New stations coming to Erie & Jamestown

It was a battle for a new FM station from Lawrence Park that will cover the Erie area at 92.7. Rick Rambaldo’s “First Channel Communications” took on Connoisseur Broadcasting in a battle that ended up at over 2 million for the “Golden Ticket” or a Construction Permit. First Channel prevailed in the bidding war and surely has big plans for the station expected to sign on during the first quarter of 2012. Of course, this isn’t the first time Rick Rambaldo started up a new station. He purchased the former WHYP AM & FM in the late 80’s & put on an All Beatles format while the station now known as WRKT 100.9  “Rocket 101” was getting ready to launch into the Erie airwaves. Rocket 101 still remains on FM while the AM signal on 1530 went through several formats & owners before becoming Oldies formatted WYNE. What format does the Erie market need? Let us know what you’d like to hear on 92.7. It will be interesting to see what interference problems may occur with adjacent channel WXCS LPFM 92.9 in nearby Cambridge Springs. Meanwhile, Cross Channel Communications in nearby Jamestown, New York will also have a new station on 95.3 after taking on Media One in a bidding war that went over $600,000 dollars. While Media One owns several signals in the Jamestown area (as well as most of the Ashtabula, Ohio stations), Cross Country has only Hot AC WKZA “106.9 KISS FM” but could become a player with another billing station in the Chautauqua region.