Steigerwald departs the conventional airwaves
December 14, 2024John Steigerwald, known locally for his sports duties at WTAE-TV (4) and KDKA-TV (2) and his political commentary on several stations around town – most recently WPGP (1250; 92.5 W223CS) – has left the airwaves as of Thursday. It appears he is heading into the podcasting world and already has his shows from the early part of December in place here –> https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-john-steigerwald-show/id1441562338
(h/t: “Boomer”)
The timing may not be coincidental. Salem just announced it was shuffling its lineup and putting Hugh Hewitt in afternoon drive … which might have made having Steigerwald at 5 p.m. a tougher fit than when Salem clipped off the final hour of Sebastian Gorka’s show.
I agree with the prior post that Seb Gorka leaving the network and Hugh Hewitt getting moved to afternoon drive had a lot to do with this. They probably made some commitment to Hewitt to clear all three hours on O&O stations. A few months ago the station was going to hold an election-themed event in town with Steigerwald, Hewitt, Dennis Prager and Larry Elder as panelists. It got canceled on short notice due to insufficient ticket sales. That likely tipped them off that the audience was pretty small and they decided to save the money they were spending on production. Everyone says they want local content but nobody wants to pay the bill.