WXJX (AM)
WXJX is an American radio station serving the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. The station is owned by Laurel Highland Total Communications, Inc. through licensee LHTC Media, Inc. licensee of WCNS radio in Latrobe. WXJX broadcasts on 910 kHz with a maximum power output of 5,000 watts daytime and 69 watts nighttime, it is licensed to the borough of Pennsylvania. The station, as WAVL after a long history of religious radio broadcasting, became a secular broadcaster in December 2015 with a Variety Hits format; as of Monday, August 29, 2016, WAVL adopted a conservative talk format. The construction permit for this radio station was first issued on February 1, 1947; the station's original assigned frequency was 890 power output at 250 watts daytime. The FCC allowed the change in May 1947. WAVL first signed on the air April 15, 1947. For many years, this station operated as non-directional, daytime-only station. After being denied an STA to broadcast high school football games in 1948, ownership applied for permission to operate at 100 watts during the night in 1949, but, denied in 1951 following a hearing on the matter.
However, in 1968, WAVL was granted pre-sunrise authorization of 350 watts, which allowed it to sign on daily at 6:00am year-round. In 1978, then-owner Tri-Borough Broadcasting raised a second tower, adopted a directional antenna pattern, increased its power to 5,000 watts, but still retained its daytime-only status. WAVL was granted permission to operate at a limited nighttime power of 69 watts in the late 1990s. For much of its existence, WAVL was a conservative Christian radio station, broadcasting inspirational music and time-brokered sermons from its studios located with its transmitter site in the Kiskiminetas Township village of Orchard Hills, just on the outskirts of Apollo, its city of license. WAVL was the first radio station in Armstrong County, with WACB coming on the air the following year. For a time at the beginning, WAVL maintained studios and offices at the corner of Fourth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Apollo, until they were destroyed by a fire in 1956. WAVL was founded by Andrew J. West and the Reverend Cecil F. Clifton, a patriotic minister who started the station on the principle of "serving God and Country by guarding America's spiritual heritage".
The station remained in Clifton's family for more than 50 years, doing business as Tri-Borough Broadcasting. The station is speculated to have been among the first in the nation to begin the practice of brokering its airtime to ministries and other faith-based organizations, including one of the first in the nation to broadcast Messianic Jewish programming with the Rabbi Sloan talk-teaching broadcast called "Shema Israel" in the mid 1990s; the station broadcast local news weekday mornings in between the time-brokered programs for many years, anchored by the soft-spoken, deep-baritoned genial Carman Tubby, a favorite in the community for many years until his death on September 14, 2000, became best known for addressing his listeners on the air as "friends". Tubby had worked at WAVL since its inception and retired seven months prior to his death, concluding 54 years of service. After Reverend Clifton's death in 1990, the station passed to his wife Alice, their son-in-law, Reverend Robert Dain, had served as the station's General Manager years before that.
At the beginning of the 21st century, following Mrs. Clifton's death, WAVL was put up for sale. WAVL was purchased in 2001 for $400,000 by Evangel Heights Assembly of God, a church in Sarver, Pennsylvania. Wishing to move WAVL towards a younger audience, Evangel Heights decided to change the station's format to contemporary Christian phasing out the ministries, adopting the moniker "Praise 910"; the station first broadcast with a live, local airstaff during the daytime hours switching to satellite based programming at night, with modest success. In 2007, Evangel Heights replaced all local air staff with satellite programming full-time, moved studios to the church on Beale Road in Buffalo Township. Evangel Heights in 2009 launched a conservative all-talk satellite-delivered format under the "Liberty 910" banner, with some brokered ministry programming in limited numbers. In August 2013, WAVL was under agreement to be sold to Kittanning-based Family-Life Media-Com Inc. owner of WTYM and a low-power Christian-formatted television station, with the station being operated under an LMA until details of the sale could be finalized.
