In the Youngstown/Ohio-PA border area, what are/were all the stations owned by Beacon Broadcasting and what were and are their formats.
Wasn't WGRP one of them, although they are not now.
Wasn't WGRP one of them, although they are not now.
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Please refresh my memory
- Thread starter johnbasalla
- Start date
Why do you want to know?
I have no reason of importance. It was fun reading about them on the OMW sight. I went to the radio locator sight to search out AM radio stations to see who has the least amount of power at night since so many lower power and go directional. WGRP has - are you ready for this - 2 watts at night. Why bother? When I found that, I started thinking about those stations, and couldn't recall much. OMW would post about an FM that had a hybrid Christian/secular music format. Was that one of there's? I don't recall.
There are five stations:
* WEXC/107.1- Greenville PA: "Indie 107.1" - Christian Contemporary/conservatalk. Live clearances for both Premiere's Glenn Beck and Jason Lewis. Rimshot signal towards Youngstown. Had an oldies format as "Wexy 107" prior to Beacon.
* WANR/1570- Warren: One half of the "Fox Sports 1540 and 1570" simulcast. Fox Sports plus an MMA/boxing show late mornings (Dan Patrick gets cleared on the ESPN affil, WBBW/1240). Has had a garden variety of formats beforehand, including the pseudo-assumption of the "Wexy 107" classic hits format and even liberal talk. The original home of WHOT radio.
* WRTK/1540- Niles: The other half of the "Fox Sports 1540 and 1570" simulcast. Only operates during the daytime to protect KXEL/Waterloo. Once owned by WABQ owner Dale Edwards and held an urban format, programmed by Lynn Tolliver. They even simulcast WANR back as "Network 15 - The City" back in the early 90s. The original home of WNIO-AM.
* WGRP/940- Greenville PA: One half of the "Classic Country 940 and 1470" simulcast. Has a good daytime signal, but must operate with a whopping 2 watts so as to protect a Canadian clear channel allocation assigned to Montreal, assigned by international treaty. (Even though said station, CINF/940, went belly-up back in February and no longer exists.)
* WLOA/1470- Farrell PA: The other half of the "Classic Country 940 and 1470" simulcast. Prior to Beacon, they relayed Catholic programming from WLOF/Buffalo - accordingly, the all letters stand for "Our Lady Of the Angels." Way back in the 50s, they were WFAR.
During Beacon ownership, all four AM stations have played a perpetual game of musical chair formats. As mentioned before, WEXC's oldies format was partially assumed on the AM dial in a "family friendly" manner - on WANR, WGPR and WLOA!
Following that, WGRP and WLOA broke off from the oldies trimulcast to carry Sporting News Radio 24/7, leaving WANR alone with the classic hits. Then WGRP went with classic country, and WLOA soon followed suit. WRTK kept chugging along with their urban format for some time after Beacon took control, then went with traditional Christian music as "Freq 1540," and now simulcasts WANR again with the Fox Sports lineup.
They have are been on the market after Harold Glunt passed on in February. The few dribs and drabs on OMW do not look promising for them, assuming that there would be any takers to speak of.
From http://ohiomediawatch.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/unloading-the-pile/:
It doesn't help that none of these stations have any good - or complete - coverage area of the Youngstown market proper; each one of them has a very significant signal deficiency in some manner.
* WEXC/107.1- Greenville PA: "Indie 107.1" - Christian Contemporary/conservatalk. Live clearances for both Premiere's Glenn Beck and Jason Lewis. Rimshot signal towards Youngstown. Had an oldies format as "Wexy 107" prior to Beacon.
* WANR/1570- Warren: One half of the "Fox Sports 1540 and 1570" simulcast. Fox Sports plus an MMA/boxing show late mornings (Dan Patrick gets cleared on the ESPN affil, WBBW/1240). Has had a garden variety of formats beforehand, including the pseudo-assumption of the "Wexy 107" classic hits format and even liberal talk. The original home of WHOT radio.
* WRTK/1540- Niles: The other half of the "Fox Sports 1540 and 1570" simulcast. Only operates during the daytime to protect KXEL/Waterloo. Once owned by WABQ owner Dale Edwards and held an urban format, programmed by Lynn Tolliver. They even simulcast WANR back as "Network 15 - The City" back in the early 90s. The original home of WNIO-AM.
