Friday, March 31, 2006

WRTK/1540 "Rejoicing" In New Format

Well, HERE'S something different, at any rate.

100000watts.com reports that Beacon Broadcasting's WRTK/1540 Niles has flipped from urban to black gospel, using ABC's "Rejoice" 24 hour format - also known as "Musical Soul Food".

Not like it's a surprise to us here at OMW, of course. In fact, we predicted months ago that this is what Beacon owner Harold Glunt would do with the Youngstown-market daytimer. Glunt hung onto the station's urban format long after he purchased the station, declining to flip it to a simulcast with "family friendly" oldies WANR/1570 Warren, WLOA/1470 Farrell PA and WGRP/940 Greenville PA.

The black gospel format fits perfectly within Glunt's operation, which also includes Christian rocker WEXC/107.1 Greenville PA ("The Freq 107"). And Glunt's hooked up with ABC 24 hour formats in the past, as WANR ran ABC's "Memories, Unforgettable Favorites" shortly after Beacon regained control of the station from a group headed by Don Hanni III, which was running Air America liberal talk on the frequency.

We haven't run over to the Youngstown/Warren market to hear the new WRTK format yet, but we assume Beacon is also running local paid religious programming as well...

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