Coincidentally, Family Life Media-Com President David Croyle, once worked for WAVL under Tri-Borough Broadcasting's ownership. The station's studios were returned to its transmitter facility following the LMA, but most business was conducted from Family Life's headquarters in Kittanning; the station was taken back to its roots of music and ministry since Family Life Media-Com's assumption of operations, with a mix of local and national shows plus featured live broadcasts from the Family Life Studios in Kittanning. As of July 31, 2015, control reverted to Evangel Heights Assembly of God Church due to both sides being unable to work out an amicable agreement on the sale of the station; the church elected to take WAVL silent for staffing reasons and filed a Special Temporary Authority application with the FCC allowing the station to remain silent for a six-month period. On Wednesday, December 30, 2015, it was reported and subsequently confirmed that WAVL was back on the air; the station operated under a lease agreement between Evangel Heights Assembly of God Church and the Colonial Radio Group (also known as Colonial Media
WBVP
WBVP and WMBA are news/talk radio stations based in Beaver Falls, United States. The stations serve Beaver County and simulcast their programming; the stations are owned by Mark and Cynthia Peterson, through licensee Sound Ideas Media, LLC. WBVP operates at 1230 kHz with an ERP of 1 kW-Unlimited power and is licensed to Beaver Falls, while WMBA operates at 1460 kHz with an ERP of 500 W-Unlimited power and is licensed to Ambridge, Pennsylvania. WBVP started broadcasting on May 25, 1948 and was founded by a threesome from Pittsburgh, PA including Tom Price, Frank Smith and Charles Ondurka. In 1955, The original partners formed Beaver Valley Broadcasting. Around 1970, Hall Communications bought WBVP along with an FM radio station known as WBVP - FM at 106.7 mHz, put on the air in 1968. In 1985, Ted and Marilee Ruscitti from Hopewell township, PA bought WBVP and the FM station, that by this point in time the call letters had been changed and it was known as WWKS, through their company, MT Communications.
In 1990, The stations were sold to the Baltimore Radio Show out of Towson, MD with Harry Shriver serving as managing partner. Carnegie, PA native Frank Iorio, Jr. along with partners Aaron Daniels and Mike Swartz formed Pittsburgh Radio Partners and bought the two stations in 1994. Just a year the trio sold the FM station, WWKS, to Secret Communications and at that time Iorio bought out his partners and continued to own and operate WBVP through his newly formed company, Iorio Broadcasting, Inc. Iorio bought WMBA from Donn Communications in 2000. Long time station employee, Mark Peterson along with his wife, Formed Sound Ideas Media, LLC, purchased WBVP and WMBA in 2014; the two stations competed for 40 years. Miners Broadcasting put WMBA on the air; the station was sold in 1970 to a former Pittsburgh television advertising salesman. His Bride Broadcasting, Inc. instituted a more contemporary format, including local talk shows and Top 40 music after 4 p.m. during the week and on weekends. Bride continued to own and operate the station after he moved his base of operations to Maine, where he owned other radio stations.
Bride sold the station to Donn Communications in the mid-1980s and the studios and offices moved from a converted house at 291 14th Street in Ambridge to a storefront at 761 Merchant Street in Ambridge's business district. WBVP had been the local station serving Beaver County for many years; the following year, WBVP was joined by an FM sister station, first known as WBVP-FM, but that station changed its calls to WWKS, becoming best known throughout the 70's and 80's as "Kiss FM". Local ownership of this radio station ceased in 1995, when it was sold to Clear Channel Communications, today is operated as Pittsburgh station WAOB-FM. WBVP was sold in a spin-off transaction to Frank Iorio. In May 2000, WMBA owner Donn Wuycik, president of Donn Communications, entered into an agreement to sell WMBA to Iorio Broadcasting, for an undisclosed amount. Since 2000, they have been under single ownership and WMBA's operations were moved from 761 Merchant Street in Ambridge into WBVP's existing facilities at 1316 Seventh Avenue in Beaver Falls.
