WITK-AM/Pittston (Wilkes Barre)has been sold

[bearcubpa]

WITK-AM/Pittston (Wilkes Barre)for $940,000 to Holy Family Communications.It owns three other stations, including WQOR-AM/Wilkes Barre.

 

[carlvanorden]

> WITK-AM/Pittston (Wilkes Barre)for $940,000 to Holy Family> Communications.It owns three other stations, including> WQOR-AM/Wilkes Barre.> WQOR 750 is actually a Lackawanna County station, with a killer day-time signal. 1550 and 750 cover the same basic area locally...1550 with 10,000 watts is a full timer, which is why they LMA'ed that station, while 750 is a daytimer with a signal that actually reaches the Delaware Water Gap. 750 formerly owned by Kevin Fennessey wasWAAT,in Scranton; before that it was WMXH owned byCarman Nardone, in Taylor,and 750 started out as owned by the same owner as 1550....(you may know him as a well known politico in Scranton!)...as WAXX, a solid gold station, later replaced by WSGD at 94.3 (now WNAK).1550 started life as 1540 WARD whose former towers may still live in the woods around Pittston..as a 1,000 watt day signal. It has had several lives over it's lifetime with so many calls, I've since forgotten them all...one was WKQV (I think when it signed on at 1550). WARD at 1540 had a very unique format with what could be described as the local "QVC of the airwaves", live right here in NEPA. IN fact that is how they made most of their income.Enough of the history lesson; however the simulcast appears to live on with Cordaro selling the station to them.Please do include anything I may have forgotten or mistaken. <P ID="signature">______________
[email protected], [email protected],[email protected]</P>

 

[NEPA_RadioGuy]

> > WITK-AM/Pittston (Wilkes Barre)for $940,000 to Holy
> Family> Communications.It owns three other stations,
> including> WQOR-AM/Wilkes Barre.> WQOR 750 is actually a
> Lackawanna County station, with a killer day-time signal.
> 1550 and 750 cover the same basic area locally...1550 with
> 10,000 watts is a full timer, which is why they LMA'ed that
> station, while 750 is a daytimer with a signal that actually
> reaches the Delaware Water Gap. 750 formerly owned by Kevin
> Fennessey wasWAAT,in Scranton; before that it was WMXH owned
> byCarman Nardone, in Taylor,and 750 started out as owned by
> the same owner as 1550....(you may know him as a well known
> politico in Scranton!)...as WAXX, a solid gold station,
> later replaced by WSGD at 94.3 (now WNAK).1550 started life
> as 1540 WARD whose former towers may still live in the woods
> around Pittston..as a 1,000 watt day signal. It has had
> several lives over it's lifetime with so many calls, I've
> since forgotten them all...one was WKQV (I think when it
> signed on at 1550). WARD at 1540 had a very unique format
> with what could be described as the local "QVC of the
> airwaves", live right here in NEPA. IN fact that is how
> they made most of their income.Enough of the history lesson;
> however the simulcast appears to live on with Cordaro
> selling the station to them.Please do include anything I may
> have forgotten or mistaken.
>

750 was WWAX Olyphant. Format was the original "Jack" and oddly owned by a "Jack" uh...you-know-what. First time I ever heard a Rosemary Clooney tune segue into Bruce Springsteen. "...This is Live 75 WWAX Olyphant...on the way Bruce Hornsby and the range, Anthrax, and a little Kate Smith for the girls up da Eynon on Live 75 WWAX...You've got wax in your ear..."

Also, 1540 was originally WPTS - Pittston. WARD has always been on 1550AM since the king of all "Free Cherry Pie" ran it. As a side note, Jimmy did have the kiddies ear. My wife recently told me that she asked her Mom if they could go for a free cherry pie. I nearly bought a box of depends for that one! I had tears running down my face. Finally, 1550 was paid for ten times over by Lane Broadcasting in that Fleece agreement. Cordaro getting 940,000 from the Catholics. Wow! maybe he can give some of that over to Dorothy Ward as reimbursement from when he screwed her over! This sale is a textbook case of the church selling its soul to the devil BROTHER!!! (I had to...couldn't resist)

 

[ScottSanfilippo]

Some clarification...... Jim Ward moved to 1550 from 1540 in the late 80's in order to get the 10,000 watt daytime signal. This was also the time when much of the local talk was switched to the ABC talk format. With the move to 1550, three directional antennas were put down by the river in the Coxton yards. The old 1540 tower still stood behind the building until the place was sold to the junk yard. The "QVC" format AKA: The WARD Home Shopper was the driving force behind the revenue for the last few years of the station's life. THat format was never on 1540.

