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How Can WYZR Be A Pittsburgh Radio Station?

G

Gregg.

Pittsburgh Public Media, who own and operate WESA, the NPR News-Talk station for Pittsburgh, and WYEP, a public Adult Alternative station, has just started 88.1 WYZR, a Jazz station.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/tv-radio/jazz-radio-station-moves-forward-691429/

But there are several problems with this idea...

1) WYZR is licensed to Bethany WV, which is about 35 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.
2) There already is a station on 88.1, WRWJ in Murrysville PA, covering Pittsburgh's eastern suburbs.
3) There's also a station one dial position away at 88.3, WRCT, the Carnegie-Mellon Univ. station licensed to Pittsburgh.

I don't think anyone in Pittsburgh or its closest suburbs are going to hear WYZR, even if they upgrade the transmitter. WRCT and WRWJ will cover it's signal. According to the article, Chuck Leavans, the president of Pittsburgh Public Media's Board of Directors, says >>>the signal will be expanded to areas north and east for full coverage of the Pittsburgh area<<<. But I don't see how.
 
You have to have faith in unicorns and magic.

Meanwhile, back in reality they have about as much chance of being a Pittsburgh signal as WZUM has of breaking the top ten.
 
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Look at this as the beginning of the story and not a dead end. 1) By getting something on the air, they might be able to increase donations. 2) Now that they own something close to the Burgh, maybe with a frequency change and a move they can solve their coverage issues. 3) With increased donations, maybe they can acquire other stations. Who knows how this will develop. It is too early to rain on their parade.

I spoke with Chuck Leavans earlier this year when we thought we might be able to purchase 1550. I wanted to know if his group would be interested in LMA'ing 1550. He declined given the 88.1 purchase was close to completing. He is a smart guy. If the donations keep coming, his group will do more.

As for WZUM breaking the top ten, yes I believe in unicorns and magic. Like the WYZR group, we at WZUM understand the limitations of the coverage. We know 1550 does not cover the entire ratings market. We also know the station did not go dark, it isn't airing another talk format that no one will listen too, and for where the station does cover, it has a format people are enjoying.

We are having fun with WZUM. I hope WYZR does well and they can have fun too.
 
Gregg. said:
Pittsburgh Public Media, who own and operate WESA, the NPR News-Talk station for Pittsburgh, and WYEP, a public Adult Alternative station, has just started 88.1 WYZR, a Jazz station.
Click to expand...

Pittsburgh Public Media does not run WESA or WYEP. WESA is run by Essential Public Media and as far as I know WYEP is still owned by Pittsburgh Public Broadcasters (a 50% partner in EPM).
 
sparks said:
As for WZUM breaking the top ten, yes I believe in unicorns and magic. Like the WYZR group, we at WZUM understand the limitations of the coverage. We know 1550 does not cover the entire ratings market. We also know the station did not go dark, it isn't airing another talk format that no one will listen too, and for where the station does cover, it has a format people are enjoying.

We are having fun with WZUM. I hope WYZR does well and they can have fun too.
Click to expand...

I'm glad 88.1 is doing Jazz. If only for the fact that it doesn't become another satellite fed religious piece of crap. I hate those things. I think is's great what you're doing with WZUM. It's too bad people who love radio have mostly been run out of the business by near monopoly level corporate ownership.

I know a guy who'd be interested in doing a show on WZUM. He's already somewhat of a local celebrity (for a very strange reason).
 
xm41 said:
I know a guy who'd be interested in doing a show on WZUM. He's already somewhat of a local celebrity (for a very strange reason).
Click to expand...
Ask him to send a resume. The address is on the bottom of www.1550wzum.com. We do not have a studio setup for a DJ. We have the control room with a mixer in case we had to go on the air. We still have the old mono production studio and talk studio from the WURP days. Our plans are to convert one of the rooms into an on-air studio. Those plans are months away.

We have talked to a number of people who have proposed shows using their own library. We want to stick to the format so whomever we find will need to follow a play list. I'm looking forward to hearing from your local celebrity friend.
 
You can expand a signal without expanding the reach of a frequency. It would require obtaining translators, repeater signals or other FM stations, cable television access or an online stream. Obviously, Pittsburgh Public Media will need to go outside of FM 88.1 unless they can make a deal with any of the stations that block it, which I would find highly unlikely. He's Alive Inc. is asking the FCC to expand its WRWJ-88.1 signal by the use of a translator in Beaver and I think it is unlikely that Carnegie Mellon will yield FM 88.3. If a college that is so high-tech thinks it needs to stay on terrestrial FM, that probably would rule out its going to an Internet-only station.
 
KeyTimes950 said:
You can expand a signal without expanding the reach of a frequency. It would require obtaining translators, repeater signals or other FM stations, cable television access or an online stream. Obviously, Pittsburgh Public Media will need to go outside of FM 88.1 unless they can make a deal with any of the stations that block it, which I would find highly unlikely. He's Alive Inc. is asking the FCC to expand its WRWJ-88.1 signal by the use of a translator in Beaver and I think it is unlikely that Carnegie Mellon will yield FM 88.3. If a college that is so high-tech thinks it needs to stay on terrestrial FM, that probably would rule out its going to an Internet-only station.
Click to expand...

He's alive needs another translator like Christ needs another nail in the cross. I'm sorry, I'm not against religion but I HATE networks like He's Alive and K-love clogging up every frequency.
 
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