WBVP and WMBA, which aired separate talk formats with nostalgia and adult contemporary music began to duplicate more of each other's programming as time evolved, today the stations are nearly 100 percent simulcast. The exceptions are confined to high school sports, where each station will air live play-by-play of a game significant to its community. Frank Iorio wanted to concentrate on his new Pittsburgh acquisition, WJAS, a transaction which he would complete in the summer of 2014. Longtime WBVP and WMBA general manager Mark Peterson had aspired to acquire a station of his own, Iorio arranged to sell the station to Peterson and his wife. Both WBVP and WMBA were sold to Peterson's newly formed company, Sound Ideas Media, LLC for $750,000 in a transaction, consummated on February 28, 2014. WBVP and WMBA are live and local from 6 a.m. until 1 p.m. on weekdays. The local programming centers around talk shows; the remainder of the broadcast day is usually filled with syndicated programming. In recent years, both stations have aired play-by-play of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh Pirates games.
Both stations have served as a springboard for on-air personnel who have moved on to bigger stations, that trend continues today. Among the WBVP alumni are Bob Alexander, Alan Boal, Jim Reynolds, Chris Shovlin, Bill Kelly, Sam Nicotero, Earl Lewis, Justin McKim, Ken Mueller, Randy Buckwalter, Chuck Wilson, Don Kennedy and Ernie Kline, who became Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor. Among those who served at WMBA are Bob Pompeani, Jim Merkel, Guy Junker, Ted Ruscitti, Jim Ladd, Kevin Maguire, Ray Fallen, Woody Lester, Dave Stevens, Rick Pantale, Dave Justice, T. J. Jamison, Dave Denniston, Roy Angst, Frank Greenlee, Sam Siple, John Poister, Tim Herrera, Rick Bergman, Julie Bologna, Randy Cosgrove, Don Shields and John Mehno. Official website Query the FCC's AM station database for WBVP Radio-Locator Information on WBVP Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WBVP Query the FCC's AM station database for WMBA Radio-Locator Information on WMBA Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WMBA
Pennsylvania Turnpike
The Pennsylvania Turnpike is a toll highway operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in the U. S. state of Pennsylvania. A controlled-access highway, it runs for 360 miles across the state; the turnpike begins at the Ohio state line in Lawrence County, where the road continues west into Ohio as the Ohio Turnpike. It ends at the New Jersey border at the Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge over the Delaware River in Bucks County, where the road continues east as the Pearl Harbor Memorial Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike; the highway runs east–west through the state, connecting the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas. It crosses the Appalachian Mountains in central Pennsylvania; the turnpike is part of the Interstate Highway System. The road uses a ticket system of tolling between the Neshaminy Falls toll plazas. An additional eastbound toll plaza is located at Gateway, near the Ohio border, while a cashless westbound toll gantry using toll-by-plate is located at the Delaware River Bridge.
E-ZPass, a form of electronic toll collection, is accepted at all toll plazas. During the 1930s the Pennsylvania Turnpike was designed to improve automobile transportation across the mountains of Pennsylvania, using seven tunnels built for the abandoned South Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1880s; the road opened on October 1940, between Irwin and Carlisle. It was one of the earlier long-distance limited-access highways in the United States, served as a precedent for additional limited-access toll roads and the Interstate Highway System. Following World War II, the turnpike was extended east to Valley Forge in 1950 and west to the Ohio border in 1951. In 1954, the road was extended further east to the Delaware River; the mainline turnpike was finished in 1956 with the completion of the Delaware River Bridge. During the 1960s an additional tube was bored at four of the two-lane tunnels, while the other three tunnels were bypassed. Improvements continue to be made to the road: rebuilding the original section to modern standards, widening portions of the turnpike to six lanes, adding interchanges.
