Frank Iorio Back in Radio Business
July 10, 2022Longtime broadcaster Frank Iorio, who announced his retirement concurrent with the sale of WJAS to St. Barnabas Health System last year, has had a change in plans. That’s according to insideradio.com.
Iorio, who previously owned WBVP-AM (Beaver Falls) and WMBA-AM (Ambridge), is purchasing Butler-based radio stations WBUT-AM, WISR-AM, and WLER-FM, along with the associated FM translators for the two heritage AMs.
Iorio’s Pittsburgh Radio Partners will purchase the trio from Butler Media Group, which acquired the stations in 1998 from brothers Ronald C. Brandon and the late Robert C. Brandon. The Brandons had purchased two of the three stations from longtime Butler broadcaster Larry Berg in 1978. The $1.8 million transaction is awaiting FCC approval.
The three stations were separately owned until 1997, five years after the FCC first relaxed ownership rules that had prohibited a single company from owning more than one AM and one FM in a single market. The Rosenblum family, which first put WISR on the air in 1941, sold the heritage station to the Brandons in 1997.
WISR morning host Dave Malarkey is the longest-tenured employee among the three stations, having first joined WISR in 1973.
