WZUM 1590

[Whiplash]

WOW! No wonder its dark. Everyone overpaid for it.

 

[cingram]

WOW! No wonder its dark. Everyone overpaid for it.

Except Horvath -- and he had to put a lot of money into it, especially at the transmitter. I heard from several people at
the time that the FCC wanted to delete WZUM, and that only after much persuading was the sale finally permitted to go
through.

C.

 

[PHIL Z]

Mike Horvath had $500,00 in new Transmitting Equipment, 3 New Towers, Transmitter,Phasor,STL and a Barn to put them in. He Currently holds a CP for a new Station in Giestown Pa. Johnstown Market for 1350.

 

[hypwr]

Please correct the number. Was it 50K or 500K.

A new station on 1350? Why?

 

[hypwr]

Mike Horvath had $500,00 in new Transmitting Equipment, 3 New Towers, Transmitter,Phasor,STL and a Barn to put them in. He Currently holds a CP for a new Station in Giestown Pa. Johnstown Market for 1350.

Phil,

Why don't you call me at the station so we can do lunch.

 

[PHIL Z]

Mike Horvath Told me 500,000 Dollars [His Words] He had an Engineering Study done in the late 1990's, Showing how 1590 could have Night Service with 500 watts at a Seprate Antenna Site. And hoped to have it on the air by 2003. But a CP was Never Applied for. On 2/14/2003 he entered into a Time Brokrage Agreement with Starboard Media. When Hickling Bough WZUM in the late 1970's They to had a Study done and found they could have Night Service with 250 Watts, But it was a Figure 8 Pattern, and not worth the $$ to Build. So in 1983 Hickling Applied 3 Times to move 1590 to 660 Daytime with 250 watts Non Directional, to Better serve the Mon Valley. But was Denied each time. Mike Horvath Has a CP for 1350 in Geistown with 1500 watts day and 890 Watts Night. His Son Jason worked with WPTT 1360 and WAVL 910 when they were going to switch Freq's ,to To help get 1350 in The mix That CP Expires on 8/30/10.

 

[Parttimer]

Back in the early days, did WZUM ever show up in any ratings?

 

[hypwr]

I believe they did. Jimmy Psohoulis (sp) was managing the station at that time.

 

[PHIL Z]

Back in the early days, did WZUM ever show up in any ratings?

Yes They Did,They had an R&B Format Using Pepper Tanner Jingles, But Could not keep up with WAMO, so in 1970 they tried and Hour of Album Rock per day, with some Sucess. then in 1972 they switched to full time AOR. Also with Some Sucess but Limited Daytime Power and the 6am to 10am Polka Party Hurt WZUM . WDVE was Full time AOL .Then PS Broadcasting Witch Also Owned WWIZ 103.9 Mercer Pa. and WNIO 1540 Niles Ohio. Both stations Playing Country,[ when WNIO signed off they asked listeners to tune to 103.9] Jimes Psihoulis aka Jimmy Pol Owned those stations Too.
In 1975 WZUM tried Country, But was no Match for WEEP so the Station was Sold to Robert Hickling, who turned it to WPLW "WE Preach The Living World" .

 

[Parttimer]

They did polkas in the morning and AOR the rest of the day and wondered why it didn't get ratings. Go figure.

And is that Jimmy Pol, performer of the original Steelers Polka?

 

[Boss Radio]

And is that Jimmy Pol, performer of the original Steelers Polka?

That's him.

Didn't National Record Mart have something to do with the ownership of WZUM at some point? There was a big WZUM sign painted on the side of the Market Square NRM, and the station's ads were on NRM bags for a time, too.

 

[PHIL Z]

They did polkas in the morning and AOR the rest of the day and wondered why it didn't get ratings. Go figure.