When Jim was in declining health he put Buzz Boback (kill me now) in charge of running the place. After Jim's death, Buzz still ran the show and eventually he and Dorothy agreed to sell the place to Cordaro for far less than what it was worth. Dorothy got the VERY short end of the stick on that deal, and it ticks me off to this day.

Cordaro ran it from the same studio for a little while before moving it to the old WARM building in Avoca. He tried several types of formats and nothing worked. Kinda like his political career. He eventually did the lease deal with Doug Lane.

On an unrelated note to this... when Jim bought WPTS off Angelo Firello (sp ?) there was some type of clause in there that Angelo's widow was to get money every month. THat continued right up until her death.

Now about the close-to-a-million-dollar-sale to the Catholics. Not to bash any religion, but couldn't that money be used elsewhere? What is the demo of a religious station? There's no revenue, there's probably no listeners. The only ones making money off a religious station is the power company. Doesn't make sense to me. But ole' Bobby saw another way to scrape more money off 1550 and seized the moment. He folks is the ultimate winner in all this whether we argee with it or not, and thats a shame.

 

[carlvanorden]

> Some clarification...... Jim Ward moved to 1550 from 1540 in> the late 80's in order to get the 10,000 watt daytime> signal. This was also the time when much of the local talk> was switched to the ABC talk format. With the move to 1550,> three directional antennas were put down by the river in the> Coxton yards. The old 1540 tower still stood behind the> building until the place was sold to the junk yard. The> "QVC" format AKA: The WARD Home Shopper was the driving> force behind the revenue for the last few years of the> station's life. THat format was never on 1540.> > When Jim was in declining health he put Buzz Boback (kill me> now) in charge of running the place. After Jim's death,> Buzz still ran the show and eventually he and Dorothy agreed> to sell the place to Cordaro for far less than what it was> worth. Dorothy got the VERY short end of the stick on that> deal, and it ticks me off to this day. > > Cordaro ran it from the same studio for a little while> before moving it to the old WARM building in Avoca. He> tried several types of formats and nothing worked. Kinda> like his political career. He eventually did the lease deal> with Doug Lane.> > On an unrelated note to this... when Jim bought WPTS off> Angelo Firello (sp ?) there was some type of clause in there> that Angelo's widow was to get money every month. THat> continued right up until her death.> > Now about the close-to-a-million-dollar-sale to the> Catholics. Not to bash any religion, but couldn't that> money be used elsewhere? What is the demo of a religious> station? There's no revenue, there's probably no listeners.> The only ones making money off a religious station is the> power company. Doesn't make sense to me. But ole' Bobby> saw another way to scrape more money off 1550 and seized the> moment. He folks is the ultimate winner in all this whether> we argee with it or not, and thats a shame.