WAOB questions

[theradiokid]

I am a curious radio person not from Pitsburgh, and have 2 questions about WAOB.

1. Do they have a website or webstream? If so, I'd love to hear them. If not, does anyone have any airchecks of them?

2. According to all the info I've found, ST. Joseph Missions bought 3 stations: 106.7, 860, and 1550. Are all 3 on the air? And, if so, are they simulcasting (all the same thing?)

Thanks for any info on this.

--The Radio Kid
(Oswego, NY.)
My email: [email protected].

 

[Jkf]

1) I could send you a blank CD, or empty wav file. That's what you will hear on 106.7 most of the time - dead air. No website, no webstream.

2) They don't own 1550. It's 1510. 106.7 and 860 are on most of the time, broadcasting a signal at least. 1510 has been having some transmitter issues. It's all a simulcast when programming is actually on.

1550 is the home of Don Imus in Pittsburgh and the ever exciting Lifestyle Talk Radio Network.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I tuned in to them for awhile and would observe the following.

- a lot of the periods of dead air are intentional, being done for silent prayer and meditation purposes.

- they are doing a better job than they had previously in telling the audience that is what they are doing
before they go silent (though if you tune in once they've begun you are lost)

- their production values appear to have improved slightly, although it seems they are still struggling for engaging content.

- a lot of their programming is very Catholic "inside baseball" stuff, not at all appealing to those of other faiths, and, I would
suppose, it's not intended to. Evangelism does not appear to be their primary purpose, rather it is serving the established
Catholic community with Masses, the Rosary, etc.

Not a big fan of their presentation, but I don't doubt the sincerity of anyone associated with WAOB.
The former format on WZUM did a much better job at reaching out to non-Catholics and attempting to
engage them in dialogue.

 

[DToTheJ]

1550 is the home of Don Imus in Pittsburgh and the ever exciting Lifestyle Talk Radio Network.

1550 was formerly known as WURP, with mostly satellite-fed programming such as Tom Leykis and The Don & Mike Show, both of which are now no longer on the air... More information on their transition to a new format here:
http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=66441.0

 

[TypeTV]

1550 is the home of Don Imus in Pittsburgh and the ever exciting Lifestyle Talk Radio Network.

1550 was formerly known as WURP, with mostly satellite-fed programming such as Tom Leykis and The Don & Mike Show, both of which are now no longer on the air... More information on their transition to a new format here:
http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=66441.0

Before that 1550 was WCXJ (R&B)Tom Joyner in the Morning. (1995) that was in Homewood section of Pittsburgh.

 

[Parttimer]

1550 is owned by the company that also owns Lifestyle Radio network. Some of the lamest programming I've ever heard.

 

[Jkf]

1550 is owned by the company that also owns Lifestyle Radio network. Some of the lamest programming I've ever heard.

Somehow also related to the Cable Radio Network. Some systems may still use this for background music on their local bulletin board channel. Comcast does not. Totally unrelated - wonder how long Comcast will use that 1980s computer they have on their bulletin board channel?

 

[Talk_Dude]

Totally unrelated - wonder how long Comcast will use that 1980s computer they have on their bulletin board channel?

Until Microsoft gets the bugs out of Windows? ;D

 

[theradiokid]

I tuned in to them for awhile and would observe the following.

- a lot of the periods of dead air are intentional, being done for silent prayer and meditation purposes.

- they are doing a better job than they had previously in telling the audience that is what they are doing
before they go silent (though if you tune in once they've begun you are lost)

- their production values appear to have improved slightly, although it seems they are still struggling for engaging content.

- a lot of their programming is very Catholic "inside baseball" stuff, not at all appealing to those of other faiths, and, I would
suppose, it's not intended to. Evangelism does not appear to be their primary purpose, rather it is serving the established
Catholic community with Masses, the Rosary, etc.

Not a big fan of their presentation, but I don't doubt the sincerity of anyone associated with WAOB.
The former format on WZUM did a much better job at reaching out to non-Catholics and attempting to
engage them in dialogue.

I must respectfully disagree with some of the acessments you have made about Catholic programming.