And is that Jimmy Pol, performer of the original Steelers Polka?
[/quote Yes he is the Steelers Polka Singer, P S Broadcasting stood for Psihoulis Shaperio, The Shaperio Brothers Owning National Record Mart. My understanding was The FCC did not want Record Stores to Own radio stations so
P S Broadcasting was Born. James Psihoulis worked for them in the Market Square Store. Loran Mann came in one day to buy records and James Heard his deep Voice and Offered him a JOB at WZUM.

 

[Rallen1st]

WZUM in 1972 did have the Polka Party from 6A (sign-on) to 10A (and I think on Saturdays and/or Sundays too). Paul Perry took over as host of the M-F show in September of that year and brought a different spin to the show - very entertaining even if you really didn't like polkas. Of course, when ever he was in town, Jim Psihoulis (Jimmy Pol) would sort of take over things and he and Paul really sounded good on the air together. While WZUM may have never scored very highly in the ratings - one thing I do remember is that they sold the hell out of the station - I remember the Polka Party in particular always did very well. And to me at least - good sales trumps ratings any day. What still cracks me up today was the transition from Polkas to Rock at 10A. You'd have Jimmy Sturr or Frankie Yankovic whoop-pie shooping it up then a very heavily produced rock ID into Jimmy Hendrix and "All Along the Watch Tower". I also believe that when Progressive Rock (not AOR) was put on the air that Mr. Psihoulis actually did some on-air work I think he used an airname like Brother Love or something similar. Kinda of interesting to hear a progressive rock jock talking with an very thick Greek accent. Ahhh - that's when radio was fun.

 

[WCWalker]

Is anyone speculating at this time what will happen to the license of WZUM?

Will it go dark or will another religious broadcaster try to make a go of it?

It does not seem as though it has very much commercial appeal what with that whopping 24 watt night time signal.

 

[Parttimer]

Why does everyone care so much about these AMs having night signals? If you can put together good solid programming 8A-5P 7 days a week, can't you make as much with one of these small facilities vs having it burn up electricity for no listeners and no revenue at night?

I mean, obviously you can't compete with KDKA, but if you're going to run some niche format isn't daytime enough?

 

[WCWalker]

Why does everyone care so much about these AMs having night signals? If you can put together good solid programming 8A-5P 7 days a week, can't you make as much with one of these small facilities vs having it burn up electricity for no listeners and no revenue at night?

I mean, obviously you can't compete with KDKA, but if you're going to run some niche format isn't daytime enough?

Daytimers have always had a rough time making money even in good times. I know a couple of people that managed such stations and they likened it to having one hand tied behind their back when trying to market the station to area businesses and listeners. Yes, some can make a profit but it is small and probably too small to interest any corporate entity that might be a potential owner.

Granted WZUM is not a Daytimer but it has a very limited night time signal that barely covers the COL. It costs money to operate a station 24/7, even at reduced power and if no revenue is being generated from the night time programming then it becomes a liability on the station and its bottom line. In that case, probably running it as a Daytime only might be wise.

 

[kenhawk1160]

Granted, nighttime is pretty much a throwaway for most radio stations, AM and FM.

The only exception is if you carry high school sports. Additionally, it's nice to at least be able to keep your sign-on/sign-off times as consistent as possible.

But I do agree with Parttimer...if you're creative enough with an ingenious twist, you can make money.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Maybe one option would be to lease your evening hours at half-lightbulb power to the sorts of
people who might ordinarily be tempted to start a pirate station. So long as they did nothing to
put your license in jeopardy and paid at least enough to break even on the light bill, there are
probably a few more Frankie Day types who would take you up on that.

 

[MarcB]

It could be a solution until an FMer signs on with it, but how about Urban? Seems to be a big gaping hole since WAMO went dark.

 

[PHIL Z]

WZUM would be Perfect for Clasic R&B, Bring back Bob Stevens 6am to 10 am, Rockin Robby Dee 10am to2 pm, Bobby Bennett 2 pm to 6 pm. Allen King doing the News [aka WZUM Instant Information].On Weekends Jeff Michaels [aka Stan Wall] And Dave Baker "the Music Maker".The 24 watt night signal makes it to Pittsburgh's inner city.