![BobFM+Q929 Signage](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/BobFM%2BQ929_Signage.jpg)
WLTJ (92.9
FM, "Q92.9") is a
commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. It is owned by The Frischling Family, through licensee WPNT Media Subsidiary, LLC, and broadcasts a
hot adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
radio format
A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...
. The studios are in Pittsburgh's North Hills suburbs at 5000 McKnight Road.
The
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...
is in the
Summer Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh at (). The
tower
A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...
is co-located with
WPGH-TV
WPGH-TV (channel 53) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WPNT (channel 22). Both stations share studios on Iv ...
and
WPNT
WPNT (channel 22) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Fox affiliate WPGH-TV (channel 53). Both stations share studios on Ivory Avenue ...
. WLTJ is a
grandfathered
A grandfather clause, also known as grandfather policy, grandfathering, or grandfathered in, is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from t ...
"superpower" station. While the station's
effective radiated power
Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...
(ERP) is within the maximum limit allowed for a
Class B FM station, its antenna
height above average terrain
Height above average terrain (HAAT), or (less popularly) effective height above average terrain (EHAAT), is the vertical position of an antenna site is above the surrounding landscape. HAAT is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it is ...
(HAAT) is too tall for its ERP according to current FCC rules. WLTJ broadcasts using
HD Radio
HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...
technology. It offers three additional
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
s as well as its main analogue programming.
History
Early years
On November 19, 1940,
Westinghouse Radio Stations, Inc. applied to the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) for a
construction permit
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
. It wanted to build a new FM station on 47.5 MHz on the original 42-50 MHz FM broadcast band. The FCC granted the application on January 14, 1941, by which time the commission had assigned the W75P
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
to the station. The FCC then granted permission to begin broadcasting at any time beginning on April 4, 1942, followed by the station's first license on March 2, 1943.
On November 1, 1943, the station was assigned the KDKA-FM call sign.
After the FCC created the current FM broadcast band on June 27, 1945, the commission granted Westinghouse Radio Stations the authority to begin operating the station on 94.1 MHz on March 19, 1946. The FCC reassigned the station to 92.9 MHz on April 8, 1946, while allowing continued operation on 94.1 MHz. On July 26, 1946, the FCC granted a license renewal for operation on both 47.5 MHz and 92.9 MHz. Subsequent renewals for operation on both frequencies would later be granted on June 1, 1947, and June 1, 1948, ending on March 1, 1949. The FCC granted Westinghouse Radio Stations a construction permit on January 23, 1947, to build new facilities for operation on 92.9 MHz, including installation of a new transmitter and antenna at a new site. The FCC granted a new license with the new facilities on June 26, 1952.
Experimental stereo
In the late 1950s, several systems to add
stereo
Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...
to FM radio were considered by the FCC. Included were systems from 14 competitors, such as
Crosby Crosby may refer to:
Places
;Canada
*Crosby, Ontario, part of the township of Rideau Lakes, Ontario
*Crosby, Ontario, a neighbourhood in the city of Markham, Ontario
;England
*Crosby, Cumbria
*Crosby, Lincolnshire
*Crosby, Merseyside
** Crosby (U ...
, Halstead,
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
,
Zenith Electronics Corporation
Zenith Electronics, LLC, is an American research and development company that develops ATSC and digital rights management technologies. It is owned by the South Korean company LG Electronics. Zenith was previously an American brand of consumer el ...
and
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
. The individual systems were evaluated for their strengths and weaknesses during field tests in
Uniontown, Pennsylvania
Uniontown is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, southeast of Pittsburgh and part of the Greater Pittsburgh Region. The population was 10,372 at the 2010 census, down from 12,422 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat and ...
, using KDKA-FM as the originating station. The FCC granted permission on December 4, 1958, to begin these experimental broadcasts between midnight and noon on a non-commercial basis using the KG2XIK call sign. On July 1, 1960, the FCC changed the experimental call sign to KG2XIU while extending experimental broadcast authority to September 4, 1960.
