Wish goes on twenty years after shedding beautiful music
Musings From Eric:No, I didn't forget. I just didn't think many would care! (Apparently a number of you do, or I wouldn't be writing this!) This past December 26 marked 20 years since WSHH-FM (99.7) shed the instrumental covers for an all-vocal easy listening format. If I recall correctly, the change happened around Noon that day as the station, coming off of it's first live broadcast for Make-A-Wish and the traditional 36-hour Christmas Music run, still played some of the instrumentals that morning with Jack Bogut. The station also shed the Sinatra, Bennett and other crooner tunes it played opting to focus on Neil Diamond, The Carpenters and other still mellow vocal artists. The station has gradually, and graciously morphed into a soft rock station and now you'd be hard-pressed to find The Carpenters on there on a regular basis.
The format change led to the creation of WEZE-FM which formed in early 1990 on 104.7. The station had recently been purchased by Salem Broadcasting who opted not to continue with WNRJ "Energy 104". Within a few short months it lured a number of Wish employees - including station manager Joe Fenn who resumed his position at WEZE and went back to doing the morning show. Leah Klocko left the evenings at Wish for afternoon drive on WEZE. Ed Price, who had done a shift at WJAS moved over and started working evenings with his dulcet tones, unfortunately passing away suddenly about a year later. Disgruntled Wish listeners flocked to 104.7 and were satisfied for almost two years. During that time they went after Wish with liners like "Your WISH for Easy Listening is on WEZE-FM - Easy 104.7" and even copied the 36 hour Christmas run. And, perhaps the biggest change of all, the station moved from its New Kensington home to Parkway Center in Greentree. In late fall of 1991, WEZE listeners started to hear something unusual. All of a sudden WLTJ was advertising its station on WEZE and no one could really figure out why. But soon the papers let the word out that WEZE would soon change to WORD-FM with a religious format thus bringing the end of Beautiful Music on the Pittsburgh airwaves. WORD-FM eventually moved over to its sister signal on 101.5 and remains in Parkway Center to this day. 104.7 was shed to another company where it became WXRB "The Rebel" and a country format followed by an alternative format with WNRQ, Smooth Jazz and later Jammin' Oldies with WJJJ and, in 2004 with the most successful format (now 6 years old) on the signal since WYDD days - FM Talk as WPGB.
But Wish is still with us. As I mentioned, it has gradually changed with the times over the last 20 years and is one of two stations in town that goes all-Christmas every year. It's worth noting that up until a few years ago, the 36- hour Christmas run still included a lot of the instrumental renditions of Christmas favorites which had once been mixed in to the format in the old days. It is also worth noting that Wish is the only local commercial station which still plays some Christmas music between Christmas and the New Year.
If you miss beautiful music on your radio, there are still some places to receive it. For cable subscribers who have the option of "Music Choice" on their boxes, Phil Stout (who was one of the main programmers for Shulke Radio Productions - a beautiful music supplier for stations including Wish) programs the Easy Listening channel. Marlin Taylor (considered by many to be the "father" of the beautiful music format) is the programmer for Sirius/XM's "Escape". Much of the custom music - recorded specifically for these formats mainly by artists from the UK - is becoming available for purchase mainly through sites like Rhapsody.com. And for you real beautiful music afficionados, you can join the Yahoo! Group - Beautiful Instrumentals and Vocals run by Jim Masters.
The format may not work for Commercial FM stations anymore, but it's not completely dead.
Happy New Year 2010!
WANB operating from 1210
Pittsburgh:Broadcast Communications began broadcasting WANB-AM (Waynesburg) on 1210 today, after nearly 50 years on 1580 AM. The move was made to have a better coverage area which is easier to achieve the lower you go on the AM dial. For now, WANB is still heard on 103.1 FM, now known as WKVE and will continue to be heard on a translater FM station at 105.1 FM.
BCI will very soon be ready to operate WKVE (103.1) with its new Mt. Pleasant city of license.
DISCLAIMER: (In case you didn't know already.) This editor works part-time for Broadcast Communications, Inc.
New morning anchor for WPXI
Pittsburgh: It is official: Todd McDermott will be the new morning anchor at WPXI-TV (11) effective January 4. McDermott, who was rumored to have the position last week, has an impressive background having worked at stations in New York City, Washington, D.C., Wichita and Baltimore. He was in NYC during 9/11 where he spent many hours on the air at WCBS with news coverage that day. He also filled in on CBS Morning Show for a time after Bryant Gumbel left. McDermott has a son in college and a daughter in high school.This just in...
