media.

In other local radio news, long-time Pittsburgh radio personality Jim Quinn, and his sidekick Rose Tennant, return to the airwaves April 1 when they relaunch their conservative morning talk show.  The ironic thing is that it does not appear the show will be aired in Pittsburgh, at least initially.  WYSL in Rochester, New York looks like their flagship station (although the show will be based here in Pittsburgh).  It will also be available (for a fee) over a web app.

For many years Quinn and Rose held down morning drive at WRRK, before leaving about a decade ago to join Clear Channel (now IHeartMedia).  Guess in hindsight that did not work out so well.

[TheFugitive]

AM 1250, recently sold by Disney to Salem Media, will re-launch as a Conservative Talk
station on May 13, under the call letters WPGP.

http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/92803/pittsburghs-answer-to-launch-may-13/

[ynkeesfn82]

WAMO-100 in Pittsburgh has suspended a DJ for 2 weeks. Something about what he did or said or posted online about the guy in Baltimore who died in police custody.

http://foxct.com/2015/04/29/station-suspends-dj-over-posting-in-baltimore-mans-death/

[TheFugitive]

WAMO-100 in Pittsburgh has suspended a DJ for 2 weeks. Something about what he did or said or posted online about the guy in Baltimore who died in police custody.

http://foxct.com/2015/04/29/station-suspends-dj-over-posting-in-baltimore-mans-death/

I did not hear this, as I don't listen to WAMO.  But it is interesting.

Apparently the guy cross-posted a list of Freddy Gray's criminal priors that has been going around the internet.  Pretty lengthy, but mainly drug possession and petty thefts.  Nothing certainly that would justify the death penalty.

It looks like this guy posted the info trying to point out that Gray was no angel, and he suffered a brutal
blowback from the station's mostly black audience.  According to the article this included death threats, which is quite disturbing. 

[TheFugitive]

AM 1250 The Answer now on the air in Pittsburgh, featuring the conservative talk lineup from
the Salem Network (Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, etc.), along with Mark Levin and one
local show, hosted by Rose Soma Tennent, former co-host of Quinn and Rose.

This puts her in head-to-head competition with her former partner Jim Quinn, who has
launched a new morning show on 2 affiliates (Rochester, NY and Latrobe, PA), plus a paid online webstream.  Salem is ostensibly a Christian company, and likely they had some issues with Quinn's
checkered and colorful past as a DJ (the lawsuit he got involved in for cracking an oral sex
joke at the expense of his newscaster in the 80's being chief among them).  I presume that
Rose working solo looked like the safer bet.

[ynkeesfn82]

Changes at  Q92.9

John Cline, Dave Cook and Maria D’Antonio are out from the morning show of last week.

Jim Krenn formerly of WDVE 102.5 takes over mornings at Q92.9 on Monday July 6th. He will be joined by 3 people from his weekly podcast plus Q92.9 Midday DJ Debbie Wilde.

http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/93315/q92-9-pittsburgh-morning-shakeup-brings-in-jim-krenn/