The 2009 Youngstown Holiday Wish List

With my location somewhat between Erie and Youngstown, it is my pleasure to bring you my first annual “Youngstown Holiday Wish List.” The same rules apply to this list as the previous Erie list. So here we go with 1.) Putting “The Freq” out of it’s misery. The Beacon FM station at 107.1 (WEXC) out of nearby Greenville has featured a Christian Rock / Rap format that hasn’t gained any traction since the format replaced oldies a few years back. Meanwhile, Beacon has also replaced sports on it’s two AM stations WGRP 940 and WLOA 1470 with classic country. My wish here is that the format be moved to the FM side in order to be more of a competitive FM station in the Youngstown market. Even if the format went back to oldies, you’d see a stronger station near Youngstown. 2.) Fox Youngstown having it’s own HD signal. The station has a much better picture thanks to being on WKBN’s DT signal. With only 3 full powered HD stations in the Mahoning Valley, Fox is limited to it’s over the air HD on WKBN’s special 3rd channel for events like the Super Bowl last year and the Daytona 500. A separate full powered HD signal for Fox would be great, however they will probably have to settle for a low powered station for the time being. 3.) Increasing power for the HD Radio stations. This is more of an FCC matter but increasing the power of the HD side of the Valley’s HD stations on the radio side could improve listenership of HD. There are possible interference issues with such a power increase, but I’d be curious to see how much interference there would actually be with a power increase of 10% of what the analog station puts out. 4.) Like in Erie, let’s hope that local talent is embraced and not cut any further on the local airwaves. To you & your family, have a Very Happy Holiday Season.