Most in 2018, an ongoing interchange project saw the redesignation of the easternmost three miles of the road from I-276 to I-95. Though still considered part of the turnpike mainline, it is no longer signed with turnpike markers; the turnpike runs east–west across Pennsylvania, from the Ohio state line in Lawrence County to the New Jersey state line in Bucks County. It passes through the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas, along with farmland and woodland; the highway crosses the Appalachian Mountains, in the central part of the state, through four tunnels. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, created in 1937 to construct, finance and maintain the road, controls the highway. Five members comprise the commission, including the secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and four other members appointed by the governor of Pennsylvania. In 2015, the roadway had an annual average daily traffic count ranging from a high of 120,000 vehicles between Norristown and I-476 to a low of 12,000 vehicles between the Ohio border and I-79/US 19.
As part of the Interstate Highway System, the turnpike is part of the National Highway System. The Pennsylvania Turnpike is designated a Blue Star Memorial Highway honoring those who have served in the United States Armed Forces. In addition to the east–west Pennsylvania Turnpike, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission operates the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the Beaver Valley Expressway, the Mon-Fayette Expressway, the Amos K. Hutchinson Bypass, the Southern Beltway; the Pennsylvania Turnpike begins at the Ohio state line in Lawrence County, beyond which it continues west as the Ohio Turnpike. From the state line, the turnpike heads southeast as a four-lane freeway designated as I-76 through the rural area south of New Castle. A short distance from the Ohio border, the eastbound lanes come to the Gateway toll plaza; the highway crosses into Beaver County, where it reaches its first interchange with I-376 in Big Beaver. After this interchange, the turnpike reaches the exit for PA 18 in Homewood before crossing the Beaver River on the Beaver River Bridge.
The road enters Butler County, where it comes to Cranberry Township. Here, an interchange serves U. S. Route 19 and I-79; the turnpike continues through a mix of rural land and suburban residential development north of Pittsburgh into Allegheny County. The road approaches the Warrendale toll plaza, where toll ticketing begins, continues southeast to an interchange with PA 8 in Hampton Township; the turnpike comes to the Allegheny Valley exit in Harmar Township, which provides access to PA 28 via Freeport Road. East of this interchange, the road heads south and crosses the Allegheny River on the six-lane Allegheny River Turnpike Bridge. After the Allegheny River crossing the turnpike returns to four lanes, passing through the Oakmont Country Club; the highway heads southeast to an eastern suburb of Pittsburgh. East of Monroeville, the turnpike continues through eastern Allegheny County befor
Broadcast relay station
A broadcast relay station known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator, re-broadcaster, repeater or complementary station, is a broadcast transmitter which repeats the signal of a radio or television station to an area not covered by the originating station. It expands the broadcast range of a television or radio station beyond the primary signal's original coverage or improves service in the original coverage area; the stations may be used to create a single-frequency network. They may be used by an FM or AM radio station to establish a presence on the other band. A re-broadcaster may be owned by a community group, rather than the owner of the primary station. WHLS/WHLX in Port Huron, Michigan purchased a translator and switched to an alternative rock format shortly afterwards without mentioning the original FM translator, except for its required top-of-the-hour ID. No AM frequencies have been mentioned. In its simplest form, a broadcast translator is a facility created to receive a terrestrial broadcast over the air on one frequency and rebroadcast the same signal on another frequency.
These stations are used in television and radio to cover areas which are not adequately covered by a station's main signal. They can be used to expand market coverage by duplicating programming on another band. Relays which broadcast within the parent station's coverage area on the same channel are known in the U. S. as booster stations. Signals from the stations may interfere with each other without careful antenna design. Radio interference can be avoided by using atomic time, obtained from GPS satellites, to synchronize co-channel stations in a single-frequency network. Analog television stations cannot have same-channel boosters unless opposite polarization is used, due to video synchronization issues such as ghosting. In the U. S. no new on-channel UHF signal boosters have been authorized since July 11, 1975. A distributed transmission system uses several medium-power stations on the same frequency to cover a broadcast area, rather than one high-power station with repeaters on a different frequency.
