WORD & WPIT to end music formats
June 25, 2025At the end of June, Salem-owned WORD-FM (101.5) and WPIT-AM (730) will drop their long-time music formats. The move is part of Salem’s cost cutting measures to avoid going bankrupt. In 2024 Salem sold the remaining Contemporary Christian Music stations which were under the “Fish” moniker. The company also sold their music networks to Christian FM Media Group earlier this year.
The new format will be Christian talk based as a complement to Salem’s third Pittsburgh station WPGP-AM (1250). Kenny Woods who has programmed the music heard on WORD and WPIT will continue in his morning show host duties.
This is really sad… I’ve immensely enjoyed the music on 730AM. It’s a nice way to unwind and relax in the evening. Definitely one less station that will be tuned in on my radio going forward.
I get the need for cost cutting but this was pretty unique programming that will be missed.
Classic Christian contemporary music, as heard on WORD 101.5 and WPLW 1590 over the years, it is a special format, and they even announce the year that songs came out, so you can remember.
I have wondered about the music format being filler between the church services, because I don’t hear any commercials or sponsors, so how can they keep it going if they don’t have the billing, and have they even tried to sell the music?
The station is going back to what it was decades ago when they ran Dr. Laura and Bob Larson in the afternoons. I think they should grab John Steigerwald if he wants to get back on the air again. His show wasn’t Christian, but it was conservative, so it might be a good compliment to Salem, just thinking out loud.
If their finances are that shaky I doubt that ditching the BMI and ASCAP licensing fees is going to save them.
When you multiply those fees by the number of stations playing music, I’m certain it’s quite significant.
“You’re listening to the new sound of PD 101.5. All-Public-Domain-All-The-Time!”
I wonder about that too, someone always wants to jack up fees, the taxes for playing music. It’s an ugly, corrupt underworld where the brokers get most of the money, and the artists and others get little payment.
I notice that stations pick up music formats, and automate, doing it pretty cheaply, but then others, like The Beaver at 1460 AM have dropped their music for more talk.
In WPIT’s case, I suspect they couldn’t sell the format, no one was sponsoring it over the time it’s been on. The selling point with talk shows is that they are live, and have current news and calls, and people are more engaged by that than radio music formats on smaller stations.
One thing about WPIT, they have a good daytime signal and best-of-class transmitter operation, which their engineer should be commended for. With music, they should have broadcast in stereo.
Boomer
In looking at the schedules, especially WORD, it appears there really hasn’t been that much music to begin with, just lots of preaching and teaching.
Am I missing something?
I think even when there was music it was only during certain dayparts. Not sure. But now it is 100% gone.
On 730 WPIT it’s been Classic Christian music for a few years, evenings and all night, teaching and talk in the mid-day. The bulk of that would be when they’re low power, 24 watts at night.
They started with a hot CCM format around the time they got their FM translator on 96.5, then switched to Christian classics a year later.