Quinn and Tennent say they rejected offer to host WJAS

Conservative radio hosts Jim Quinn and Rose Tennent, formerly of WPGB 104.7 FM, have said they turned down an offer to be hosts on the newly reconfigured WJAS-AM (1320), but the station’s ownership would not confirm their statement.

“Note: we have declined the offer from WJAS. Terms offered precluded our ability to live stream to our audience which was essential,” the duo posted Thursday on their Twitter account (@warroom). On Friday, they wrote and then deleted a similar tweet.

Frank Iorio, owner of Radio Partners LLC, which purchased the station earlier this month, said Friday that the company had been negotiating with the pair for months and that their statement about the live-stream was not true.

Nathan Obral of Ohio Media Watch wrote the following on radioinsight.com. All of what follows is by him:

In some ways, Gregg Henson should be on Quinn and Rose’s Christmas Card list until the end of time. By having been kicked off of WPGB when they were, the show wasn’t subjected to the ratings implosion that has taken place throughout almost the entire format.
WJAS has multiple strikes against it, with or without Quinn and Rose:

* They are an AM station that has a mediocre signal… not as bad as 970 or KQV, but nowhere near as good as KDKA.

* They took up the entire lineup WPGB had (and I’m under the assumption that the station is temporarily operating out of the CC Pittsburgh studios until Frank Iorio can build new studios) which includes a morning show based out of Wheeling, West Virginia. No local hosts.

* The format is one that is suffering major ratings declines, so much so that Iorio is likely running it as a personal hobby.

* The standards/oldies format WJAS had under Renda didn’t have the youngest demos, but at least the audience was loyal. There was and is no guarantee that the few remaining people that listened to WPGB made the switch to WJAS.

* Unless Iorio has the money to spend to market his station, no one will tune in to a so-so AM, not even those willing to tune in to a conservatalk format. Again, the argument about him running the station as a personal hobby comes into question.

* The lack of any website or social networking for WJAS weeks after the flip should raise more than a few red flags. Frank Iorio, this is 2014. Not 1994, or 2004… you need to make the station visible as much as possible.

Quinn and Rose likely looked at all of those risks, and decided that being on WJAS wasn’t worth it. Thus, their push for their content to be subscriber-based.

I shouldn’t say this...The new owner is not known for loose spending.

It was ASSUMED the website and FB page were included in the sale.

Both were not owned or operated by Renda media. An employee obtained the DNS, maintained and operated both.

There are options but AFAIK negotiations are not underway.

The message from Jim Quinn:
While on vacation it has come to my attention that a tweet of mine has caused somemisunderstanding. Upon re-reading it , I can see that it could be misleading. I wrote itwhile I was in a rush and leaving for vacation(don’t try this at home folks).Please allow me to set the record straight:Frank Iorio did indeed talk with us about doing the show on his station WJAS. HeDID offer to stream it live on I Heart Radio. However, I desired to stream it exclusively onWarroom.com.In the end, It was my decision to take my brand; “The Warroom” in a different direction.Streaming on I Heart did not fit into the business model I had in mind for the show.We ended our talks amicably with each party wishing the other great success.We sincerely wish Frank the very best. Rose has said on several occasions that Frank Ioriorescued talk radio in Pittsburgh and gave it a home, and I agree.As soon as I get back from vacation — I will wrap up all the loose ends and have moreinformation for you in terms of the direction of “The Warroom”.I hope I was able to clear this up for you,he message

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.