Although digital television stations are technically capable of sharing a channel, this is more difficult with the 8VSB modulation and unvariable guard interval used in ATSC standards than with the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing used in the European and Australian DVB-T standard. A distributed transmission system would have stringent synchronization requirements, requiring each transmitter to receive its signal from a central source for broadcast at a GPS-synchronized time. A DTS does not use broadcast repeaters in the conventional sense, since they cannot receive a signal from a main terrestrial broadcast transmitter for rebroadcast; the use of virtual channels is another alternative, although this may cause the same channel to appear several times in a receiver – once for each relay station – and require the user to tune to the best one. Although boosters or DTS cause all relay stations to appear as one signal, they require careful engineering to avoid interference; some licensed stations simulcast another station.
Relay stations in name only, they are licensed like any other station. Although this is unregulated in the U. S. and permitted in Canada, the U. S. Federal Communications Commission regulates radio formats to ensure diversity in programming. U. S. satellite stations may request an FCC exemption from requirements for a properly staffed broadcast studio in the city of license. The stations cover large, sparsely populated regions or operate as statewide non-commercial educational radio and television systems. A television re-broadcaster sells local advertising for broadcast only on the local transmitter, may air a limited amount of programming distinct from its parent station; some "semi-satellites" broadcast local news or separate news segments during part of the newscast. CHEX-TV-2 in Oshawa, Ontario aired daily late-afternoon and early-evening news and community programs separate from its parent station, CHEX-TV in Peterborough, Ontario; the FCC prohibits this on U. S. FM translator stations, only permitting it on licensed stations.
In some cases, a semi-satellite is a autonomous full-service station, programmed remotely through centralcasting or broadcast automation to avoid the cost of a local staff. CBLFT, an owned-and-operated station of the French-language network Ici Radio-Canada Télé in Toronto, is a de facto semi-satellite of its stronger Ottawa sibling CBOFT. A financially weak owned broadcaster in a small market can become a de facto semi-satellite by curtailing local production and relying on a owned station in a larger city for programming. Broadcast automation allows the substitution of syndicated programming or digital subchannel content which the broadcaster was unable to obtain for both cities; some defunct full-service stations have originate nothing. If programming from the parent station must be removed or substituted due to local sports blackouts, the modified signal is that of a semi-satellite station. Most broadcasters outside North America maintain a national network
KDKA (AM)
KDKA is a Class A radio station and operated by Entercom and licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Its studios are located at the combined Entercom Pittsburgh facility in the Foster Plaza on Holiday Drive in Green Tree, its transmitter site is at Allison Park; the station's programming is carried over KDKA-FM's 93.7 HD2 digital subchannel. KDKA features a news/talk format. Operating with a transmitter power output of 50,000 watts, the station can be heard during daylight hours throughout central and western Pennsylvania, along with portions of the adjacent states of Ohio, West Virginia and New York, plus the Canadian province of Ontario, its nighttime signal covers much of eastern North America. KDKA has described itself as the "Pioneer Broadcasting Station of the World", traces its beginning using the temporarily assigned "special amateur" call sign of 8ZZ, to its broadcast of the 1920 Harding-Cox presidential election results on the evening of November 2, 1920. Although KDKA's history has been extensively reviewed, there are some inconsistencies between accounts, leading one researcher to note: "While the KDKA story is recounted, the details tend to vary both in the secondary source material and in the published recollections of the participants, including differences in the chronology of events and the relative importance of the parties involved."
KDKA's establishment was an outgrowth of the post-World War I efforts of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company of East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to expand its commercial operations in the radio industry. During the war, Westinghouse received government contracts to develop radio transmitters and receivers for military use, they used developed vacuum tube equipment, capable of audio communication. Previous spark gap transmitters could only be used to transmit the dots-and-dashes of Morse code. At the time of the entry of the United States into World War I in April 1917, the government ordered all civilian radio stations off the air. However, during the conflict Westinghouse received permission to operate research radio transmitters located at its East Pittsburgh plant and at the home of one of its lead engineers, Frank Conrad, in nearby Wilkinsburg. With the end of the war, the government contracts were canceled. However, Westinghouse moved aggressively to establish itself as a national and international provider of radio communication.
