By Rob Taylor Jr., Courier Staff Writer
Whiskey Dicks, Chauncy’s, Donzi’s and Squawkers aren’t coming back, but the music that made these nightspots a household name with many African Americans is.
Martz Communications, which also operates under the name Radio Power, launched 107.3 The Beat at 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 25, with the moniker, “Pittsburgh’s Old School and Today’s R&B.”
From Chaka Khan, Gregory Abbott, Prince and De La Soul, to Diddy, Usher, New Edition, and Notorious B.I.G., the station is looking to capitalize on an underserved 25-54 age demographic that loves the throwback jams of the ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s.
WAMO was the station of many generations of Black-oriented music for over 60 years until the station dissolved in 2009. Tim Martz, owner of Martz Communications, brought WAMO back on the AM dial (660) in 2011, and purchased a translator signal (100.1) to simulcast WAMO’s AM signal to the FM signal. Over the years, WAMO management looked to improve the signal’s coverage, and in 2018, added another translator, at 107.3 FM.
After nine months of simulcasting WAMO’s hip-hop format on both FM signals, the decision was made to split the two signals and keep WAMO’s hip-hop on 100.1 and bring R&B and old school music to 107.3.
Jamal Woodson, general manager of WAMO and 107.3 The Beat, told the New Pittsburgh Courier in an exclusive interview, June 25, that “I’ve been working hard with programming for the last two years to make this happen.”
Woodson added: “We get tons of feedback…there was just a void, nothing for the older demographic.”
The Steve Harvey Morning Show, which was the highest ranked show on WAMO in the 25-54 age demographic (except for evenings) in the mid- to late-2000s, is returning to Pittsburgh on 107.3 The Beat. It was part of the new WAMO’s lineup until October 2018, when it was removed in favor of the younger-leaning The Breakfast Club.
While no date has been confirmed to the Courier on Harvey’s return, the station is currently playing 10,000 songs in a row without commercials, which is typical for a new station.
Woodson also said on a video post on Facebook, June 25, that The Beat will be “bringing back two former WAMO DJs from back in the day that everybody loves. We’ll be doing a whole lot of new things.”
The current Quiet Storm show that airs on WAMO on weeknights will move to 107.3 The Beat, though an exact date has not been determined.
When the original WAMO left the airwaves in 2009, and no other radio companies in Pittsburgh filled the void with a hip-hop or R&B station, the general consensus was that the Pittsburgh market couldn’t support a Black-oriented radio station financially, with the advent of a new ratings system called PPM (Portable People Meter).
With PPM, a select number of listeners have a pager-style device that automatically records the stations a person is exposed to. That severely affected many hip-hop stations across the country, as oftentimes, for example, a WAMO listener may have the device at work, where another station, such as WISH 99.7, is playing. In the ratings system, it will show that listener as a WISH 99.7 listener, rather than a WAMO listener. In the previous ratings system, the diary system, listeners were asked to write down the station(s) they listened to over a certain period. A WAMO listener, who may not have actually been listening to WAMO at the time, could still write down they listened to WAMO due to habit, which gave many hip-hop and Black-oriented stations more ratings credit.
The diary system is still in place in smaller markets like Dayton, Youngstown, and Charleston, W.Va.
Woodson said the plan is for WAMO (100.1) to superserve the younger, 18-34 age demo, and 107.3 The Beat to superserve the 25-54-year-olds.
The plan is similar to most sizable markets, where a hip-hop station and R&B station are owned by the same company in a market. In Cleveland, Urban One owns Z1079 (hip-hop) and 93.1 WZAK (R&B). In Philadelphia, Iheartmedia owns Power 99 (hip-hop) and WDAS FM (R&B).
“I love the way it sounds, Babyface, Keith Sweat, Bell Biv Devoe,” Woodson told the Courier about Pittsburgh’s new station, 107.3 The Beat. “I love it.”
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