Branding "73 WPIT" First air date 1947 | Frequency 730 (kHz) | |
City Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Broadcast area Pittsburgh metropolitan area Slogan "Talk Radio That Helps People" | ||
WPIT (730 AM) is a hybrid conservative talk/religious radio station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station is licensed to Pennsylvania Media Associates, Inc which is wholly owned by Salem Communications Holding Corporation, which is, in turn, owned by Salem Communications Corporation. The transmitter power is 5,000 watts during the day and 24 watts at night.
The station's antenna system uses a single tower that results in an omnidirectional signal pattern. According to the Antenna Structure Registration database, the tower is 99 m (325 ft) tall. The transmitter site is located near Millvale. WPIT's studios are located at Parkway Center in Pittsburgh.
History
WPIT, which signed on the air in 1947, has been a religious station for most of its life, and at one time was a simulcast of its FM sister station up until 1993, when both stations were sold to Salem.
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 called other evangelical churches "whores" who sell out the gospel for money.
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 its FM sister, WORD-FM moved up to Seven Parkway Center in Greentree, just outside the Pittsburgh city limits.
In recent years, WPIT has added some secular conservative talk programming to its lineup (like Dr. Laura, Michael Medved, and Hugh 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 also airs Robert Morris University football, men's basketball, select women's basketball games. Red Zone Media also broadcasts North Hills School District football games on WPIT.
The station is known as "73 WPIT"