Its primary competitor in this effort was the Radio Corporation of America, formed as a subsidiary by Westinghouse's arch rival, the General Electric Company of Schenectady, New York, using the assets of the Marconi Company of America. The effort to establish Westinghouse's radio industry presence was led by company vice president H. P. Davis. In order to strengthen the company's patent position related to receivers, he spearheaded the purchase of the International Radio Telegraph Company to gain control of a "heterodyne" patent issued to Reginald Fessenden, arranged for the purchase of the commercial rights to the regenerative and superheterodyne patents held by Edwin Howard Armstrong. However, because of the competitive advantage RCA had in international and marine communications there appeared to be limited opportunities available to Westinghouse. Although it would gain its fame as a broadcasting station, KDKA originated as part of a project to establish private radiotelegraph links between Westinghouse's East Pittsburgh factory and its other facilities, to avoid the business expense of paying for telegraph and telephone lines.
In September 1920, a newspaper report noted that "a new high-power station, to operate under a special or commercial license, is being installed at the Westinghouse plant in East Pittsburgh. It will be used to establish communication between the East Pittsburgh plant and the company branch factories at Cleveland, O. Newark, N. J. and Springfield, Mass. where similar outfits will be employed."An application, signed by H. P. Davis, was submitted to the Eighth District Radio Inspector, S. W. Edwards in Detroit, who forwarded it to Washington, on October 27, 1920, Westinghouse was issued a Limited Commercial station license, serial #174, with the identifying call letters of KDKA; this Limited Commercial grant was consistent with the standard practice being followed at this time, for licenses issued to companies engaging in private radio communication. Neither KDKA's original application, nor the resulting license, mentioned broadcasting, only that the station was to be used for radiotelegraphic communication with stations located at the Westinghouse facilities in Cleveland and Springfield, plus station WCG in Brooklyn, New York, operated by the acquired International Radio Telegraph.
At this time, radio stations in the United States were regulated by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Navigation. Beginning with the introduction of licensing in late 1912, the standard practice had been to assign call letters starting with "W" to radio stations east of the Mississippi River. However, KDKA happened to receive its assignment during a short period during which land stations were being issued call letters from a sequential block of "K" call letters, assigned only to ship stations. Although the original policy was restored a few months KDKA was permitted to keep its non-standard call sign. Shortly after beginning the process of setting up KDKA to be used for point-to-point communication, a series of events occurred which resulted in it becoming a broadcasting station, which would overshadow its original role. Prior to World War I, Frank Conrad had operated an experimental radiotelegraph station, with the callsign 8XK. Following
WSRU
WSRU is the college radio station of Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. It is owned by the Student Government Association and the Board of Trustees of SRU, it is operated at a "rocking" 100 watts of power, serving the surrounding community. WSRU is run by SRU students and prides itself on providing diversity in its programming for the diverse student population. In the first semester of 1960, a closed circuit radio station operated on a nightly schedule in Patterson Hall with a power output of less than 1/10 of one watt; this station originated in room 38 of Patterson Hall and broadcast an hour of recorded music and campus news each evening to the three hundred men living in the dorm. The call letters chosen for the station came from the four initial letters of "News from Thirty-Eight." Hence the call letters "NFTE" and its nickname "Nifty" were adopted. Near the end of the Fall 1960 the transmitting equipment was damaged, Patterson Hall's radio station went off the air. Several attempts were made to repair the equipment, but the semester came to an end along with the enthusiasm for "NFTE".
