WROG Cumberland

[fortmill]

I was shocked to read on DCRTV that WROG in Cumberland had been taken off the air and sold to WITF/public radio in PA. Even stranger, the station will be "moved" to Chambersburg PA--the frequency changed to 93.3 and power reduced to 300(!) watts. 102.9 was a flamethrower in Cumberland and the Potomac Highlands. WROG, along with WKGO, got into many areas up there that no other stations reached. I always thought WROG and WKGO were by far the dominant stations in the region. What is the real story surrounding this strange development? What will happen to 102.9 in the Cumberland area? I know the Cumberland area is ecomomically challenged, but really this is strange. The FCC should be kicked for allowing this to happen (and I'm a big fan of public radio).

 

[redneckriviera]

The real story? Creative engineering! A fellow named Bob Stevens bought WROG a few years ago. He also owns an FM over south of Pittsburgh (on 103.1, I think), and he figured out a way to move that station much closer to Pittsburgh by moving 102.9 to the east--away from Pittsburgh. So he moved it to Chambersburg, and put it up for sale, but couldn't find any commercial broadcasters willing to pay the price he wanted. So he sold it to the Harrisburg public radio-TV folks instead. They'll probably just use it as a repeater.

The shift from 102.9 to 93.3? Good question. My guess is that once Stevens got approval to move 102.9 out of the way, he figured out that he would have more room to locate a prospective tower site for the thing in the Chambersburg area if he switched frequencies to something that had more geographic elbow-room. And he found 93.3 and applied for it and got it moved. Again, creative engineering.

What about 102.9 in Cumberland? Well, it's empty now. Shouldn't suprise anyone if somebody grabbed it, sooner or later. Don't know whether they'd have to wait until the FCC re-assigned it to Cumberland and put it up for auction or whether an existing station--maybe one of the Class As in the area--could just apply to switch to that channel.

 

[mleach]

I was shocked to read on DCRTV that WROG in Cumberland had been taken off the air and sold to WITF/public radio in PA. Even stranger, the station will be "moved" to Chambersburg PA--the frequency changed to 93.3 and power reduced to 300(!) watts. 102.9 was a flamethrower in Cumberland and the Potomac Highlands. WROG, along with WKGO, got into many areas up there that no other stations reached. I always thought WROG and WKGO were by far the dominant stations in the region. What is the real story surrounding this strange development? What will happen to 102.9 in the Cumberland area? I know the Cumberland area is ecomomically challenged, but really this is strange. The FCC should be kicked for allowing this to happen (and I'm a big fan of public radio).

WROG had the power but WFRB had/has the listeners. WROG years ago ( early 90s ) was actually owned by WSIG-FM in Mount Jackson, VA ( The infamous Earl Judy ). I met Earl ( who has since passed on ) years ago and while he was a nice man he really knew nothing when it came to radio. WSIG was a very popular country music station back in the 60s and 70s when it was owned by Winchester, VA's WINC radio but when WSIG was sold to Judy, he did everything on the cheap and often ended up with egg on his face. I remember listening to WROG when I was in Cumberland back in the mid 90s and even then they were using a satellite service instead on being live and local, for such a popular station as it was that wasn't a good sign and made it a disadvantage at the time to compete with WFRB and their live jocks. Dittos with WKGO, WQZK and even WCBC

Cumberland is a very strange ( and sadly boring ) market. Myself I don't think that market ever got over the recent deaths of two long time popular Cumberland announcers Chazz Offutt ( who died on the air at WTBO ) and Jim Roby ( WCBC AM & FM ) plus last June yet another WCBC broadcaster, sportscaster Tom O'Rourke passed away. True someone may one of these days ended up putting something on Cumberland's 102.9 but I have doubts it will be a local station because as you mentioned Cumberland is ecomomically challenged ( we are talking about a city that lost their own K-Mart !! ). I myself can see one of the Winchester, VA or Martinsburg, WV stations taking over 102.9 only to relay their signal to Cumberland since so many people in that city work/shop/do business in the Winchester, Virginia area anyway.