Iorio Takes Possession of Butler Stations
September 11, 2022
The locally-owned cluster of three radio stations licensed to Butler is now officially under new ownership.
Frank Iorio’s Pittsburgh Radio Partners took possession of WBUT-AM, WISR-AM, and WLER-FM, along with the two FM translators for the AM stations, as of the start of September. According to Radio Business Report, the transaction was for $1.8 million.
Butler Radio Network acquired the three stations in the late 1990s from owners Ronald Brandon and his brother, the late Bob Brandon. The Brandons acquired WBUT and WLER in 1978 from longtime Butler radio and TV personality Larry Berg, and then purchased WISR from the Rosenblum family in 1997 after the FCC eased station ownership limits.
Butler Radio Network President and General Manager Vicki Hinterberger and Vice President of Operations Scott Briggs stepped down from their respective duties on Friday, September 2nd.
Iorio, a Carnegie native, began his broadcasting career in 1971 at WIXZ (now WGBN) in McKeesport. From there, he moved on to WEEP before leaving the area and working in the Boston, Philadelphia and Washington DC markets before buying his first station in Louisville, Kentucky in 1991. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1994 to purchase WBVP and WWKS (Kiss FM) in Beaver Falls. Kiss was later spun off and longtime competitor WMBA was brought into the fold.
Iorio sold WBVP and WMBA to longtime manager Mark Peterson in 2014, the year after he had acquired legendary adult standards-formatted WJAS from Greentree-based Renda Broadcasting. WJAS then flipped from that format to news/talk. Iorio then announced in November 2020 that he would be retiring from the radio business and selling WJAS to the newly-formed St. Barnabas Broadcasting.
Coincidentally, Iorio’s former properties, WBVP and WMBA, were acquired by St. Barnabas Broadcasting one year ago this month.
Three more great local radio stations acquired by another right wing propaganda network. No wonder local radio is going to disappear. AM radio especially, is on the fast track to the graveyard.
What makes you say that Mr. Iorio a “right wing propaganda ‘network'”?
any other than music is better on am radio
“AM radio especially, is on the fast track to the graveyard.”
As are those of us who still listen to it. KDKA now only promotes their FM translator frequency and KD FM increasingly just promotes the app. The day will come when they all decide “why should we bother dealing with FCC bureaucrats and maintaining expensive transmitting equipment? We have an app for that.”
Real radio and TV stations should stay on the air as a last line of information defense. When everything else is networked, it’s more vulnerable to disruption than a radio station that can stand alone.
We’ve seen it with storm disasters, where all phones are down and the only news you could hear is from radio stations outside of the affected area.