Recently, Keymarket/Forever Broadcasting acquired Charleroi based stations WESA-AM (940) and WZKT-FM (98.3) from Farr Broadcasting for about three million dollars. Keymarket decides to scrap the local Top 40 format of Z98 in favor of a simulcast of its sister station Froggy 94.9 . Keymarket believes that they can succeed with the format in Metro Pittsburgh. The Altoona based company's flagship station is WFGY-FM(Froggy 98). That station has been very dominant in the Altoona, State College and Johnstown markets. Keymarket made some inroads into Pittsburgh by acquiring Uniontown based WASP-AM/FM and added the Froggy brand to the FM station. The station acquired the call letters of WOGG-FM.

The only problem was that Froggy 94.9's signal was hard to reach in certain parts of Pittsburgh. Just up the river in Charleroi was an AM/FM combo that had been a decent training ground for radio people. However, just like WASP-FM,WZKT-FM had a less than exciting signal that didn't allow it to reach most of Pittsburgh. There had been some skinny that they wanted to move a bit closer to Pittsburgh.

However,that never came to fruition. Farr decided that the Charleroi stations would be ripe for the taking by Keymarket. Keymarket took the bait. Many of us had assumed that things would remain the same at Z98. Radio wannabes would be able to get their shot at work for the station. Try getting a gig in Pittsburgh,when you've just graduated from college. Charleroi would get its share of local news that 2,4,11,53,KDKA-AM and KQV wouldn't cover because it wasn't "sexy" enough for Pittsburgh.

Keymarket had other plans. The first clue was that they had applied for the WOGI-FM call letters for WZKT-FM. Z98 staff claimed ignorance of the changes. The word in radio circles was that Metro Pittsburgh would get another country station. Keymarket's Froggy 94.9 insisted that they wouldn't target Pittsburgh. But those who knew felt that 94.9 wouldn't target Pittsburgh,but 98.3 would. Even if it took moving the antenna and signal away from Charleroi and placing it near Pittsburgh.

So, I need not tell you what happened next. The sale was a done deal, Keymarket flipped Z98 to a simulcast of 94.9. They also began to move the offices down to Uniontown. In effect local radio in Charleroi was dead. Radio majors looking for a chance to work in a small station were shut out. Metro Pittsburgh was bombarded with cheesy liners and slogans proclaiming the ways of Froggy.

The question I have to ask is "where do we go from here"? If you're a radio student looking for a way to get into broadcasting, where do you go? Good luck trying to land work in Pittsburgh. A radio genius in Pittsburgh will tell you to hit the boonies. Only thing is that the boonie stations are trying to get the piece of the bigger radio pie. Hmmm, who's to blame out of all of this? The blame can be spread among many groups, but for all purposes Keymarket and Farr made a legit deal.

The real victims are those looking to become radio personalities and the small towns that would be even lucky if the bigger stations did anything on what was happening in their areas.

Those are the musings I have, you're free to answer them in the Rant Board

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