Wahl: “Tell My Radio Family That I Miss Them”

April 24, 2024 Off By Ken Hawk

Roger Wahl, in an undated photo, during a meeting of the Somerset County Commissioners

Roger Wahl loved radio. Unfortunately, the feeling wasn’t always mutual.

Told early in his career that his voice wasn’t strong enough for the microphone, Wahl turned to other means of supporting himself and his young family. A turning point came almost a decade after he moved his family back to his native Meyersdale to care for his ailing father. By this time, Wahl had been through a series of non-radio jobs, from truck driving to sales for a beer distributor in Maryland. The latter presented him with an unexpected opportunity.

One of Wahl’s customers on his sales route owned a radio station, and the pair would often engage in radio “shop talk” when Wahl would make a sales call. One day the customer informed Wahl that the FCC had dropped in a frequency assignment to Meyersdale, and encouraged Wahl to apply for it.

Wahl did exactly that. After raising the capital, hiring a staff, and successfully navigating around a competing applicant, Wahl signed the brand-new WQZS (QZ-93.3) on October 26, 1992.

From that day forward, until April 4, 2024, residents of southern Somerset County, western Maryland, and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia were awakened daily by “The Commander”, Wahl’s on-air handle that endeared him to hundreds of listeners each weekday morning.

Despite a shrinking retail economy, the sign-on of an adjacent frequency station that shortened his signal reach, consolidation of competitor ownership, and the internet, Wahl still managed to keep the lights on and keep his listeners informed.

Whether it was the Quecreek mining disaster, Flight 93, or severe weather ripping through the area, Wahl was there to bring it to his listeners, receiving recognition for his efforts.

And they didn’t forget it, even after his arrest in 2019 for placing a trail camera in the bathroom of a home of a former girlfriend, and setting up an online dating profile intended to lure potential male suitors to sexually assault her.

Under the terms of a deal with prosecutors, Wahl pleaded guilty the following year to a single felony charge of Criminal Use of a Communications Facility, which allowed him to forego jail time. But his problems didn’t end there.

Wahl then found himself before the FCC, pleading with the commission to not revoke the broadcast license he had held for more than three decades, stating that his criminal acts should be kept separate from WQZS so that it could continue to serve the community.

Wahl continued to fight to save his license, even through a series of serious health problems that resulted in several hospitalizations, one of which culminated in the amputation of one of his legs in December. He’s now facing an upcoming procedure to have the second amputated.

On Thursday, April 4, it was all over. The revocation ruling was ordered upheld, and Wahl signed WQZS off for the last time that afternoon. He explained in a post on the station’s Facebook page, its lone online presence:

Dear Patrons

WQZS Radio would like to thank you for all the years of support an advertisement. It has truly been an honor to serve you and the community. We are saddened to announce that WQZS Radio will no longer broadcast. Thank you for your patronage an support.

“This is totally wrong,” posted Debra Williams, of Meyersdale. “People need to be protesting this. So much other people get more chances in our area.”

“That radio station was the best,” posted Allyson Horner of Somerset. “Roger had more news that the Daily American.”

Many other such sentiments followed.

“I’m part of history,” Wahl said in his first interview by telephone from his hospital room. “No matter how much people hate or love me, they can’t take that away from me.”

While Wahl recovers, plans are moving forward with the expansion project for Route 219. The project calls for widening the highway to four lanes, which also calls for the demolition of the building at 128 Hunsrick Road, south of Meyersdale, which has housed WQZS’ studios since its inception.

Wahl had plans in the works to move the WQZS studios to another location before the proceedings with the FCC began.

Though presently confined to a wheelchair, Wahl plans to walk again with the use of prosthetics once he heals from his second operation. From there, he hopes to support a community nonprofit project in an effort to give back to his community.

“I still can do more,” said Wahl.

On that note, “The Commander” has a final order for his radio listeners: “Tell my radio family that I miss them.”


Judy Ellich of the Daily American contributed to this report.