> Most of what I posted was from memory, however, the WARD Home Shopper did indeed air on 1540. The very first time I ever heard 1,000 watt WARD on 1540 was from over 80 miles away at sunset in Northern New Jersey; Home Shopping Network was an infant, airing on at least one small UHF station in NE NJ (channel 68). I made a note of it in a radio-channel book I had (that I had heard it) and at the time I had no idea where Pittston, PA was. So, it was very unique; I don't think QVC was even thought of at that time, so the prospect of buying off a broadcast was a new idea, especially on radio....WWAX was airing oldies pre-1995, before it became WMXH (I know cause I worked there after the sale)....and 1550 WKQV was indeed the format of the month'er in NEPA...when it first went on air, it was not aimed at northern/central Wayne County where I live, so it was very hard to hear. IIRC, they not only had run Imus, but also Stern for a very brief time...along with a rock format that found it's way to FM very quickly....the biggest problem with 1550 now is the same all across NEPA: we have way too many stations on the air......why do I say this?....because we have too many stations that overlap that simulcast........lastly, I would like to say a word about religeous broadcasting; it CAN be profitable, and in another way, it can be the straw that brings on bankruptsy. In more ways than you can imagine (especially in highly Catholic Lackawanna County). Most of this type of programming is nothing more than brokered programming...therefore, IF you can sell ("easy" selling, "not"!!!... from your office chair) 13 week contracts to churches and independent preachers and get them to renew constantly....AND...you can fill your daytime schedule with this programming, you may never need to sell a spot again....however, doing this requires support from outside your station.....this means that you need to get the local papers and local churches involved and interested. If you can not do that, then, a local station will indeed be swallowed up either by a church, or an organization financed BY a large church group.......Does it take a Catholic to program a Catholic radio station?...I can say from experience that it indeed does...at least in this area. And, it seems that if you have a religeous radio station to program, it either needs to be Catholic, or Protestant, and if one exists airing both, it is rare. I am not a listener of these stations, but obviously WPEL does well with what sounds like mostly Protestant programming, but then it sits in the heart of Protestant NEPA. Plop that same station into Scranton and it wouldn't make it. I know, because I made the grave mistake of trying to program Protestant programming on a station that was 90% Catholic.....I thought a combination of the two types of programs would make for a successful (brokered) station....a destination at a particular time, for a particular program, for a particular listener....What I learned about programming this type of station came after contacting over 100 Protestant ministries who do buy time on religeous/brokered stations...and they all told me the same thing: I never asked WHY...but I do know they would not buy time on a station located in a predominately Catholic city if they had to go up against a Catholic program.....and in planning this type of station, I failed miserably in trying to attract the local newspapers to talk about us/publish a story/even talk to me about such a station...in short, the local papers would have nothing to do with me; ergo I had no support........Therefore, the 750/1550 simulcast will most likely continue for the forseeable future...until the electric bills add up and the costs exceed the income.<P ID="signature">______________
[email protected], [email protected],[email protected]</P>

