Summary
The 1980s were dominated by controversies over the station's racial identity, and whether it should promote music with cross-over racial appeal. As young Whites grew increasingly attracted to Black music, especially disco and light or "progressive" jazz, WAMO sought to grow its market share by positioning itself as a cross-over station with multiracial appeal, ironically in a way harking back to the days of WHOD. Doing so intensified debates over what should be the station's racial identity and music profile. The controversy went public in 1979, when WAMO's new program director, Mike Payne, replied to a question about the decreasing amount of "Black" music on the airwaves with his own question: "Who knows what Black music is?" Payne had already ramped up the amount of disco, pop and progressive jazz the station played, producing a format that increased its White listening audience. As a result, under Payne's direction WAMO rose from 17th place to sixth in listeners.
Ratings success, however, did not easily win Back listener trust and affection. [Ray Gusky], in an unfortunate choice of words, boasted that marketing strategies were "taking us from a little colored station image to one of the major music stations in the market." Blacks were offended by his "denigrating words," and even more upset by the programming changes he advertised: A former WAMO employee complained to the Courier that the station had had a stronger Black identity in the 1960s under White owner Leonard Walk, who "worked with Jim McCoy and others to get jobs...marched in the picket lines and encouraged his staff to do the same." The same writer concluded that WAMO is "only a Black station when they are trying to get Black budgets from advertisers." Community activist Fred Logan called a public forum on "The Black Media and the Black Community" to discuss whether local Blackowned media "adequately serve Black people."If the 1980s featured identity crises for the station, the 1990s produced one of the biggest uproars in its history. In 1996, for $14 million, WAMO moved ever so slightly up the radio dial-from 105.9 to 106.7-when it swapped its broadcast frequency with that of hard rock station WXDX. The uproar stemmed from the fact that many listeners could no longer hear the station, whose signal dropped from 72,000 watts to only 42,000 watts and now was broadcasting from Beaver Falls. Static replaced music, causing an uproar that was immediate and ferocious. One listener asked humorously, "How can you cuddle with your woman if your system is all screwed up?" Others were more direct. "WAMO has moved up the dial and out of the community," screamed a Courier headline. Ralph Proctor; then broadcasting at WAMO sister station WCXJ, recalls getting "an earbeating" from callers about "uppity NEGROES and LAWN JOCKEYS that were more interested in money than Black folks." "Not only did folks turn away," Proctor added, "they 'bad-mouthed' WAMO" and its management. Later that year, responding to community protests, WAMO improved its reception in Pittsburgh's eastern suburbs by purchasing and simulcasting with WSSZ (Z107) of Greensburg. But not until 2002 did the station build a new tower that was closer to the city and substantially improved reception.See the full content of this document
Extract
Black Radio in Pittsburgh
(Part two of a two-part series)
The spirit of pride and militancy that characterized the late 1960s increased the desire for Black control of community institutions. In that spirit, in 1973 Ron Davenport Sr.'s Sheridan Broadcasting company and a group of Black businessmen, including Art Edmunds and Milton Washington, purchased WAMO, bringing for the first time Black ownership to Black radio in Pittsburgh.Black control, however, did not mean smooth sailing for the station. Indeed, in the 1980s WAMO was buffeted by num...See the full content of this document
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