WJAS

WJAS (1320 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, calling itself "The Talk of Pittsburgh." It is owned by St. Barnabas Broadcasting and operated by iHeartMedia through a master service agreement. It broadcasts a talk radio format with studios and offices on Fleet Street in Green Tree.

WJAS
CityPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Broadcast areaPittsburgh metropolitan area
Frequency1320 kHz
BrandingTalk Radio 1320 and 99.1 WJAS
SloganThe Talk of Pittsburgh
Programming
FormatTalk
AffiliationsPremiere Networks
Westwood One
Fox News Radio
Ownership
OwnerSt. Barnabas Broadcasting
(Pittsburgh Radio Partners LLC)
OperatoriHeartMedia, Inc.
WBGG, WDVE, WKST, WPGB, WWSW, WXDX
History
First air date
August 4, 1922
Former call signs
WJAS (1922-1973)
WKPQ (1973)
WKTQ (1973-1981)
Technical information
Facility ID55705
ClassB
Power7,000 watts daytime
3,300 watts nighttime
99 watts (translator)
Translator(s)W256DE (99.1 MHz, Pittsburgh)
Links
WebcastListen Live
Website1320WJAS.com

By day, WJAS is powered at 7,000 watts non-directional. But to avoid interfering with other stations on 1320 AM, it reduces power at night to 3,300 watts and uses a directional antenna. The transmitter is located off Highland Drive in the Highland Park neighborhood of Pittsburgh.[1] Programming is also heard on 99 watt FM translator W256DE at 99.1 MHz.[2]

Programming

Weekdays begin with a morning drive time show hosted by David Blomquist ("Bloomdaddy"), a veteran Pittsburgh broadcaster. It is simulcast with WWVA 1170 AM in Wheeling, West Virginia. Nationally syndicated conservative talk shows fill the rest of the schedule: Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Dave Ramsey, Mark Levin, Clyde Lewis, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory and This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal.

Weekends feature shows on money, health, car repair and technology. Weekend syndicated hosts include Joe Pags, Kim Komando and Bill Cunningham. Some weekend hours are paid brokered programming. Most hours begin with news from Fox News Radio.

1320 WJAS is the home to University of Pittsburgh Panthers women's basketball games as well as Duquesne Dukes football and men's basketball games.

History

Early Years

WJAS, one of Pittsburgh's five original AM stations, first signed on the air on August 4, 1922. It became an NBC owned-and-operated station in 1957.[3] (after briefly operating as WAMP in the 1950s). WJAS carried NBC's dramas, comedies, news and sports during the last years of the Golden Age of Radio.

During the 1930s and 1940s, WJAS was home to the Wilkens Amateur Hour. Sponsored by Wilkens Jewelry Company, a 1942 review in the trade publication Billboard said the show "remains Pittsburgh's most popular local program."[4]

Top 40 Era

In 1973, the station became popular with a new format as Top 40 WKPQ, later WKTQ "13Q", under new owners Heftel Communications. A promotion was run where listeners would win prizes if they were randomly telephoned and answered with "I listen to the new sound of 13Q" (instead of "hello"). The Top 40 years were the highest-rated ever on 1320, ranking second in the Arbitron ratings to KDKA 1020.

But as young listeners moved to FM for their music, the station's ratings began to fade. In 1977, Heftel sold the station to Nationwide Communications, which tried adult contemporary, which failed as well.

Adult Standards

Nationwide sold the station to Beni Broadcasting, which switched the station to an adult standards format and brought back the WJAS call letters in 1981. Beni eventually sold WJAS to Renda Broadcasting. WJAS was one of the top standards stations in the United States. The format of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Barbra Streisand continued for three decades.

WJAS boasted of two personalities with long and storied histories in Pittsburgh media: Jack Bogut and Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille.

In August 2014, Renda Broadcasting sold WJAS to Pittsburgh Radio Partners LLC, a company controlled by Frank Iorio, Jr. The sale, at a price of $1 million, was consummated on August 1, 2014. It was Iorio's first radio station purchase in Pittsburgh, as his other stations were all based in Warren Iorio put the Warren stations up for sale in 2017, finding a buyer in Lilly Broadcasting in 2019.

Talk Radio

As expected, at Noon on August 7, 2014, the new owner changed the station to a conservative talk format in response to rumors that 104.7 WPGB would flip formats from talk to country music.[5] The final song under the standards format was "One More for the Road" by Frank Sinatra.

WJAS then began carrying most of the programs previously heard on WPGB (a station that directed its listeners to WJAS as it prepared to change formats). The first program to air on the talk-formatted WJAS was The Rush Limbaugh Show. WJAS did not choose to carry WPGB's signature morning drive program "Quinn and Rose", which returned to the Pittsburgh radio market on WBGG in 2018.

WJAS now runs a morning drive show hosted by David Blomquist ("Bloomdaddy"), which is produced at WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia.[6]

In November 2020, Iorio exited radio and sold the station to St. Barnabas Broadcasting for $2.05 million.[7]


References
  1. Radio-Locator.com/WJAS
  2. Radio-Locator.com/W256DE
  3. "NBC buys WJAS Pittsburgh." Broadcasting - Telecasting, August 12, 1957, pg. 9.
  4. Frank, Mort (January 3, 1942). "Program Reviews: Wilkens Amateur Hour" (PDF). Billboard. p. 8. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  5. "WJAS sale finalized; format expected to change" Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
  6. WJAS lineup - WJAS Radio
  7. https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/201938/wjas-pittsburgh-sold-price-for-wfun-f-st-louis-spi

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