WJAS completes news-talk format switch

Pitt Trib Review ^ | 8/7/14 | Patrick Cloonan

[raccoonradio]

Two widely expected format flips occurred Aug. 7 on Pittsburgh radio.
WJAS (1320 AM) began picking up the former news-talk format of WPGB (104.7 FM) at noon, while at 3 p.m., WPGB flipped from news-talk to “Big 104.7” airing “Pittsburgh's New Hit Country.”

The new “Big 104.7” opened with Florida Georgia Line's “This Is How We Roll” and pledged 10,000 songs in a row without commercials to start its competition with CBS Radio's WDSY “Y-108” (107.9 FM) and Keymarket's three Froggy FM stations, WOGG (94.9 FM), WOGH (103.5 FM) and WOGF (104.3 FM).

WPGB alerted listeners to the format change on its website, while midday host Rush Limbaugh was hailing the addition of WJAS as an affiliate of his “Excellence in Broadcasting” network on his website.

Essentially, the former WPGB format is being moved from the Clear Channel-owned FM to AM 1320, which was sold by Renda Broadcasting to Frank Iorio's Radio Partners LLC. The WPGB announcement touted the move of syndicated hosts Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity to WJAS. WPGB's Fox News Radio affiliation moved to WJAS as well.

The move came one day after former WJAS announcers Jack Bogut and Bill Cardille bade their listeners farewell from morning-drive and midday slots, respectively, on WJAS, which under Renda operated with a nostalgia format.

[Buckeye McFrog]

570 out of Youngstown puts a really good signal in here during the day. Just be sure to turn it off before that Lefty idiot Ron Verb comes on at 3.

1170 in Wheeling may also work for some people.
Or 560 out of Frostburg, Maryland if you are towards the east.

[LadyBuck]

Thanks for the tip!

[raccoonradio]

Yup..I come once per year for the furry cartoon convention; flying and then renting a car. This time around I’m driving the whole way (from Bos) with stopovers in Harrisburg on way to and from Pitt. So I’ll be scanning the dial.
The rental I had from Dollar (a Toyota Yaris) had no sat. radio (it was in there but not turned on) but it did have HD radio for “extra channels”...

[PghBaldy]

... I can get WJAS OK in the City of Pgh, it gets bad where a relative lives -about 13 mile outside of City... I liked WJAS for music, though it was getting too recent for my tastes...

[caww]

Thanks...they were pretty popular here I understand, at least among conservatives. Otherwise this area is pretty much blue until you get into the rural areas.

Pittsburgh is all blue...I never go there as the mindset is wacked.

[fatnotlazy]

I have an aunt who is 82. She was a Democrat voter till she started listening to Quinn & Rose at my suggestion. My aunt doesn't have internet, so she had been relying on the mainstream media for her news and information. Q&R went a long way toward changing her to a conservative.

[GregB]

106.3 is Cat Country in Indiana Pa and I get it into Penn Hills!!!

[caww]

....”Q&R went a long way toward changing her to a conservative”.....

God knows when people are “ready” to hear the truth and will use anything and anyone to deliver that when the time comes. He simply uses the willing who speak the truth.

I think radio has done much, and now the internet to offer other than Mains Street Media, which here has become simply a propaganda machine for the elites and those governing. Really no different then Russia’s media...though anymore even they seem more “free’ than our own! Figure that?

[Nowhere Man]

Yeah, I live west of Pittsburgh near the airport and in the daytime WJAS is OK to pick up but at night, it is tough, sometimes it is so far down in the mud, you can just forget it. At night they go from 7000 to 3000 watts and the antenna pattern changes to where you have 3 lobes, one north, one west and one southeast. I'm just at the end of the “local” coverage of the western lobe but I often wonder if I'm in a “skip zone” where the signal passes above me on the way to the ionosphere. I'm also a Coast to Coast junky, so instead of 1320 kc, I listen to it on 1170 out of Wheeling, 570 out of Youngstown or 1140 out of Richmond, VA. I'm sure my aunt is going ape, she liked the music on that station plus Chilly Billy and Jack Bogut. Well, soon it will not matter as much for me, I'm moving closer to Wheeling (my mother passed away and I can't keep the house) so I'll just hop over to WWVA on 1170 kc and listen to 1320 when I'm closer to Pittsburgh were I still work. Anyhoo, it is kind of ironic that Quinn and Rose's show “died” on the same day Mom passed away. B-( BTW, radio receiver used is a Grundig G6 Aviator model, “Buzz Aldrin edition.” It covers 150 to 29999 kc from longwave to shortwave, 76 to 108 Mc FM and 118 to 137 Mc VHF aviation band. I'll try my other receivers such as gramp’s 1953 5 tube Philco, my 1965 8 transistor Magnavox and my Heinz Ketchup Bottle radio.

