WPIT
Christian contemporary music (nights) | |
Affiliations | SRN News Townhall |
---|---|
Ownership | |
Owner |
|
History | |
First air date | 1947 |
Call sign meaning | Pittsburgh |
Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Facility ID | 58624 |
Class | D |
Power | 5,000 watts day 24 watts night |
Transmitter coordinates | 40°29′02″N 79°59′34″W / 40.48389°N 79.99278°W |
Translator(s) | 96.5 W243BW (Pittsburgh) |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Webcast | Listen live Listen live (via Audacy) |
Website | www |
WPIT (730
By day, WPIT is powered at 5,000
Programming
WPIT carries both local and national religious leaders, including Adrian Rogers, David Jeremiah, Alistair Begg and Chuck Swindoll. It uses brokered programming where hosts pay for time on the station and may use their shows to seek donations to their ministries. World and national news is supplied by SRN News. The station is the Pittsburgh affiliate for Penn State Nittany Lions football.[6]
From 6:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., WPIT switches to a
History
WPIT
WPIT's studios were once located on Smithfield Street in downtown Pittsburgh. A neon sign reading "WPIT DIAL 730" hung outside their former location for years after they had moved out, well into the early 1980s. The station moved to Gateway Towers in downtown Pittsburgh around 1980, next door to the KDKA and KDKA-TV home of One Gateway Center.
In September 1991, Richard Rossi began broadcasting his nightly radio show Rich Rossi Live on Pittsburgh's WPIT-FM. The program created controversy when Rossi challenged the sale of WPIT to Salem, calling Christian radio and other evangelical churches "whores" who sell out the gospel for money.[7]
WPIT has had only three managers in its long history. Michael Komichak, who also built the station back in 1947 and did much of its engineering work, Chuck Gratner, who assumed control of WPIT-AM and FM after both were sold to Salem in 1993, and then-sales manager Tom Lemmon, who became General Manager following Gratner's retirement in 2014.
After Salem's takeover, old policies against atheist guests were lifted and Richard Dawkins has even appeared on air. Once the sale to Salem was complete, the operations of WPIT and WORD-FM moved up to Seven Parkway Center in Greentree, just outside the Pittsburgh city limits.
WPIT had some secular conservative talk programming in its lineup (
The station is known as "73 WPIT"
References
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WPIT". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ FCC.gov/WPIT
- ^ Radio-Locator.com/WPIT
- ^ FCC Antenna Structure Registration database
- ^ Radio-Locator.com/W243BW
- ^ PSU schedule on WPIT
- ^ Rodgers-Melnick, Ann (October 20, 1991). "Revivalist accuses rivals of selling out for money, fame". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved December 25, 2015.
External links
- FCC History Cards for WPIT
- Official website
- WPIT in the FCC AM station database
- WPIT in Nielsen Audio's AM station database