Slippery Rock State College became a member of the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System in 1961, which it remains a member of today. The college requests and is granted a FCC license for a 10 watt broadcast at 640kHz AM with the callsign WNFT. WNFT operated on a shoestring budget prior to its launch, reporting a total balance of $110 with no transmission or sound equipment or records; the original transmitter and console were hand-built by engineering students. In addition to equipment, they were procuring records and tapping all free sources known; these sources included 10 to 30 minute spots of music from the armed services. In December 1961, WNFT staff sold "Tag Day" tickets for $0.25 each to students to continue to raise the funds needed. After two years of cooperative student and faculty efforts, WNFT holds an open house in North Hall. Everyone was invited to view and to hear the new 600 kc. 25 watt Slippery Rock radio station. The broadcast radius covered 3 dormitories; the first official broadcast was at 6:00 p.m. a tape of light classical music performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Despite finding resources to launch, WNFT continues to operate on a shoestring budget, will do so for many years afterward. Slippery Rock State College opened a new student union building known as the College Union in 1970, WNFT relocated to a custom-built studio in C-211, where it remains today. University Union was replaced by the Robert M. Smith Student Center in 2013, leaving WSRU as one of the last occupants of University Union. By 1970, WNFT broadcast from 7am to 2am, 7 days a week, utilizing a top 40 rock format mixed with other common radio features. WNFT solicited advertisers to move away from their former shoestring budget. WNFT launched the Slippery Rock Radio Network in 1971, broadcasting college sports live to WNFT, as well as local Butler County and New Castle radio stations; this lasted until the early 1980s, although the station continues to broadcast home football & basketball games live to this day. In 1974, WNFT's news department interviewed Democratic primary candidates Pete Flaherty and Herb Denenberg for Pennsylvania's US Senate election that year.
The Republican candidate and incumbent Senator in that election, Richard Schweiker, was a two-year attendee of Slippery Rock State College. Schweiker was not invited for an interview. Schweiker went on to win that election and became Secretary of Health and Human Services in 1981. In 1980, WNFT became WRCK to better reflect the modern campus. In 1980, the WRCK staff selected Gregory Beat, Coordinator of Residence Education and Student Activities, to serve as faculty advisor, he led the station based on his previous work and advisory experience with college radio facilities at WIUM, WVKC, WRKC. During Homecoming weekend 1983, the original version of WSRU goes on the air as an educational station, broadcasting from the 2nd floor of the Eisenberg Classroom Building; the programming consists of "block programming," including Jazz and Orchestral music, Easy Listening/Soft Rock and Christian themed selections. The Communication Department-run station runs concurrently with the existing WRCK until WSRU ceases operations in 1991.
In 1990, Slippery Rock University activated a campus-wide digital telephone system. This, in effect, eliminates the broadcast of WRCK-AM, as its carrier current AM transmission was dependent on the old analog telephone lines to the campus residence halls; this marks the end of AM broadcasting of any station on Slippery Rock's campus. As a result, WRCK applies for a new license to build a dedicated FM transmitter; the FCC grants the university a construction permit and the callsign WRSK, which becomes active effective November 30th. Despite WSRU claiming WNFT as its roots and celebrating a 50-year anniversary in 2012, this marks the official foundation of the modern campus radio station. Due to having no dedicated transmission equipment, WRCK is only heard in the lobby of University Union from 1990 to 1991. WRSK's first day on-air was September 1st, 1991; this ends the station's 30-year history of closed-circuit broadcasting. The station launched at 8am local time and played The Rolling Stones' Start Me Up to mark the milestone.
During the 1992 campaign cycle, California governor and for
WABC (AM)
WABC, is a radio station licensed to New York City and is owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media. The station shares studio facilities with sister stations WPLJ, WNSH and WNBM above Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan. WABC's transmitter is located in New Jersey, its 50,000 watt non-directional clear channel signal can be heard at night throughout much of the eastern United States and Canada. Its programming is carried on WNSH's HD2 digital sub-channel. One of the country's oldest radio stations, WABC began broadcasting in early October 1921 as WJZ in Newark, New Jersey. WABC has programmed a talk radio format since 1982; the station uses on-air slogans such as Breaking News and Stimulating Talk, New York's 50,000-Watt Beacon of Freedom and Where New York Comes to Talk. Many WABC hosts moved on to national syndication; the station serves as the flagship station for syndicated hosts Mark Levin and John Batchelor. It served as the flagship station for Imus in the Morning with Don Imus from 2008-2018.
