WAMO general manager Laura Varner-Norman rebuilds Pittsburgh's urban radio

It wasn't just the day the music died when WAMO, Pittsburgh's legendary radio station, went off the air in 2009, says Laura Varner-Norman.

More importantly, the broadcasting industry veteran says, it marked the moment when the city's urban community lost one of its most important voices.

Now, the New Kensington native and resident, who grew up listening to the station and found it her primary urban connection, is helping to re-establish that voice as the general manager of the new WAMO 100.1 FM.

Varner-Norman is believed to be one of the few female general managers in Pittsburgh radio history.

After a two-year silence, WAMO's new owners Martz Communications Group, which has stations across the United States, turned the power back on in May, introducing the station as "Pittsburgh's Home for Hip-Hop and R&B." Call letters for its AM sister station 660 WPYT also were changed to WAMO.

The same programming -- which acknowledges new trends in urban music, including embracing elements of other genres like pop -- is being simulcast on the stations and streamed online at www.WAMO100.com .

It is a dream come true to be a link in the chain of continuing WAMO's tradition, and a feeling of having come full circle, says Varner-Norman, who was the general sales manager at WAMO 106 FM when it was sold in 2009. "I really thought it was the end of a legacy, that WAMO was completely done (in 2009)," she says.

A major market like Pittsburgh needs an urban station, she insists.

Radio stations always have been the cornerstone in the urban community for music and news, explains Delbert Tyler of Monroeville, former business manager for Glencairn Ltd. television stations, including Pittsburgh's WB22 (WCWB) and the owner of an accounting firm who has known and worked with Varner-Norman for 20 years.

He is confident that Varner-Norman not only will be successful in her new position, but that her personality and personal drive may very well lead her one day to be "one of the few African-American and women owners in the industry."

It is an industry that is still male-dominated, Varner-Norman says. "It is a little challenging, letting them understand I know this business. I put a lot of time in it, and I am aggressive as far as goals for the station," she says.

Tyler is impressed. "She gets things done, and I admire the grace in which she does it," he says.

Tim Martz, CEO of Martz Communications Group, who hired her, says she came highly recommended by a number of radio executives. "I was thoroughly impressed by her passion and dedication," the San Francisco resident says.

After WAMO's demise in 2009, Varner-Norman, a University of Pittsburgh graduate, was hired as senior account executive for Radio-One Inc. of Philadelphia, one of the country's leading urban broadcasting companies.

Marsha Gavula of Evans City, a vice president at Stern Advertising, Pittsburgh, has worked with her for 10 years and praises Varner-Norman as "innovative and creative."

She has brought those abilities to many aspects of her career, including supervising corporate public affairs staffs at eight Glencairn Ltd. television stations in Eastern and Midwestern markets, and as an award-winning public-affairs and promotions manager, producer and on-air host at WCWB-TV and WPTT-TV, Pittsburgh.

Varner-Norman always has been a dedicated and smart business person, with a strong work ethic, says Alan Lincoln of New Kensington, former president of Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Division, which included WAMO. He hired her at WAMO in 2003.

WAMO's legacy is about "talented and good people, who are part of the fabric of our life in Pittsburgh," says Lincoln, past recipient of the national General Manager of the Year and the National Association of Broadcasters' Marconi award, the broadcasting industry's highest honor, for Urban Station of the Year.

He believes that urban radio needs to return to being locally focused.

Varner-Norman agrees.

The needs of the urban community were not being served in WAMO's recent absence, she says. She has grown weary of "always seeing the negative side" of that community in the news.

"There are so many more organizations and individuals that do so much more (that is positive) than what is portrayed," Varner-Norman says. "WAMO tries to highlight their achievements to let them know that we appreciate what they do to motivate our young adults to be their best by achieving greatness."

That philosophy does not surprise George Batterson of Lower Burrell, superintendent of New Kensington-Arnold School District. "She has a sincere desire to help other people, particularly those that are less fortunate," he says of the Valley High graduate who served on the district's multicultural committee.

"I care about how we can positively impact the community as a station, as well as individuals," she says.

The urban community once again having a radio voice "truly validates the importance of being a Pittsburgher and builds a sense of pride with living here," says Chaz Kellem, manager of diversity initiative for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"Pittsburgh is a big hometown, and we take a lot of pride in that," Varner-Norman says.

She draws strength from one of her favorite Nelson Mandela quotes: "As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."

It's time, she says, for that light to shine again on the rich heritage and vibrancy of urban life and culture in Pittsburgh.