While credit is given for
WEFM Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
and
WGFM
WGFM (105.1 FM) in Cheboygan, Michigan and is an American radio station that airs a mainstream rock format branded as Rock 105 & 95.5. WGFM boasts a 43,000-watt signal which easily covers most of northern Lower Michigan from Grayling northward ...
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...
on June 1, 1961, as the first stereo FM broadcasters, KDKA-FM was the first to broadcast in stereo, albeit on an experimental basis.
During the 1970s, KDKA-FM was an
automated station that played
beautiful music
Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator musi ...
during the day, and
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
at night. During morning and afternoon
drive time
Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...
, the station
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...
sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement.
Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
KDKA 1020 AM, so both stations could offer up to the minute news, traffic and weather.
''The Point''
In October 1979, the station changed its call sign from KDKA-FM to WPNT (''The Point''), completely separating its programming from its AM sister. Westinghouse dropped the classical music for an all-beautiful music format with live announcers. It had a good debut, taking ratings away from the leading beautiful music station next to it on the dial, WJOI (93.7 FM, which later took the
KDKA-FM
KDKA-FM (93.7 MHz, "93.7 The Fan") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to serve Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc. through licensee Audacy License, LLC and broadcasts a sports radio format. Studios are located ...
call sign). The station then moved its studios from the KDKA home at One Gateway Center to 1051 Brinton Road, in suburban Pittsburgh community of
Forest Hills.
WPNT was purchased by Long Island-based entrepreneur Saul Frischling in April 1984, for $3 million. Though Frischling himself was listed as the licensee, the station did business at that time as Legend Communications and then changed its name to Steel City Media in the late 1990s.
Almost immediately after Saul Frischling purchased WPNT, it switched its format from
easy listening
Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...
to
soft adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet sto ...
. The station retained the WPNT call letters and continued to bill itself as "The Point". WPNT's staff in the Soft AC format included Program Director Nat Humphries hosting mornings, John Gallagher for middays, Jon Summers for afternoons, Peter Morley for evenings, Jean Lam hosting overnights, and news anchors Jeff Long and Rick Charles. A year after the ownership change, longtime
KQV
KQV (1410 AM) is a non-commercial radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and covering the Greater Pittsburgh Region. Owned by Broadcast Educational Communications, the station simulcasts FM 88.1 WKGO in Murrysville and airs an easy liste ...
1430
disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...
George Hart replaced Humphries as Program Director and morning show host.
Enter WLTJ
In May 1986, in an effort to better reflect its image as a soft adult contemporary station, the station changed its call sign to WLTJ and rebranded as ''Lite FM 92.9''. (The WPNT call sign would resurface in the Pittsburgh market nearly three decades later when
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
affiliate
WPMY unexpectedly changed its callsign to WPNT.) Not long after the change, the station moved to a new, state-of-the-art broadcast facility at Seven Parkway Center in
Green Tree borough. Music was a mixture of current and recurrent adult contemporary hits with a mix of standard hits from artists such as
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus; June 17, 1943) is an American singer and songwriter with a career that spans seven decades. His hit recordings include "Could It Be Magic", " Somewhere Down the Road", " Mandy", "I Write the Songs", " Can ...
,
Dionne Warwick
Marie Dionne Warwick (; born December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host.
Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest U.S. hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on ''Billboards Hot 100 pop singles cha ...
,
Barbra Streisand
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers List ...
, and
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...
. Songs by those artists became a featured part of WLTJ's playlist and later became known as "Lite FM Encores". In addition, a new program known as "Heartlite" was created as a three-hour request and dedication show from 9 to midnight, hosted by Morley. The show was one of the first of its kind, where a Soft AC outlet involves its listeners in choosing the songs.
Weekend and fill-in announcer Gary Love later assumed responsibilities for the morning show from Hart, and Beth Bershok assumed Jean Lam's overnight shift by the end of the 1980s, in addition to doing traffic reports with Love on the morning show. The chemistry between Love and Bershok worked so well that the decision was made in the early 1990s to pair them together and bill them as equals. "Gary and Beth in the Morning" aired from 1991 until the station's format change in 2008.
WLTJ became a strong player in the Pittsburgh
Arbitron ratings
Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...