It was where the nationally syndicated programs hosted by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity got their start, although those programs are now heard on WABC's talk radio rival in New York, WOR. From 1981 to 1982, WABC ran a full service news intensive adult contemporary format with some talk and sports programming weekday evenings. From 1960 to 1981, WABC broadcast a Top 40 music format and until 1978 was the dominant contemporary music station in the New York City area, serving as a template for many other Top 40 stations around the country. During this time, WABC was among the most listened to radio stations in North America. WABC's only current sports contract is with the United States Military Academy for Army football games. In addition to the aforementioned Yankees coverage, the station served two separate stints as the flagship for the New York Jets and was the home of the New Jersey Devils beginning in 1988. WABC previously carried Seton Hall University men's basketball. Early in its Top 40 incarnation, WABC served as the original radio flagship of the New York Mets.
A notable aspect of WABC's Mets coverage was Howard Cosell and former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca handling the pre- and post-game shows. The station lost those rights to WHN following the 1963 season; the Jets first called WABC home in the 1980s, but left toward the end of the decade for WCBS. The team would return to the station in 2000 after spending the previous seven seasons on WFAN. After then-sister station WEPN became the Jets' flagship, WABC began simulcasting the games over their airwaves due to its stronger signal; the arrangement ended in 2008. In December 2001, broadcast rights to the Yankees were lost after 21 years to WCBS. WABC lost the radio rights to the Devils in 2005, as New Jersey's hockey team moved to WFAN to substitute for the station's loss of the New York Rangers to WEPN. WABC served as an overflow station for the Rangers from 2005 through 2009, served the same purpose for the New York Knicks when their games moved from WFAN to WEPN, but those rights moved to WNYM in 2009.
The loss of evening sports programming has forced WABC to attempt to solidify its evening talk lineup. In November 1920 the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company had established its first broadcasting station, KDKA, located in its plant at East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in order to promote the sale of radio receivers; this initial station proved successful, so the next year the company developed plans to set up additional stations in major population centers, including, in addition to the New York City area, WBZ in Springfield, KYW in Chicago, Illinois. On September 30, 1921, Westinghouse was issued a broadcasting authorization for a station with the randomly assigned call letters WJZ, located at the company's meter factory at Orange and Plane streets in Newark, New Jersey, transmitting on a wavelength of 360 meters. WJZ's studio and transmitter were housed in a shack located on the factory roof, only accessible by ladder; the station expanded to a larger studio on the factory's ground floor.
The station began test transmissions around October 1, 1921, beginning October 5, by broadcasts of the 1921 World Series baseball games. Announcer Thomas H. Cowan in Newark relayed the description phoned in from the Polo Grounds playing field by Newark Sunday Call sportswriter Sandy Hunt.. The station soon expanded to feature a wide variety of live programming. A popular early feature was the "Man in the Moon" bedtime stories, written by Josephine Lawrence and read over the air by Bill McNeary. Beginning on November 27, 1921, a weekly 90-minute show presented by the Vincent Lopez band was aired; when it began its broadcast service, WJZ was the only station in the New York City area transmitting on 360 meters. In mid-December 1921 station WDY, operated by the Radio Corporation of America from Roselle Park, New Jersey, began sharing the wavelength, with WJZ now broadcasting on Sundays, Tuesdays and Saturdays and WDY operating on the other three nights; this soon ended when WDY ceased operations in mid-February 1922 and was merged with WJZ, with RCA now assuming half of WJZ's expenses.
However, within a few months a large number of additional broadcasting stations began operating on 360 meters, WJZ was stubborn about having to share "its" wavelength. In May 1922 a proposed time-sharing agreement among 15 local stations assigned more than half of the available airtime to WJZ, but the station
