RIP, WAMO?

The radio station most likely to heard blasting from car stereos at any given moment on any street in Homewood, WAMO-FM, has been sold, along with its sister stations, WAMO-AM and WPGR-AM.

I visit my next door neighbor twice a week to work out with him in his basement. Like any regular meeting, this one has begun to generate its own ritual. We head into the basement, we each slip on a pair of lifting gloves, and he turns on WAMO-FM.

I have *no* idea what station he will turn on after St. Joseph Missions takes over 106.7. We might have to set up a computer in the basement to tune in to somebody's podcast (I don't know whose; any suggestions?).

Other than that, my first thought about the news was that the sale price, $8.9 million, sounds like a deal for three radio stations. I don't really know, but it just sounds like it. The second thing that struck me was this line:

"Sheridan owners tried to find minority buyers for the stations, but none could arrange the necessary financing..."

Really? Truly? In the world of business, $8.9 million is not a lot. As SoulPitt.com founder Donna Michele Baxter commented on Facebook, "A Steeler or two could have bought it and kept it urban."

Which raises the question, "What do Black Pittsburghers who have money do with their money?"  I have carried that question a long time; I thought it about often during all the pre-PG years when I worked for $8.00 an hour or less (when I worked at all), and felt utterly unable to take advantage of the opportunities that I saw all around. Wish I could fund a good study of Pittsburgh's middle- to upper-class Black population by a couple of sharp sociologists, a la Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro's "Black Wealth, White Wealth."

I used to go to church with some of those folks, but never got to know them well (how well can people get to know each other by looking at the backs of one another's heads for two hours a week?). Or at least, not well enough to violate the taboo against talking about money.

I digress. Back to WAMO: Some folks in the cybersphere are suggesting that the vacuum created by the sale will create an opportunity for Black entrepreneurs and artists.

Do you agree? Do you see anyone on the local scene who you believe could fill the void? And until they do, how will the change in WAMO's ownership affect Homewood?

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Posted May 18 2009, 10:21 AM by Elwin Green
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Comments

wangfung wrote re: RIP, WAMO?
on Mon, May 18 2009 4:57 PM

I think this post is an over simplistic view of radio, commercial radio, and big business.  

Every single radio company in the country is losing tons of money based on debt for overpayment of stations purchased after consolidation started about 12 - 13 years ago and the dissapearing ad revenue.

WAMO is no different in feeling the economic effects, and being a smaller company compared to CBS & Clear Channel, economic downturns hit them hard or harder.

WAMO is part of a company that owns stations and the Urban Radio Network. All of their sales must be way down to sell off their best stations compared to Buffalo, Atlanta, and Birmingham. They obviously needed cash to survive.

The group that bought them is a from Latrobe, a religious group, that I would highly doubt would continue r&b, soul, and hip hop. They obviously have an agenda or plan if they spent all this time and money to purchase radio stations, when by all definitions and reality, radio station licenses are pretty much worthless.

A couple of Steeler's buying the station sounds like a great idea, for about 30 seconds, until you realize that's just the purchase price, and multiply that times 3, staff, studios, and an overall total lack of ad sales would be like buying a bunch of homes at pre crash prices in Florida, today, at those same prices.... and also to find the funding.

It really is a blow to overall radio landscape and to the r&b, gospel, and hip hop radio listeners. We have Clear Channel, CBS, Disney, and many other radio companies to thank for this...coupled with a tanking economy.

Some of the stations have 2nd & 3rd hd channels to program music, but they have ZERO staff and budget to do anything with them. Very sad state of media

According to printed reports, they have about 90 days of automated programming left on WAMO fm & am

Elwin Green wrote re: RIP, WAMO?
on Mon, May 18 2009 5:44 PM

Thanks for writing, wangfung. Anyone else?

regis wrote re: RIP, WAMO?
on Tue, May 19 2009 11:21 AM

This is a real smack in the face to Pittsburgh.  WAMO has been an institution for a long time.   The destruction of free over the air radio has been going on for some time now.  I'll confess to being old enough to remember when KQV was the top 40 station in the area, and WAMO was where you heard Junior Walker and James Brown and a lot of other stuff that sold well but usually didn't "cross over".  Now, although I don't care for hip-hop myself, it has a devoted audience that will be left high and dry.  And, without Bev Smith and Lynn Cullen, Pittsburgh talk radio will be all right-wind all the time, save for a few hours of Chris Moore on one station, one evening a week.  It's weird and disheartening how the "communication revolution" is actually narrowing our choices.