Where Is WPAM 1450?

[Steve Green NEPA]

No signal today, Cyber Monday, since at least noon. It's 4:30pm now.

Last time I heard them off was last year. I don't have the exact date, but it was a Sunday. That day, they were coming back on and off. Perhaps transmitter problems then.

The most frequent surfacer today on 1450, nearing sunset, is a country station with what sounds like straight segues. Radio-Locator lists the new 1450 in Milford PA as Country, WYNY, but there is no listing for them with directory assistance! For some reason I doubt they actually have an unlisted number.

At least on this Monday in November, 1450 has developed into quite a different property since the days of WKIP, WOL, WTAL, WENZ, WMAS, etc.

 

[L.A. Tarone]

Steve:
I saw this posted on its Wikipedia page:
"on november 20th around 7:30pm before the airing of the first sports show the station was once again destroyed when someone decided to push the negitive and positive together so that the station would once again go off air new equiptment is now need for repairs, it just goes to show the how nefarious some people are and just can not let people rebuild a good radio station and let them be,any questions call the station" By the way, (sic) for all the spelling, grammatical errors above.
I worked there briefly backed in 1997-98 when it was a talk station for a short period of time. It was The Fabulous Sports Babe, followed by me, followed by Dr. Laura. Curran Communications owned it then as well. In about March of 1998, it signed an LMA with Pottsville Broadcasting (T-102, WPPA) who promptly cleaned house. But that was apparently not renewed and my old buddy Bob Murray was back in charge and turned it into the Phoenix. I have no idea if he's still there. I haven't heard the station in quite a while, so I don't know what it's been doing lately. The signal at one time was pretty decent -- you could get it in Hazleton 25 miles away, not real strongly, but you could get it. But the last time I checked up here, you couldn't anymore. The building is a fairly sizable one fairly close to Nativity BVM High School, but far enough away from everything that it would be pretty easy to vandalize. That's IF it's still in the same building. Don't know if it is.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

No sign this morning, either, LA -- 9:30 Tuesday.

Am pretty sure they have been transmitting from that same site all along. Might have been their ORIGINAL site as well?

It'd be a shame for yet another AMer in these parts to get put out at the curb. But their original Phoenix 1450 form of Classic Rock -- nice playlist at one time -- often had been drowned out by a newer form of rock in recent times. I didn't care for it, but the proximity to Nativity High should have been an excellent launch pad for if-and-when that music were to catch on if it had some footing, ya think? Well within range as well was Pottsville High.

No slight at all on the latest emphasis of the station, but at times it was very possible that there were more new bands than there were listeners to the music of those new bands.

I doubt it will be dormant for too long. You can never tell, because didn't the Pottsville Republican lock up WMBT? But if WPAM is off for format renovations/finances, I also doubt that any music format on it now will be anything more than an expensive step to the side inside a dark tunnel. And as much as I dislike canned sports -- although Sporting News Radio can be pretty good at times -- that appears the only option left.

It's only been two days silent (AFAIK) but the lack of even Holiday music during this supposed 'uptick' in the economy is glaring, too.

 

[Cosmopolite]

Steve, the number for YNY's licensee, Digital Radio Broadcasting is 845-355-4001 in Slate Hill, Orange County.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Seems that WPAM is back at it. 9AM tune in on Thursday 12-1. The Bad Company Of Your Life format. Playing rock and roll 'from the Seventies Clear on Up To Today'.

Really weak, though. Sounds like they're 50 watts instead of 1000.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

For what it's worth .....

Nineteen days after I'd posted about WPAM's absence, they have been back on, but at really low wattage or efficiency. From where I was doing some work today, a little north of Minersville, you can see their Lawton's Hill tower at night.

But WTKT 1460 (sports) from Harrisburg was just as loud as WPAM's audio today. In fact, I could null WTKT to try for unheard-here WGMF Tunkhannock -- no luck -- with no splash from WPAM.

The Phoenix 1450 music is still there, grunging and clomping away, but with nowhere near the usual signal. Tomorrow at work, same site, I'll try to null WPAM and try for that new thing in Milford PA on 1450, right on the Delaware.