Two big news items impacting the Mahoning Valley today:
WHTX’s “Fabulous” Turn: Back in January, Whiplash Media’s WHTX/1570 Warren formally announced plans to convert the station to adult standards, in response to Youngstown standards stalwarts WSOM/600 Salem and WNIO/1390 Youngstown to spoken word formats (WSOM went all-talk; WNIO went all-sports).
After some contractual hang-ups with the TKO Radio Network – providers of the now-former “Classic Top 40” format – WHTX finally made the switch to standards this past afternoon at 3:00PM.
The redubbed “Fabulous 1570 WHTX: Youngstown’s Original Hits” is affiliated with Dial-Global Local’s “The Lounge” service, and came complete with an upgraded automation system. An affiliation deal with Accu-Weather for both WHTX and sister station classic country WYCL/1540 Niles has also been reached.
(Their website is slated to move to 1570whtx.com in the coming days, but for now is still accessible at 1570theblizzard.com – complete with live streaming audio.)
The station will still maintain the flagship status for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers and still serve as the Youngstown affiliate for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and high school sports primarily with Warren Harding and Warren JFK. However, lost in the move was John “Cappy” Capanaris afternoon “Tip Of The Cap” sports talk show, which was canceled back in late February. Capanaris moved the long-running show to 1570 in late November 2009 from Cumulus sports WBBW/1240 “ESPN 1240.”
WHTX will also be adding many boutique and specialty shows during the weekend hours. Already on the new Saturday lineup is “Ohio Valley Outdoors” at 8am, followed by a 50s/60s oldies show hosted by longtime Pittsburgh oldies personality Frankie Day (current morning host for oldies/talk WKFB/770 Jeannette) from 9am-11am.
Lash is still looking for more experienced sales personnel to join him at the Mineral Ridge Radio Ranch. Any interested applicants can e-mail him at fishfm1(at)hotmail.com.
Low-Power HD for WYFX: New Vision Television’s low-powered Fox affiliate WYFX-LP/62 Youngstown made the flash-cut from analog to digital at RF 19 earlier today.
WYFX, as of right now, is still simulcast on the digital subchannel of its’ much larger sister station – CBS affiliate WKBN/27 – at 27.2 (RF 41.2), and from all indications, the simulcast on 27.2 could still continue for the long-term future, if not to help maximize WYFX’s coverage area… which is far more limited as a low-powered digital TV station.
Of course, a long time ago, WYFX was paired with a repeater in Mercer, Pennsylvania – WFXI-CA/17 – but that station signed off for good in October 2009, and its’ license was returned to the FCC.
I wish they would move 27.2 back to 480i so CBS programming could go 1080i. I just checked the 19.1 signal OTA (which is not advertising itself as 62.1 using PSIP, at least not yet) and it seems to be quite strong. Much better than its analog predecessor from the same location, about 8 miles away from the transmitter. I realize they are carrying 27.2 for viewers much farther away, but it would greatly improve the picture quality of our local CBS and FOX video for OTA, cable, and satellite viewers, as all WKBN and WYFX carriers receive the over-compressed 720p video, even though cable operators like TWC and Armstrong are connected via fiber and could receive and handle the lower-compression 1080i signal easily.