September 3rd, 2010 
joel 
WPSE AM 1450
AllAccess.com is confirming what P&T had heard for weeks now, that the Pennsylvania State University is purchasing W296BW/Erie, the 107.1 FM translator owned by Michael Celenza. The price was $68,000.
Celenza was transmitting a rebroadcast of the CSN International network, a Christian station from Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls, ID.
P&T has heard that 107.1 will be a new signal of WPSE-AM 1450, which broadcasts business news and Penn State sports from the Behrend campus. FCC rules have changed in recent years to allow FM translators to be used to retransmit AM signals. My understanding is that university funds were not used for the purchase of the station, but came from a donor.
UPDATE: Ron Slomski, the manager of WPSE has confirmed that the 107.1 signal will rebroadcast the WPSE programming stream, if the sale is approved by the FCC.
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Great…an FM re-broadcast of a station that no one listens to. Just what we need.
Great! An FM outlet for an AM station that serves as an educational environment. Reminds me of a certain SNL skit with a disc jockey doing his speal for both an AM station and an FM station, switching between the two.
Perhaps, we can bring the oldies sound closer to Erie free from Corporate rule.
Indeed — I appreciate public media and what WPSE is trying to do. However, their website is a disgrace. Not only do they not have anything about this possible move to FM, but they don’t even have a programming schedule up. I like the description of their content, however I won’t be tuning in because I have no idea when anything airs. For a station with what appears to be five full-time employees, this is disgraceful — if it’s run with taxpayer money, doubly so. I have no problem with my tax dollars supporting a station like WPSE, but I would like the salaries it pays to support staffers of at least middling competence.
http://www.pserie.psu.edu/neWscal/Wpseradio.htm
Stock updates in Stereo. I’ll be cranking that up :-p
I believe that WPSE is essentially the electromagnetic equivalent of what is known in publishing as a “vanity press”. Which is fine, I guess, if that’s what the Trustees of the University have in mind. If it buys them any cred with prospective students and donors (which I really doubt a local AM radio station will nowadays) then that’s frosting on the cake. Their sort of programming is not my cup of tea by a long shot but ‘horses for courses’ and all that.
Your observations about the webpage are, sadly, quite correct and are indicative that even the licensee Penn State regards the whole operation as something of an afterthought. That a headcount of 5 employees (assuming they’re all full-time; FTE might be somewhat less than 5) would be required to pull this off is laughable.
None of this is a slam at Ron Slomski, by the way. Based on personal interactions over the years, he’s both a fine gentleman as well as a very capable & hard-working fellow with considerable experience in many facets of broadcasting; I think his talents are probably being overconstrained and wasted in his present role but good jobs are hard to find these days [especially in Erie] so more power & continuing best wishes to him.
Anyhow Max, good luck determining if WPSE is run with taxpayer money. Penn State, like many ‘non profit’ institutions of its type —particularly land-grant universities and public broadcasters— is an organizational chameleon and financial mixmaster blender extraordinaire. There’s essentially 2 sets of accounting records: one which shows that it is privately supported, and one which shows that it requires public government funding. The suits at University Park have it down to a science and will pull out whichever set of numbers serves their purpose at the moment.