 

[R_R]

> > Some clarification...... Jim Ward moved to 1550 from 1540
> in> the late 80's in order to get the 10,000 watt daytime>
> signal. This was also the time when much of the local talk>
> was switched to the ABC talk format. With the move to
> 1550,> three directional antennas were put down by the river
> in the> Coxton yards. The old 1540 tower still stood behind
> the> building until the place was sold to the junk yard.
> The> "QVC" format AKA: The WARD Home Shopper was the
> driving> force behind the revenue for the last few years of
> the> station's life. THat format was never on 1540.> > When
> Jim was in declining health he put Buzz Boback (kill me>
> now) in charge of running the place. After Jim's death,>
> Buzz still ran the show and eventually he and Dorothy
> agreed> to sell the place to Cordaro for far less than what
> it was> worth. Dorothy got the VERY short end of the stick
> on that> deal, and it ticks me off to this day. > > Cordaro
> ran it from the same studio for a little while> before
> moving it to the old WARM building in Avoca. He> tried
> several types of formats and nothing worked. Kinda> like
> his political career. He eventually did the lease deal>
> with Doug Lane.> > On an unrelated note to this... when Jim
> bought WPTS off> Angelo Firello (sp ?) there was some type
> of clause in there> that Angelo's widow was to get money
> every month. THat> continued right up until her death.> >
> Now about the close-to-a-million-dollar-sale to the>
> Catholics. Not to bash any religion, but couldn't that>
> money be used elsewhere? What is the demo of a religious>
> station? There's no revenue, there's probably no
> listeners.> The only ones making money off a religious
> station is the> power company. Doesn't make sense to me.
> But ole' Bobby> saw another way to scrape more money off
> 1550 and seized the> moment. He folks is the ultimate
> winner in all this whether> we argee with it or not, and
> thats a shame.> Most of what I posted was from memory,
> however, the WARD Home Shopper did indeed air on 1540. The
> very first time I ever heard 1,000 watt WARD on 1540 was
> from over 80 miles away at sunset in Northern New Jersey;
> Home Shopping Network was an infant, airing on at least one
> small UHF station in NE NJ (channel 68). I made a note of
> it in a radio-channel book I had (that I had heard it) and
> at the time I had no idea where Pittston, PA was. So, it
> was very unique; I don't think QVC was even thought of at
> that time, so the prospect of buying off a broadcast was a
> new idea, especially on radio....WWAX was airing oldies
> pre-1995, before it became WMXH (I know cause I worked there
> after the sale)....and 1550 WKQV was indeed the format of
> the month'er in NEPA...when it first went on air, it was not
> aimed at northern/central Wayne County where I live, so it
> was very hard to hear. IIRC, they not only had run Imus,
> but also Stern for a very brief time...along with a rock
> format that found it's way to FM very quickly....the biggest
> problem with 1550 now is the same all across NEPA: we have
> way too many stations on the air......why do I say
> this?....because we have too many stations that overlap that
> simulcast........lastly, I would like to say a word about
> religeous broadcasting; it CAN be profitable, and in
> another way, it can be the straw that brings on bankruptsy.
> In more ways than you can imagine (especially in highly
> Catholic Lackawanna County). Most of this type of
> programming is nothing more than brokered
> programming...therefore, IF you can sell ("easy" selling,
> "not"!!!... from your office chair) 13 week contracts to
> churches and independent preachers and get them to renew
> constantly....AND...you can fill your daytime schedule with
> this programming, you may never need to sell a spot
> again....however, doing this requires support from outside
> your station.....this means that you need to get the local
> papers and local churches involved and interested. If you
> can not do that, then, a local station will indeed be
> swallowed up either by a church, or an organization financed
> BY a large church group.......Does it take a Catholic to
> program a Catholic radio station?...I can say from
> experience that it indeed does...at least in this area.
> And, it seems that if you have a religeous radio station to
> program, it either needs to be Catholic, or Protestant, and
> if one exists airing both, it is rare. I am not a listener
> of these stations, but obviously WPEL does well with what
> sounds like mostly Protestant programming, but then it sits
> in the heart of Protestant NEPA. Plop that same station
> into Scranton and it wouldn't make it. I know, because I
> made the grave mistake of trying to program Protestant
> programming on a station that was 90% Catholic.....I thought
> a combination of the two types of programs would make for a
> successful (brokered) station....a destination at a
> particular time, for a particular program, for a particular
> listener....What I learned about programming this type of
> station came after contacting over 100 Protestant ministries
> who do buy time on religeous/brokered stations...and they
> all told me the same thing: I never asked WHY...but I do
> know they would not buy time on a station located in a
> predominately Catholic city if they had to go up against a
> Catholic program.....and in planning this type of station, I
> failed miserably in trying to attract the local newspapers
> to talk about us/publish a story/even talk to me about such
> a station...in short, the local papers would have nothing to
> do with me; ergo I had no support........Therefore, the
> 750/1550 simulcast will most likely continue for the
> forseeable future...until the electric bills add up and the
> costs exceed the income.
>
Ok. How much is the ransom this time?

 

[yonkstur]

