Market research, 60 years ago
Monday Morning Nostalgia Fix:
As of this month, it's been eight years since Charleroi's WESA (940) and sister station WZKT-FM (98.3) disappeared into Keymarket Communications. The FM station, which changed its call letters to WOGI-FM, was moved to Pittsburgh and re-licensed to "Duquesne." It's now part of Keymarket's "Froggyland" country format also heard on 94.9 in Fayette, 103.5 in Burgettstown (formerly in Steubenville), and 104.3 in Moon Township (formerly East Liverpool).
WESA was one of hundreds of new AM stations that filled the U.S. airwaves after World War II. The FM station signed on about 20 years later.
These days, the little 250-watt daytime AM signal (five watts at night) on 940 in Charleroi is almost completely irrelevant; under the call letters WFGI, it now simulcasts WOGI-FM from its single tower located along Interstate 70, just west of the Speers Bridge.
But when it signed on back on Sunday, Nov. 9, 1947, the mid-Mon Valley was thrilled to finally have its own radio station, and the new owners surveyed listeners through the Charleroi Daily Mail and Monessen Daily Independent.
Reported the Mail on Monday:
Congratulatory telegrams, letters and telephone calls were received by the management of radio station WESA, Charleroi's first commercial broadcasting outlet ...
(Manager) Pierre Paulin introduced the staff on the air yesterday from 3:45 to 4 p.m. as the dawn to dusk station broadcast a diversified and timely Sabbath program. Liberal responses were received from local and distant points noting clarity of reception and offering congratulations.
Today WESA was on routine broadcasts from its central office, located at the Charleroi Recreational park, Fifth street. ... Ministers, district burgesses and KDKA artists have been invited to participate in the formal opening next Sunday afternoon.
WESA's weekday schedule for January 1948 included sign-on at 7:30 with news and music; a daily 15-minute religious program at 8:15; news at 11 a.m., 12 noon, 1, 3, and 4:30 p.m.; a sports report at 4; and a phone-in trivia show at 12:15. Sign off was at 5 p.m.
There was plenty of rural territory inside WESA's signal area in Washington and Westmoreland counties, which is why the station also ran a farm report at 12:45 p.m. daily. (In other words, you didn't hear any frogs on the air, but you might have heard a few chickens and cows.)
By the way: The Charleroi Mail is defunct, too; it was merged in 1960 with a one-time competitor, the Monessen Daily Independent. The surviving paper, The Valley Independent, is today owned by the Tribune-Review's parent company.
Readers’ Forum
Interesting to note that “sports” was not included in the list of “programs you like” on the survey form.
Erie BlogWatch - January 30, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I remember WESA (having exchanged many stories with WESA and WASP in Brownsville while working at WNCC in Barnesboro) and visiting WESA’s studios in Charleroi.
I even remember one of its jingles, “your friend, in the valley, is WESA, the voice of the Monongahela Valley, it’s WESA.”
I’m not sure what is more tragic, the evolution of its FM into a Frog that ironically shares its tower with its top rival WDSY, or the devolution of its AM into a meaningless simulcast (made even more meaningless by the K-Love owner running Frogs on its FMs until it can find a way to bring that California-based [state thereof, not town in Washington County] contemporary Christian music into the market).
Pat Cloonan (URL) - January 31, 2008 at 08:51 am
One more thing … I decided to look up WASP and found out Keymarket had received FCC approval back in April to lower its power from 5,000 to 1,000 watts and put all its juice up one tower rather than the previous directional array. Sad. Then again, if all you’re doing is rebroadcasting a Uniontown oldies station that spends most of its day pulling an ABC format off satellite, do you really need to toss 4,000 apparently unnecessary watts into the skywave?
Pat Cloonan (URL) - February 01, 2008 at 07:32 am
i worked in the sales dept of wesa from 1974 until 1980…i have wonderful memories and stories of wesa .under the managment of jay morton and program director (the late) rick jason.
jim mcclintock - July 28, 2008 at 3:28 pm
best years of my life were spent at wesa,and of course the red bull inn after 5pm
jim mcclintock - July 28, 2008 at 3:29 pm