What I have found is that most Catholic radio stations get their programming from 1 of 3 sources: EWTN, Relevant Radio, or Cathlic Talk Radio Network. I have found these talk networks to gear themselves in the direction of preaching to the quire, as it were, and really not do much in the way of programming to convert non-Catholics to the religion, oposit of what Fredie E. suggested in his post. (If I'm off the mark here, please let me know.)

The problem I see with Catholic radio is that unlike protestant radio, it only seems to have 1 format: Catholic Talk. I've always maintained that it would maybe be a good idea to have a station that, say, for example, plays the rosery all the time, or a Catholic kids channel.

This is why I commend ST. Joseph Missions for doing something different (though simulcasting the same thing on all 3 isn't wise, imho), instead of doing the same old bland talk from EWTN, CTRN, or Relevant Radio.

I would still very much like to hear an aircheck of WAOB, so if anyone has any, please PM or email me.

--The Radio Kid
(Oswego, NY.)
My email: [email protected].

 

[Snafu]

Very obvious that whoever or whatever is "programming" the station has no radio backround or the slightest understanding of the medium.

That a good signal in a top 25 market is going to waste in this manner should be setting off alarm bells in the minds of those who still care about radio and its future.

 

[Parttimer]

Very obvious that whoever or whatever is "programming" the station has no radio backround or the slightest understanding of the medium.

That a good signal in a top 25 market is going to waste in this manner should be setting off alarm bells in the minds of those who still care about radio and its future.

Timing is everything. In both the cases of WAOB and 98.3, they ended up with the owners who have them now because the sellers were distressed, and the state of the credit markets severely limited the pool of potential buyers. Both stations went basically to cash buyers.

I'm sure there were plenty of commercial operators who would have loved to have one or both of those signals, but broadcasting companies buy these things on credit, and the credit markets were a disaster.

The other thing that didn't happen here over the years was the proliferation of move-ins that happened in other markets. 98.3 and 106.7 are actually two of the three that did happen (104.3 as well). WJPA and 97.7 in Butler do well serving their local markets, and 107.1 was actually moved away from the city to allow 106.7 to move to Wexford. And if someone other than Clear Channel owned Wheeling you might have seen one or more move-ins from that market.

So relatively speaking, this market now has very few FM signals. As business gets better and capital opens up someone may see opportunities here.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

This is a shame. Pittsburgh seems to getting the shaft here. When I lived in Richmond, there were loads of move-ins and some became market forces. These include WKHK from Colonial Heights, WKLR from Williamsburg, and 104.7 from the Farmville area. Other move-ins include 101.1 now HOT 100.9, 99.9, 96.9, 99.3, 93.3, and 98.9 and 92.7 now WCDX 92.1. There are new signals that just appeared like 107.3 and 105.7 which is a market leader with Urban AC. Rimshots like 93.5 use ID's that include their COL/Richmond. Richmond is sandwiched between two much larger markets like DC and Tidewater. How has this happened and it can't happen in Pittsburgh? The changes from 101.1 licensed to Chester VA to 100.9 and 99.9 to a downtown Richmond tower from Hanover Co. happened this year.

There are now 2 LPFM's that are not faith based, but rather community stations more like WMNF in Tampa. Everytime I look it seems Richmond gets something new, even on AM like 580 moved to Bon Air which is as close to Richmond as Willkinsburg is to PGH. Richmond is about half the size of the Pittsburgh metro area, so what is the deal here.

 

[Parttimer]

I think the biggest reason is that the smaller stations are making a living in the outlying markets. Along with WJPA and WLER, you had stations in places like Wheeling, Johnstown and Morgantown where stations would have moved under other scenarios but have stayed put here.

Keymarket and Bob Stevens are really the only two operators who have invested in move-ins (of course WAMO did, but it didn't save them).

The downside in a lot of the southern markets is that smaller metros have lost of lot of their local stations, but they retained them here.

If and when the capital markets loosen up (and that might take 6 more years), maybe we'll see some stations from markets like Youngstown or Wheeling be in play.

The other thing is that one really viable cluster of stations could be built if a new owner could buy out 2 of the three remaining major owners here, those being Renda, the Frischlings and Keymarket.