Musings From Eric: Eric O'Brien will be appearing - as well as one can "appear" on an audio feed - on Online with Bill Alexander. Live start time is 10:06 pm Eastern. Podcasts will be available sometime after the show airs.As the world ... grinds to a halt
National News:CBS has canceled one of its last remaining soap operas. "As the World Turns," which airs daily at 2 p.m. on the Eyenet's local owned-and-operated, KDKA-TV, will end its 54-year run in January.
The move puts Cincinnati-based soap-making giant Procter & Gamble out of the broadcasting business for the first time since 1933, when it launched the radio soap opera "Ma Perkins" as an advertising vehicle for its Oxydol laundry detergent.
(And you always wondered why they were called soap operas. If Heinz had created them, they'd be pickle operas.)
Shows like "As the World Turns" were originally aimed at women who worked in the home. But with more women in the paid workforce, soap opera audiences have been steadily declining for decades.
Producing an original drama five times per week is expensive: According to the New York Times, the average soap opera costs about $50 million per year to produce; a game show costs half that price.
The show's producers (technically a subsidiary of P&G) say they're seeking another outlet for the show. But as the Associated Press points out, P&G said the same thing about "Guiding Light" when CBS snuffed it in September and replaced it with a revival of "Let's Make a Deal." It still hasn't found anyone else to pick up "Light."
For now, CBS still screens "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "The Young and the Restless." (Or as the late Bill Burns notoriously called it ....)
Tower site calendar features KDKA in 2010
National News:
Fybush Media's 2010 Tower Site Calendar is hot off the presses, the ninth year the unique 12-month wall calendar has been on sale.
The calendar, which features a monthly photo of a well-known broadcast transmitter site, is photographed and written by Scott Fybush, the creator of "Tower Site of the Week" and "North East Radio Watch".
The full-color monthly calendar has become a tradition for many radio engineers and a curiosity for those who think all radio towers look alike.
"The calendar has become a tradition over the years," says Fybush. "For many people, they are a very popular holiday gift."
Once again, each month of the calendar features an 8"x11" color photograph of a broadcast transmitter site taken by Fybush during his travels around the U.S., Canada, Mexico and beyond. The sites pictured on the 2010 calendar include many stunning mountain photos:
- Vermont's tallest peak, Mount Mansfield
- One of the tallest self-supporting towers in the country, the former home to WTBS in Atlanta
- The historic Art Deco transmitter site of Washingto, D.C.'s WTOP
- WBT in North Carolina, one of the oldest transmitter sites still in use
- A unique horizontal antenna perched on the Odd Fellows' Hall south of downtown Los Angeles
- KSTP, overlooking Highway 61 in St. Paul, Minnesota
- New York City's newest AM site, located in Secaucus, New Jersey
- WCLO, the hometown radio station of Janesville, Wisconsin
- XEWW, south of Rosarito Beach in Mexico
- Deer Point, a major transmitter site rising 4,200 feet above Boise, Idaho
- The broadcast site of Pittsburgh's legendary KDKA
- A nearly 70-year-old site in Phoenix, now surrounded by a shopping center parking lot
- A sunset photo showcasing WGHP-TV in High Point, North Carolina
In addition to tower photos, the calendar's monthly pages include significant dates in radio and television history, as well as civil and religious holidays and the start of each season.
The 2010 calendars cost $18 each, postpaid ($19.44 including sales tax for New York State residents), and can be purchased by check (payable to "Scott Fybush") or money order to 92 Bonnie Brae Avenue, Rochester NY 14618. Orders can also be placed with major credit cards at www.fybush.com.
"I've traveled all over the country to see radio stations, often after an engineer invited me," says Fybush, who also edits The Radio Journal and the radio directory site 100000watts.com and anchors newscasts for NPR member station WXXI in Rochester, NY.
Condolences
Pittsburgh:PBRTV wishes to express condolences to a couple of people in the local broadcast media.
- To Joe DeNardo whose wife, Dolores passed away on Monday at the age of 78. According to the obit, Joe and Dolores would have celebrated 57 years of marriage this month.
- To Porky Chedwick whose son, Paul passed away on Saturday.