WAMO’s new format and translator
June 25, 2019
While the urban-format that WAMO (660 Wilkinsburg) had still airs on 100.1 FM (W261AX) with its main signal being WBZZ-HD3 (100.7), Radio Power took 660 and paired it with 107.3 (W297BU) to form “The Beat”. The moniker was used on Chancelor Media’s WJJJ (104.7) from 1999-2004. The station. described as “Pittsburgh’s Old School and Today’s R&B”, launched on Tuesday at 11:00 a.m.
Can they do that? Run a translator as a stand-alone station with a format totally separate from the AM parent station?
It’s not standing alone. It can also be used with an HD2 or similar channel as a parent.
Pretty cool to get a new (or old) format into the \’burgh and clever how they got it by using a HD Radio sub-channel signal as a source feed, so they could \”translate\” that on to analog FM. I thought those translator openings were to help struggling AM stations, but if it can help the HD stations too, I guess it makes sense. I hope someone can talk in depth about how this was done and how the arrangement with WBZZ was made.
Listening to The Beat I\’m hearing R&B hits going back to the 1970s at least, a lot of what old WAMO played, and the mix goes from rap to quiet storm easy tracks, with songs that probably haven\’t been heard for years in Pittsburgh, and from what I think are great eras, where formats were loose enough and all kinds of musical styles came together.
Right now I\’m listening on AM 660, can\’t really hear 107.3 in Greentree. 660 is having a little trouble staying on the air, it\’s cutting out sometimes. On Radio Locator, it looks like there\’s a Construction Permit to move 107.3 to a tower in West End, then I\’ll have a very strong signal.
Boomer