WJAS

WJAS is a talk radio station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Frank Iorio, Jr., through licensee Pittsburgh Radio Partners LLC, and broadcasts at 1320 kHz with a power level of 7,000 watts, from a transmitter located in the Highland Park neighborhood of Pittsburgh. WJAS' studios are located on Fleet Street in Green Tree.

History

WJAS, which is one of Pittsburgh's five original AM stations, first signed on the air on August 4, 1922 and became an NBC owned-and-operated station in 1957^[1] (after briefly operating as WAMP in the 1950s).

During the 1930s and 1940s, WJAS was home to the Wilkens Amateur Hour. Sponsored by Wilkens Jewelry Company, a 1942 review in the trade publication Billboard said the show "remains Pittsburgh's most popular local program."^[2]

In 1973, the station became extremely popular with a new format as top 40 WKPQ, later WKTQ "13Q", under new owners Heftel Communications. A promotion was run where listeners would win prizes if they were randomly telephoned and answered with "I listen to the new sound of 13Q" (instead of "hello"). Although this was the highest-rated format ever to appear on 1320, ranking second in the ratings to KDKA, it did not last due to the audience's move to FM radio. By 1977, 13Q's fortunes were fading, and Heftel sold the station to Nationwide Communications, who tried adult contemporary, which failed as well. Nationwide later sold the station to Beni Broadcasting, who switched the station to an adult standards format and brought back the WJAS call letters in 1981. Beni eventually sold WJAS to Renda Broadcasting. WJAS was one of the top standards stations in the United States, and would last for the next 3 decades.

WJAS boasts of two personalities with long and storied histories in Pittsburgh media: Jack Bogut and Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille.

In August 2014, Renda Broadcasting sold WJAS to Pittsburgh Radio Partners LLC, a company controlled by Frank Iorio, Jr. and based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The sale, at a price of $1 million, was consummated on August 1, 2014. As expected, at Noon on August 7, 2014, the company then changed the station to a Premiere Networks-affiliated conservative talk format in response to rumors that WPGB would flip formats.^[3] The final song under the standards format was "One More for the Road" by Frank Sinatra.

WJAS then began carrying most of the programs previously heard on WPGB (a station that directed its listeners to WJAS as it prepared to change formats); the first program to air on the talk-formatted WJAS was The Rush Limbaugh Show. There has been unconfirmed reports that WJAS is working to bring back The War Room with Quinn and Rose, WPGB's former morning show that had been canceled nine months before the station/format swap, to WJAS.^[4] Quinn confirmed the reports but noted that the two sides still need to negotiate differences, particularly over the rights to stream the program on the Internet.^[5] As of April 2015, at which point Quinn had returned to independent syndication, negotiations were still ongoing.^[6]

Pittsburgh Panthers Women's Basketball

1320 WJAS is the home to the University of Pittsburgh Panthers women's basketball games and the Suzie McConnell Serio radio show.

References

External links

• Official website
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WJAS
• Radio-Locator Information on WJAS
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WJAS
• Jeff Roteman's tribute to 13Q

Coordinates: 40°28′46″N 79°54′12″W / 40.47944°N 79.90333°W / 40.47944; -79.90333