Wednesday, August 02, 2006

BREAKING NEWS: Youngstown AM Changes Format

First, and as far as we know, exclusive to OMW...Northeast Ohio's only commercial Spanish-language outlet is no more.

Stop 26/to-be-Bernard Radio's WASN/1500 Youngstown dropped its Spanish-language feed this week in favor of syndicated talk from Radio One/Reach Media's "Syndication One" urban talk network.

The move puts the lineup of Michael Eric Dyson (10 AM-1 PM), Rev. Al Sharpton (1-4 PM) and the "Two Live Stews" sports talk show (4-7 PM) on the Youngstown outlet, which is being operated by a bankruptcy court official until the court mandated sale to Bernard Radio LLC is completed.

But one part of the station's recent history remains, as brokered local talk host Louie Free moves his four-hour show into morning drive (6-10 AM), leading into the "Syndication One" programming. When he was the only English-language voice on WASN, Free's show aired from 8 AM to noon.

The only remaining full-time Spanish language station in all of Northeast Ohio is Lorain non-comm rimshot WNZN/89.1, which has trouble making it even into much of western Cuyahoga County...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

WASN/1500 over the past few months have been shotty at best. It seems like it was not there. WRBP/101.9 is also like that. Before March,all 3 signals could be heard on the west side but then it seemed harder and harder to get them OTA. Ihaven't listen to them in a few months and when I finally tuned in it was as if they were not even there. Mr.Free did boost their ratings though. But the stations have had other probems such as dead air, dj's on WRBP scattered thoughout the week (no set time slot), and them runing a true mixture of music formats.

Anonymous said...

I have a sony am-fm walkman and over the past month WDOK has over powered the signal when I am in my house on the west side of Youngstown. Prior to the first of June, WRBP was coming in pretty powerful in on the walkman in the house but now it seems harder and harder to get. I knew they had problems eariler this year and had to rebuild and replace the studio equipment, but you would think the problem would be solved.