WJAS turns 100
August 4, 2022It was August 4, 1922 when WJAS signed on the air in Pittsburgh. It was one of the first 5 stations in town and, at the time locally owned by Pittsburgh Radio Supply House. Current Operations Manager and morning host, Darryl Grandy and Greg Maxwell held a celebration over the better part of their 2-hour “GD Morning Show” on Thursday.
WJAS, of course, shared space with the other stations early on the dial. It was originally allocated to 1090 AM although records show this frequency may have never been used. In the late 1920s and early 30s, WJAS shared 1110 AM with KQV before moving to 1290. The 1941 NARBA frequency reallocation put WJAS on 1320 where it has been ever since.
There were two periods of time where the station didn’t sport the WJAS callsign – the first was after NBC bought WJAS-AM/FM (1320/99.7) from Pittsburgh Radio Supply House in 1957. The principle shareholders, the Brennans, had involvement with the new Channel 11 WIIC and had to sell their interest in order to continue and since the new TV station was the NBC affiliate, the sale just made sense. 1320 became WAMP and 99.7 was WFMP. But the separate call letters only existed for a few years and by 1960 the original letters returned to both stations. The other, perhaps better-remembered time the callsign was changed was just after Cecil Heftel bought the stations in 1973 and created “13Q” to go up against KQV. For the first several weeks it was WKPQ, but most remember it as WKTQ. But even with only about 10 years out of 100 without them, it will always be seen as “WJAS”.
I would delve deeper into the station’s lengthy history, but it’s late and I don’t want to get my brain roweled up. But I do want to say this: even though its current format (the exception being the aforementioned morning show) is not my cup of tea, WJAS is NOT an example of the tired statement, “AM Radio is dead”. Renda Broadcasting sold the station to Frank Iorio’s Pittsburgh Radio Partners for $1 Million. Iorio sold it to St. Barnabas Broadcasting in 2021 for just a little over $2 Million. It may not be top-40, and it isn’t the nostalgia and standards format which followed. But it seems somebody is doing something right.
Happy birthday, WJAS!
WJAS and it’s other incarnations is an amazing story. Other Pittsburgh stations (WCAE/WTAE, KQV, WEEP/WWNL, WWSW/WBGG, WMCK/WIXZ/WGBN..among others. WJAS is still a viable AM signal unlike the others. One can’t (of course) forget KDKA helping to keep AM alive in the ‘Burgh. I had the fun experience of a couple of good years at 1320 -after Cecil Heftel sold it, and it was a mere shadow of the original 13Q – but still fun and it introduced me to a great city and its amazing people. Happy 100th to WJAS. Whatever happens in the future, I hope the station sees 100 more.
So… are you saying Nationwide was on your side?
Eric – to your last point about “somebody is doing something right”: it seems that except for the brief period owned by NBC, smaller local broadcasters have been in control of WJAS. There is no large corporate infrastructure that is demanding staff cuts, use of out-of-town talent to fill a timeslot in a market they know nothing about, or huge expectations that “we need to be #1 on in our market”.
Quite simply, the owners of WJAS have (generally) paid attention to the local details, and have (generally) provided formats that (at the time) served the community. My point is, some larger owners simply lost perspective on what local radio was “meant to be”. The answer isn’t always “sell the land under the towers”, but if that keeps an AM station on the air, that’s fine. There is a market for AM, and if it takes an FM translator to keep them profitable, that’s OK too.
AM needs to keep evolving while keeping the growth expectations reasonable. Thanks to the many small owners (including those at WJAS) who have done that.
There were actually two “corporate” owners for WJAS. NBC was the first from 1957-1960. The second was Nationwide when Heftel sold WSHH and WKTQ. They eventually sold Wish over to Tony Renda and 1320 over to Beni Broadcasting and they co-existed in the same building until Tony bought the AM too!
Great assessment, Rich. Not the most compelling programming -but definitely Pittsburgh.