 | |
| Broadcast area | Pittsburgh metropolitan area |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 730kHz |
| Branding | WPIT 96.5 FM / 730 AM |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Christian radio (days) ClassicChristian contemporary music (nights) |
| Affiliations | SRN News Townhall |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | 1947 (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″N79°59′34″W / 40.48389°N 79.99278°W /40.48389; -79.99278 |
| Translator | 96.5 W243BW (Pittsburgh) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live Listen live (via Audacy) |
| Website | www |
WPIT (730AM) is acommercialradio station inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It carries aChristian talk and teachingradio format. At night,classicChristian contemporary music is heard. WPIT is licensed to the Salem Communications Holding Corporation, which is owned by theSalem Media Group.[2] Thestudios are at Parkway Center in Pittsburgh.
By day, WPIT is powered at 5,000watts; because730 AM is a Canadian andMexicanclear channel frequency WPIT must reduce power to only 24 watts at night, to avoid interference. Thetransmitter is off Mount Troy Road in Pittsburgh.[3] The station's antenna system uses a single tower that results in anomnidirectional signal pattern. According to the Antenna Structure Registration database, the tower is 99 m (325 ft) tall.[4] Programming is also heard on 250 wattFM translatorW243CW at 96.5MHz.[5]
WPIT carries both local and national religious leaders, includingAdrian Rogers,David Jeremiah,Alistair Begg andChuck Swindoll. It usesbrokered 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 bySRN News. The station is the Pittsburgh affiliate forPenn State Nittany Lionsfootball.[6]
From 6:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., WPIT switches to aChristian contemporary music format. WPIT is one of twoChristian radio stations owned by Salem in Pittsburgh.Sister station 101.5WORD-FM carriesChristian talk and teaching programs around the clock.
WPITsigned on the air in 1947. It has been aChristian radio station for most of its history and at one time was asimulcast of its FMsister station, 101.5WORD-FM.
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 theKDKA andKDKA-TV home of One Gateway Center.
In September 1991,Richard Rossi began broadcasting his nightly radio showRich 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 andRichard 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 (Dr. Laura,Michael Medved, andHugh Hewitt), but religious programming continues to fill most of the station's hours. For many years, WPIT has also aired foreign-language and ethnic programming on weekends.
The station is known as "73 WPIT"