[Nowhere Man]

Yeah, I’ll second the 80’s music station, I’m an 80’s guy myself. B-) We need another country station like I need a hole in my head. Anyhoo, I like the old style country like Glenn Campbell, Johnny Cash and so on and no one can hold a candle to Slim Bryant and The Wildcats.

[Nowhere Man]

Yeah, their night range stinks, their signal is so far down in the mud. I think it is a bad move. The ones I really feel sorry for is Jack Bogut and Chilly Billy Cardille.

[Nowhere Man]

570 out of Youngstown puts a really good signal in here during the day. Just be sure to turn it off before that Lefty idiot Ron Verb comes on at 3.

Yeah, WKBN's night pattern shoots way north, southeast and southwest at night so it comes it pretty well here although in the winter there are times Cuba's "Radio Reloj" (Radio Clock) "walks over" WKBN at night. I remember there were times I tried to get Cleveland's WWWE, now WTAM, on 1100 kc at night during the Cold War and I remember hearing Radio Moscow from Cuba "walking over" Cleveland.

[raccoonradio]

thanks for the info and RIP to your mom. I’m from Boston but will be in area next week (I also come in July for the “furry” convention and tend to stay either dahntahn or in Moon or Crafton, and will be all over the area—I like Beaver county and eat at PJ’ BBQ on Brodhead in Aliquippa.

Years ago I used to have a GE Superadio that was pretty good on recep. My older brother was in the merchant marine in the 60s and my family used to have a huge GE (probably) set with a long antenna (though portable) with AM, FM, LW, shortwave etc.
For a time I was into SW but now I have such things as satellite radio, HD, and what’s on the web (including listening via apps like TuneIn, Live365, iHeartRadio...which could help you for Coast to Coast). Primary talk station in Boston is WRKO 680 (oldtime top 40 hangout) with Rush, Levin, Coast to Coast, and great regional host Howie Carr.
Thanks to smartphone I can still hear that station even if I’m driving on Parkway East in Pitt.

[raccoonradio]

...though indeed you can hear C2C via the stations you mentioned

[Nowhere Man]

Yeah, Moon, that’s where I live, for now. I know of PJ’s too. Other radios I have is a Sanyo RP-8700 that does well on AM too. I do think moving to WJAS for talk was a bad idea, then again, I doubt they would be able to take over KDKA-AM.

[raccoonradio]

ah good...Moon has a nice community park, I eat at the Eat n Park and have stayed at motels there of course

[raccoonradio]

Still no website (other than “under construction” at 1320wjas.com ) facebook or streaming for the new WJAS 1320.
Admittedly it was rushed after word started to leak via web, but they should have had something up by now

[raccoonradio]

WJAS on iHeart

http://www.iheart.com/live/WJAS-1320-AM-6637/

[raccoonradio]

Unofficial facebook group for WJAS 1320 since they haven’t put a group up yet

https://www.facebook.com/groups/UnofficialWJAS1320/

[raccoonradio]

Update—not sure how this will affect
station/format:
RadioInsight:
Frank Iorio’s Pittsburgh Radio Partners sells Conservative Talk “Talk Radio 1320” WJAS/99.1 W256DE Pittsburgh to St. Barnabas Broadcasting for $2.05 million. The buyer is a subsidiary of St. Barnabas Charities which operates a chain of nursing homes and assisted living centers in the Pittsburgh region.