Come midnight Wednesday, there will be a new radio station on the air that plans eventually to call Greensburg home.
St. Pier Group LLC, an affiliate of Renda Broadcast Corp., of Pittsburgh, has entered into an agreement to purchase WJJJ-FM 107.1. The station, which has been operating from Pittsburgh, will be moved back to Greensburg.
"To me it's unbelievable the county seat in Westmoreland County doesn't have a radio station," said General Manager Mark Bertig. "We're going to be very community-oriented. We want to be involved with local schools. Hopefully, the community we'll embrace us as much as we want to embrace the community."
The old WHJB-FM was once located at 107.1 on the dial.
With the sale will come change.
The call letters for the 3,000-watt station will now be WGSM-FM, which will give the station a Greensburg identity.
There will be a shift from the current format of hip hop/rhythm and blues to SAM, which stands for "Simply About Music." The station actually will be known as "SAM 107.1."
"It will be everything from Abba to ZZ Top," Bertig said.
Tony Renda, president of Renda Broadcasting Corp., said the company researched the market and felt SAM was the optimum format.
"We decided we were going to put something on that was adult contemporary, that wasn't going to be young Top 40," Renda said. "We want a good comfortable format that has a lot of appeal. When you're in a small market you try to be a little bit of all things to all people."
Renda Broadcasting Corp. owns and operates 24 radio stations in eight markets. Renda said the prospect of having a radio station in Greensburg intrigued him.
"There are a lot of smaller stations that seem to be for sale, we had no interest in any of them," Renda said. "When this was presented to us, we said we'd love to be a Greensburg station. You go through the town, it's a viable thriving community. Greensburg is a great market."
Greensburg Mayor Karl Eisaman said he is happy about the transaction.
"I'm excited to have a radio station back in the city of Greensburg," Eisaman said. "With all the other projects going on in the city, a radio station will be an asset. Hopefully, it will bring several jobs back in the city."
There is still much to be done for WGSM-FM.
Bertig said he is trying to secure a location for sales and administrative staff.
Programming will emanate from the temporary studios of one of four stations in Indiana county until a new studio is developed. Some of the on-air talent in Indiana will handle local broadcasts for SAM 107.1 until broadcast personnel are hired.
Bertig said employees are currently being recruited. A one-day job fair will be held from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Friday in the conference room of the Hampton Inn, Town Square Drive, Greensburg.
The Westwood One network will supply some of the station's music.
"We'll be building it from scratch. We'll be able to hire our own people. It will be a work in progress," Bertig said. "Out of the gate there will be some local news and local sports. We want to be live in the morning as quickly as we can. We're very excited about it."