> > > Some clarification...... Jim Ward moved to 1550 from
> 1540
> > in> the late 80's in order to get the 10,000 watt daytime>
>
> > signal. This was also the time when much of the local
> talk>
> > was switched to the ABC talk format. With the move to
> > 1550,> three directional antennas were put down by the
> river
> > in the> Coxton yards. The old 1540 tower still stood
> behind
> > the> building until the place was sold to the junk yard.
> > The> "QVC" format AKA: The WARD Home Shopper was the
> > driving> force behind the revenue for the last few years
> of
> > the> station's life. THat format was never on 1540.> >
> When
> > Jim was in declining health he put Buzz Boback (kill me>
> > now) in charge of running the place. After Jim's death,>
> > Buzz still ran the show and eventually he and Dorothy
> > agreed> to sell the place to Cordaro for far less than
> what
> > it was> worth. Dorothy got the VERY short end of the
> stick
> > on that> deal, and it ticks me off to this day. > >
> Cordaro
> > ran it from the same studio for a little while> before
> > moving it to the old WARM building in Avoca. He> tried
> > several types of formats and nothing worked. Kinda> like
> > his political career. He eventually did the lease deal>
> > with Doug Lane.> > On an unrelated note to this... when
> Jim
> > bought WPTS off> Angelo Firello (sp ?) there was some type
>
> > of clause in there> that Angelo's widow was to get money
> > every month. THat> continued right up until her death.> >
>
> > Now about the close-to-a-million-dollar-sale to the>
> > Catholics. Not to bash any religion, but couldn't that>
> > money be used elsewhere? What is the demo of a religious>
>
> > station? There's no revenue, there's probably no
> > listeners.> The only ones making money off a religious
> > station is the> power company. Doesn't make sense to me.
>
> > But ole' Bobby> saw another way to scrape more money off
> > 1550 and seized the> moment. He folks is the ultimate
> > winner in all this whether> we argee with it or not, and
> > thats a shame.> Most of what I posted was from memory,
> > however, the WARD Home Shopper did indeed air on 1540.
> The
> > very first time I ever heard 1,000 watt WARD on 1540 was
> > from over 80 miles away at sunset in Northern New Jersey;
> > Home Shopping Network was an infant, airing on at least
> one
> > small UHF station in NE NJ (channel 68). I made a note of
>
> > it in a radio-channel book I had (that I had heard it) and
>
> > at the time I had no idea where Pittston, PA was. So, it
> > was very unique; I don't think QVC was even thought of at
> > that time, so the prospect of buying off a broadcast was a
>
> > new idea, especially on radio....WWAX was airing oldies
> > pre-1995, before it became WMXH (I know cause I worked
> there
> > after the sale)....and 1550 WKQV was indeed the format of
> > the month'er in NEPA...when it first went on air, it was
> not
> > aimed at northern/central Wayne County where I live, so it
>
> > was very hard to hear. IIRC, they not only had run Imus,
> > but also Stern for a very brief time...along with a rock
> > format that found it's way to FM very quickly....the
> biggest
> > problem with 1550 now is the same all across NEPA: we have
>
> > way too many stations on the air......why do I say
> > this?....because we have too many stations that overlap
> that
> > simulcast........lastly, I would like to say a word about
> > religeous broadcasting; it CAN be profitable, and in
> > another way, it can be the straw that brings on
> bankruptsy.
> > In more ways than you can imagine (especially in highly
> > Catholic Lackawanna County). Most of this type of
> > programming is nothing more than brokered
> > programming...therefore, IF you can sell ("easy" selling,
> > "not"!!!... from your office chair) 13 week contracts to
> > churches and independent preachers and get them to renew
> > constantly....AND...you can fill your daytime schedule
> with
> > this programming, you may never need to sell a spot
> > again....however, doing this requires support from outside
>
> > your station.....this means that you need to get the local
>
> > papers and local churches involved and interested. If you
>
> > can not do that, then, a local station will indeed be
> > swallowed up either by a church, or an organization
> financed
> > BY a large church group.......Does it take a Catholic to
> > program a Catholic radio station?...I can say from
> > experience that it indeed does...at least in this area.
> > And, it seems that if you have a religeous radio station
> to
> > program, it either needs to be Catholic, or Protestant,
> and
> > if one exists airing both, it is rare. I am not a
> listener
> > of these stations, but obviously WPEL does well with what
> > sounds like mostly Protestant programming, but then it
> sits
> > in the heart of Protestant NEPA. Plop that same station
> > into Scranton and it wouldn't make it. I know, because I
> > made the grave mistake of trying to program Protestant
> > programming on a station that was 90% Catholic.....I
> thought
> > a combination of the two types of programs would make for
> a
> > successful (brokered) station....a destination at a
> > particular time, for a particular program, for a
> particular
> > listener....What I learned about programming this type of
> > station came after contacting over 100 Protestant
> ministries
> > who do buy time on religeous/brokered stations...and they
> > all told me the same thing: I never asked WHY...but I do
> > know they would not buy time on a station located in a
> > predominately Catholic city if they had to go up against a
>
> > Catholic program.....and in planning this type of station,
> I
> > failed miserably in trying to attract the local newspapers
>
> > to talk about us/publish a story/even talk to me about
> such
> > a station...in short, the local papers would have nothing
> to
> > do with me; ergo I had no support........Therefore, the
> > 750/1550 simulcast will most likely continue for the
> > forseeable future...until the electric bills add up and
> the
> > costs exceed the income.
> >
> Ok. How much is the ransom this time?
>
Very good historical sketch of the WARD history with
Bob C. Not a surprise that he's the only guy coming
out of this deal in clover!
Yonkstur