* WGRP/940- Greenville PA: One half of the "Classic Country 940 and 1470" simulcast. Has a good daytime signal, but must operate with a whopping 2 watts so as to protect a Canadian clear channel allocation assigned to Montreal, assigned by international treaty. (Even though said station, CINF/940, went belly-up back in February and no longer exists.)
* WLOA/1470- Farrell PA: The other half of the "Classic Country 940 and 1470" simulcast. Prior to Beacon, they relayed Catholic programming from WLOF/Buffalo - accordingly, the all letters stand for "Our Lady Of the Angels." Way back in the 50s, they were WFAR.
During Beacon ownership, all four AM stations have played a perpetual game of musical chair formats. As mentioned before, WEXC's oldies format was partially assumed on the AM dial in a "family friendly" manner - on WANR, WGPR and WLOA!
Following that, WGRP and WLOA broke off from the oldies trimulcast to carry Sporting News Radio 24/7, leaving WANR alone with the classic hits. Then WGRP went with classic country, and WLOA soon followed suit. WRTK kept chugging along with their urban format for some time after Beacon took control, then went with traditional Christian music as "Freq 1540," and now simulcasts WANR again with the Fox Sports lineup.
They have are been on the market after Harold Glunt passed on in February. The few dribs and drabs on OMW do not look promising for them, assuming that there would be any takers to speak of.
From http://ohiomediawatch.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/unloading-the-pile/:
It doesn't help that none of these stations have any good - or complete - coverage area of the Youngstown market proper; each one of them has a very significant signal deficiency in some manner.
Once again a great report from Nathan Obral, one of the most knowledgeable posters around!
Speaking of WEXC, any word on a format change? Twice while driving through the Youngstown area I've recently heard 107.1 playing songs more appropriate for a classic hits format. It didn't appear to be just an odd song mixed in with the CCM stuff that's been played there in recent years. What gives?
Wow, I don't have much to say after Nathan's excellent summary! 
Just some random stuff, Beacon-wise, tho:
* The WEXC "Wexy 107" oldies format first actually landed on 1470/Farrell PA. Complete with the old "Wexy 107" liners!
* They shuffled it around the stations, but WANR/1570 was actually running its own oldies format, eventually simulcast on 1470 and 940 ("Your Family Friendly Frequencies").
* I hear that Dennis Glunt, the surviving son handling his late father's estate, has no intent on running the stations permanently...and was trying to sell one or more of the stations in his father's final days. It's no surprise he rather publically came on and put the 5 stations on the market after Mr. Glunt died.
* I've heard the changes at "C107.1", too, but I've also heard them playing Christian rock (on a Sunday). I can't nail down if they're officially an AC/classic hits/whatever station weekdays.
Just some random stuff, Beacon-wise, tho:
* The WEXC "Wexy 107" oldies format first actually landed on 1470/Farrell PA. Complete with the old "Wexy 107" liners!
* They shuffled it around the stations, but WANR/1570 was actually running its own oldies format, eventually simulcast on 1470 and 940 ("Your Family Friendly Frequencies").
* I hear that Dennis Glunt, the surviving son handling his late father's estate, has no intent on running the stations permanently...and was trying to sell one or more of the stations in his father's final days. It's no surprise he rather publically came on and put the 5 stations on the market after Mr. Glunt died.
* I've heard the changes at "C107.1", too, but I've also heard them playing Christian rock (on a Sunday). I can't nail down if they're officially an AC/classic hits/whatever station weekdays.
And a little more:
* I don't know if WEXC is still clearing Jason Lewis, which was actually on tape delay 9-midnight. I'll check the stream for it...
* Dennis is gonna HAVE to come down on those prices.
* I don't know if WEXC is still clearing Jason Lewis, which was actually on tape delay 9-midnight. I'll check the stream for it...
* Dennis is gonna HAVE to come down on those prices.
Was the Canadian CINF/940 station one of the ones the Canadian government was running and took it and another 50,000 watt AM off air because it was determined that to keep them on would be to perpetually run in the red. 50,000 watts must eat up a lot of power and it all has to be paid for.
