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Station to Be Talk of Local Airwaves

Posted on: Friday, 30 September 2005, 21:00 CDT

By Adam Smeltz, Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.

Sep. 30--STATE COLLEGE -- Radio station WBLF, long a bullhorn for other stations' simulcasts, is set to re-emerge Monday as its own news and sports operation.

Warren-based Magnum Broadcasting bought the AM station this summer and has hired four veterans of the Centre County market, including on-air firebrand Tor Michaels as its news director.

"We're not going to go on the air with paint drying," said Michaels, who was dismissed from news radio station WRSC in 2004. "And we're not going to regurgitate things that have already been said. That's lazy."

Magnum has built new studios for WBLF (970 AM) and its sister station, WUBZ ("The Buzz," 105.9 FM), facing South Atherton Street near West Foster Avenue. WUBZ, formerly based in Philipsburg, began broadcasting from the State College address earlier this month and improved its Centre Region signal with a booster device atop a downtown hotel.

Michael Stapleford, Magnum's president and owner, said he has a fondness for and personal connections to the Centre County market. He's positioning WBLF to fill a need for local programming here, he said.

"I'm a firm believer that radio stations have a firm commitment to serve the communities they're located in," Stapleford said. He lamented the "diluted news-gathering" that he said has swept the radio industry.

Stapleford holds three other radio stations in the state, including Philipsburg's WPHB, and bought WBLF for $150,000, according to RadioandRecords.com.

Across town, critics have tweaked WRSC (1390 AM) and its new ownership, Forever Broadcasting, for not putting more resources into local programs. Its news staff and local programming were trimmed under previous owners.

On-air personality Kevin Nelson and program director Dave Shannon still run a three-hour morning news and talk show at WRSC. Much of the news that they air, plus coverage broadcast by other local stations, is attributed to the Centre Daily Times -- a practice that Michaels disavowed.

Still, Forever General Manager Andrew Sumereau said his company sees WBLF "as an ally rather than a rival or competitor."

"Good radio is something we encourage," Sumereau wrote in an e-mail message. "It can only be helpful for our industry, as we compete for the attention of people confronting a fragmented media world, to have the highest-quality broadcasting available on what are still free airwaves."

WRSC alum Jeff Byers will join fellow local radio veteran Jenn MacIsaac and Michaels to co-host six hours of morning programming on WBLF. It'll include some former WRSC features, such as extended call-in segments, and broadcast classified ads in "Swap Shop," they said.

Conservative national commentator Rush Limbaugh, formerly heard on WRSC, will air in the afternoon with hourly local-news updates. Michaels said that his coverage, assisted by interns, will focus heavily on county government, crime and controversy.

Thom Hartmann, a progressive talk-show host also heard nationally, will be broadcast after Limbaugh. Local sports talk will follow in the evenings, Byers said. He said the station is set to cover an array of high school and Penn State sports.

WBLF's ties to WUBZ, a modern-rock outlet, evokes the longtime pairing of WRSC and powerhouse rocker WQWK at studios on Clearview Avenue.

Retired broadcaster Bob Zimmerman, who owned WRSC and WBLF for two decades before cashing out in 1992, said success depends on relevance.

"You have to be local, local, local," Zimmerman said. "Secondly, if you're going to have syndication, it better be the best syndicated program there is."

Another key, he said, is consistency.

"They (WBLF) have got a good signal, and it sounds like they have a good programming concept," Zimmerman said. "So they could make the marketplace very interesting."

WBLF's transmitter is about four miles outside Bellefonte, and in many parts of State College, its signal isn't as clear as WRSC, whose transmitter is closer to the Park Forest area. In more rural areas, the WBLF signal often outshines WRSC.

Stapleford said WBLF is working to make its signal stronger.

The station, founded in the late 1950s by Cary Simpson, has morphed through a number of incarnations. It played music in the '80s and had been simulcasting WRSC when it was sold early this year to 2510 Associates.

That company simulcast its WOWY (Oldies, 97.1 FM) station on the frequency until it made the summertime transaction with Magnum.

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To see more of the Centre Daily Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.centredaily.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.)

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