News Releases and Updates

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March 20, 2007

Pittsburgh's Man Station Launches on 93.7 FM on Monday, April 2

On Monday, April 2, 93.7 FM will launch The ZONE, a new spoken word format targeted to men 25-49. Pittsburgh's Man Station will feature nationally known radio personalities and the best local talent, including Opie and Anthony, Dennis Miller, John McIntire, and Scott Paulsen. The station's call letters will become WTZN effective with the format change.

"Pittsburgh's Man Station is guaranteed to touch on everything men care about," said Keith Clark, Vice President of Programming, CBS RADIO Pittsburgh. "You can expect a wide range of interesting topics and discussions. If it's Pittsburgh, in the news, funny, or bizarre, we'll deal with it."

The station's new lineup is as follows:

Monday-Friday

Jim Meltzer, WTZN Vice President and General Manager, said, "93.7 The Zone will be neither conservative nor liberal. Its mantra is entertainment specifically designed for the men of Pittsburgh. We welcome this opportunity to create something unique in the market that isn't being heard anywhere else."

Pittsburgh native and internationally known comic Dennis Miller launches his first ever radio show this month. The five-time Emmy award winner and four-time Writers' Guild award winner will offer his unique take on the day's topics with comedy and satire, and feature Miller taking listener calls, as well as interviewing high-profile special guests.

It doesn't get more Pittsburgh than Scott Paulsen who began his legendary Pittsburgh career at WDVE in 1986, and co-hosted the highly-rated "Paulsen & Krenn" morning show until 1999. From 2002-06, he hosted WDVE's 6:00-10:00PM shift to much success. His popularity comes from features and commentary that are local, topical and witty.

John McIntire is a veteran radio talk show host and standup comic. He most recently served as host of "The Flip Side" on KDKA where he won the local A.I.R award for Best Evening Talk Host. Additionally, he hosted PCNC-TV's Night Talk show for seven years and won a Golden Quill award for his "Scintillating Commentary." Early in his career he was a journalist who covered the Oklahoma City bombing and the Challenger space shuttle disaster. After deciding serious news to be so depressing, he turned to a more comedic approach to issues.

More shows and talent are expected to be announced soon.

 

Oct. 7, 2006

Pintek Pinch-Hitting

It wasn't your ears deceiving you --- that was Mike Pintek filling in for morning news anchor P.J. Maloney on KQV (1410) this week. The former KDKA (1020) talk show host said Friday it took some practice to get the hang of newscasting again, but to these ears, he sounded fine.

Lately, Pintek's face is getting more exposure than his voice. Soon he'll be popping up on two cable TV documentaries to be broadcast nationwide --- one is expected to premiere on the History Channel in November, the other on MSNBC in December --- examining the 1979 crisis at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.

And Pintek will be filling in for former KDKA co-worker Fred Honsberger on the Honz's PCNC talk show this Monday and Wednesday.

As news director at WKBO radio in Harrisburg, Pintek was the first journalist to discover that an accident had occurred at the plant in nearby Middletown. A PR person for the power company tried to tell Pintek that the "emergency" was just a "red-tape type of thing." In fact, it was a partial core meltdown and the worst nuclear reactor accident in U.S. history.

"Next week I'll be in Providence, Rhode Island," says Pintek, who will be taping an episode of a public radio show called "Action Speaks," which will air over that city's WRNI on Sunday, Oct. 22, and can be heard online at www.as220.org/actionspeaks. Pintek will be joined by Harold Denton, the Carter administration official who came to Harrisburg in 1979 to explain the accident to residents and try and defuse the tension.

"It's been 20 some years since I've seen Harold Denton," Pintek says.

And, an episode of PBS' "American Experience" examining the incident is being repeated on many public TV stations this month. The 1999 special, which also features an interview with Pintek, is one of the "really, really good" pieces done on the accident, he says.

Though rarely a year goes by without some journalist or film crew (there was one from Germany not long ago) asking him to comment on the Three Mile Island affair, Pintek is at a loss to explain why there's so much interest this year.

Pintek has stayed busy since being released by KDKA last December after 24 years at the station. Besides filling in for Honsberger, he's also made appearances on PCNC's "Night Talk," occasionally hosting the Friday "Get To The Point" segments.

He's also been doing talk again at WBT radio in Charlotte, N.C., most recently using an ISDN line from his home studio here in Pittsburgh. Pintek has lined up a spot on an Ohio station, using the same set-up, for later this year, and he can still be heard on KDKA and other local stations doing commercials for several clients.

Pintek doesn't know if the KQV fill-in work will lead to a regular spot on the all-news station, but he'd like to see where it leads.

And although the out-of-town gigs are nice, Pintek says he'd prefer to be back on the air here.

"I want to stay in Pittsburgh," he says. "I really like this town." --- Jason Togyer