So, the next question is, shouldn't the owners of WGRP look to get themselves maybe a real big boost in power? Assuming they've got the money and energy to do it, might that not make the station more attractive to potential buyers? Might be interesting to see how much power they could go up to, and what effect that might have in boosting coverage to larger population areas.
So, the next question is, shouldn't the owners of WGRP look to get themselves maybe a real big boost in power? Assuming they've got the money and energy to do it, might that not make the station more attractive to potential buyers? Might be interesting to see how much power they could go up to, and what effect that might have in boosting coverage to larger population areas.
johnbasalla said:
Nate or someone else might know for sure, but I believe that the Canadian Government still considers that 940 Monteal frequency "protected" though there may never be a station on that frequency again. Therefore, WGRP can't do much, if anything, to increase power..Which is too bad. I would love a chance to hear Classic Country down here in Canton..
Tim L said:
It dates back to the NARBA agreement. This article helps explain it somewhat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_allocations_changes_under_NARBA
Montreal was allocated two clear-channel 1A signals, 690 and 940 in the 1940s. Both were originally run by the CBC (as French-language CBF and English-language CBM, respectively) until moving to the FM dial in 1999. At which point both frequencies were handed over to private broadcaster Corus, which migrated their two of their existing AM stations in the market onto those frequencies (their Anglophone station traced back to CFCF-AM, one of the first radio stations in existence).
Corus not only signed off both CINF/690 and CINW/940 (and declined to move their other AM station in Montreal to either frequency in the process) but is leaving the entire providence as well, selling their remaining Quebec stations to another group. The CTRC could reopen both those allocations for another broadcaster, but Montreal is an FM market at this point, so it will likely stay vacant for some time to come... if Canada doesn't void those allocations.
Also held in the lurch by this is WCIT/940 Lima, which must power down to 6 watts at night (and is why that station's prior sports format wound up on an FM signal last year).
The other part of this equation:
Even if 940/Montreal were not notified by Canada, which it will continue to be (as Nathan pointed out) pretty much forever even if another 940 doesn't pop up in Montreal...
No one owns 940/Greenville PA. It's a company being run right now by the surviving son of a man who recently died, who has put the stations (all 5) up for sale.
If for some reason he can find a buyer for WGRP, that buyer is gonna get it on the cheap, and is not going to pile in the cash to upgrade the facility... even if it can be done, which is not possible for the above mentioned reasons.
940 in Montreal went off the air, but for the purposes of WGRP (and the Lima station), it's still "there".
Even if 940/Montreal were not notified by Canada, which it will continue to be (as Nathan pointed out) pretty much forever even if another 940 doesn't pop up in Montreal...
No one owns 940/Greenville PA. It's a company being run right now by the surviving son of a man who recently died, who has put the stations (all 5) up for sale.
If for some reason he can find a buyer for WGRP, that buyer is gonna get it on the cheap, and is not going to pile in the cash to upgrade the facility... even if it can be done, which is not possible for the above mentioned reasons.
940 in Montreal went off the air, but for the purposes of WGRP (and the Lima station), it's still "there".
If Mr. Glunt had the desire to investigate (it seems not), he might be surprised. In the mid-1970s WBWC was looking into possibilities for a power increase. Found out that there was a Canadian allocation for the same frequency right across the lake and that we needed to seek permission from them at that time. A letter was sent, and in surprisingly short time, we got a go ahead from the CRTC saying that they had no plans to build a station on that frequency.
Even if 940 were to power up at some point, wouldn't they still be close enough to Detroit to have to power down significantly at night to protect 950?
The elder Mr. Glunt isn't "investigating" anything, he passed away...and the younger Mr. Glunt is not holding onto the stations.
Any potential buyer...it's not worth it, in this financial market especially, to throw money into the thing to upgrade it. And Canada WILL still notify the station as if it were still on. This was an existing allocation, not a planned one that didn't make it to the air. Different situation.
And yes, I presume they'd have to protect WWJ in Detroit, either by directional pattern or power. My non-engineering guess is that they could gain a few watts, if Canada was out of the picture, but probably have to directionalize away from Michigan. See my second paragraph about throwing money into the thing...