, especially during office hours. In 1989, WLTJ's position as a listen-at-work radio station was challenged when Pittsburgh's longtime easy listening institution,
WSHH
WSHH (99.7 FM) is a commercial radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station is the flagship of Renda Broadcasting and airs an adult contemporary radio format. From mid-November through December 25, WSHH switches to all Christmas mu ...
, switched to a soft adult contemporary format and used its existing audience base to replicate WLTJ's ratings successes. WLTJ and WSHH often ran neck-and-neck in the ratings with similar formats, with one or the other occasionally shifting to the older or younger core of the 25-54 age demographic in order to keep up with ratings trends.
In 1993, after the FCC relaxed its ownership rules and allowed companies to own more than one FM station in the same market, Legend Communications purchased
album rock
Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock.
Album-orient ...
formatted
WRRK-FM (licensed to
Braddock) from WHYW Associates. The station, which had been known as 97 Rock, reverted to its previous format of
classic rock
Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...
and its former moniker, Magic 97.
In 1999, both stations moved to a new, more spacious location on Smithfield Street in downtown Pittsburgh, with state-of-the-art, all-digital equipment and studios built by Chief Engineer Paul Carroll. The construction lasted from August to November of that year.
The entire staff was dismissed during the format adjustment made the weekend of March 23, 2008. George Hart died of complications from liver transplant surgery in 1993. Pat Bridges, who had joined the station in the early 80s in a part-time capacity, returned in 2004 to assume the role of host for "Heartlite".
The new "Q92.9"
As the ratings declined for Soft AC stations, management decided a new mainstream adult contemporary sound was needed. The WLTJ identity disappeared the weekend of March 23, 2008, and the station was rebranded as ''Q92.9''. It was an unusual moniker, as the station does not have, nor has it ever had, a Q in its
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
. Station executives said they wanted to add more '90s music and felt the station needed an imaging overhaul to complete the transition. Most of the music from the 1970s was dropped, and more upbeat material from the 80s and 90s was added along with more current hits.
The station began with no DJs. Eventually, a live air staff was hired to host from 5:30 am to 12 am weekdays and 9 am to 7 pm on weekends. Q92.9 also added weather, traffic, and entertainment reports, which were not initially run in the early days of the format.
In November
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
, WLTJ shifted directions to Hot Adult Contemporary, with most of the musical mix focusing on more current product with only a few pre-2000 titles in the
playlist
A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs, but sometimes a loop. The term has sever ...
.
In addition to this change, the Q-Tags that were heard at the beginning of the Q's days, where a prerecorded voice stated the name and artist of every song at its conclusion. The Q-Tags were eliminated to create a faster-paced, less interruptive musical selection.
On July 5, 2016, WLTJ dismissed the entire air staff with the exception of afternoon host/PD Zak Szabo, presumably due to ratings, which has seen the station trailing its competitors since the shift to Adult Top 40. It also displayed a new slogan, billing themselves as "Your 10 In A Row Station." WLTJ has since reinstated morning, mid-day, evening, and weekend air staff.
HD Radio
WLTJ uses
HD Radio
HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...
technology and broadcasts on several
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
s. A
variety hits format was formerly found on HD2, branded "A Bit of Everything". A
classic rock
Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...
format is heard on HD3 branded "We Will Rock Q". A
soft adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet sto ...
format branded "Lite FM" is on HD4. These subchannels appear to change and move around from time to time as the station once broadcast an
urban adult contemporary
Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...
format, branded "Q in the City" and subsequently a
soft rock
Soft rock is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. S ...
format branded "Q2 Lite Rock" on HD2. WLTJ also has carried
Christmas music
Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...
on HD4 and then later on HD2 during the holiday season.
On May 1, 2022, WLTJ-HD2 flipped to
Regional Mexican
Regional Mexican is a Latin music radio format encompassing the musical genres from the different parts of rural Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Genres include banda, country en español, Duranguense, grupero, mariachi, New Mexico ...
as "Mega 92.9 HD2".
References
External links
Q92.9 official website*
{{Adult Contemporary Radio Stations in Pennsylvania
LTJ
Hot adult contemporary radio stations in the United States
Radio stations established in 1942