Any potential buyer...it's not worth it, in this financial market especially, to throw money into the thing to upgrade it. And Canada WILL still notify the station as if it were still on. This was an existing allocation, not a planned one that didn't make it to the air. Different situation.
And yes, I presume they'd have to protect WWJ in Detroit, either by directional pattern or power. My non-engineering guess is that they could gain a few watts, if Canada was out of the picture, but probably have to directionalize away from Michigan. See my second paragraph about throwing money into the thing...
OhioMediaWatch said:
Let's assume that all of the cards fell right; that the CRTC voided both 940 and 690 as Canadian clears (impossible, given that these clears exist primarily for national defense purposes), and the NARBA was amended so that stations in the US on both frequencies could increase power... even in that hallucinatory scenario for a station like WGRP, there's severe stumbling blocks:
* Adjacent channels: WWJ is the biggest example. But there's both Elyria (WEOL/930) and Buffalo (WBEN/930) to contend with, so not only would WGRP have to protect WWJ to the north-west, but WEOL to the north-west as well, and WBEN to the northeast. (To the east, there's also WHLM/930 Bloomsburg, but it's night power is minimal.)
* Co-channels: The BIIIIIIG fly in the ointment for WGRP is... WFGI/940 in Charleroi, just south of Pittsburgh. (http://www.radio-locator.com/info/WFGI-AM) Not to mention to WADV/940 Lebanon, in the eastern end of PA. Good luck with getting a night signal out of that, especially if WFGI wanted to chime in with a night signal request of their own, aimed towards Pittsburgh, no less.
* Economics: If WGRP miraculously was able to upgrade, considering all of these issues... it's still aiming towards an economically-depressed market in Youngstown. Moreover, Youngstown isn't an AM market by any means... after news/talk WKBN/570 and standards (!) WNIO/1390 - and ESPN affiliate WBBW/1240, what else is there? Maybe WSOM/600, another standards (!!!) station? Or daytime talker WGFT/1330? The Beacon stations were, and still are, a non-factor... almost like the crumbs that were swept off the table after a family dinner. They were technologically upgraded or worked on by the Beacon folks, but still remain as crumbs nonetheless.
Given the circumstances (which range from unlikely at best, to Fantasy Island-esque at worst), WGRP's night signal, by my guesses, likely would not be able to cover the entire Youngstown/Warren/New Castle region. In effect putting it on par with the other Beacon AMs, which are mediocre at best. Even *if* Mr. Glunt thought of the idea prior to his passing, I presume that the engineers for Beacon would have done research into the matter, and came up with a similar result.
But do remember that WEXC and WGRP have been sister stations for their entire existence. WEXC was the main prize for Beacon, and their CCM format was central to Beacon's mission of family-friendly programming. WGRP was simply an afterthought back then; it's more suited as a good community station just for Greenville, given that those two nighttime watts reaches their COL fairly decently. Hopefully an eventual owner for WGRP would run the station that way.
DJJack1 said:Pardon my interrupting, but just in case it isn't out yet..
WANR and WRTK were bought this week by a buddy of mine. They could be interesting to listen to in the coming weeks.
That's all I know.
That's great to hear! I wish them the very best.
DJJack1 said:Pardon my interrupting, but just in case it isn't out yet..
WANR and WRTK were bought this week by a buddy of mine. They could be interesting to listen to in the coming weeks.
That's all I know.
Hit the OMW batphone, please, and give details...I've heard that the PA combo has been sold, but saw no FCC filings on any of the Beacon stations as of Sunday.
Broker Ray Rosenblum has announced 1540/1570 go to Chris Lash (who is on these boards somewhere), who owns WYNS/Waynesville OH and is buying WANR/WRTK along with Kathy Lash, presumably his wife.
Congratulations, Chris! Looks like he got a deal...$50K for both stations, including real estate.
Talks still continuing for 107.1/940/1470 with a different buyer. No idea who that is yet.
Congratulations, Chris! Looks like he got a deal...$50K for both stations, including real estate.
Talks still continuing for 107.1/940/1470 with a different buyer. No idea who that is yet.
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