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WRTA’s The 11th Hour host Doug Herendeen will be broadcasting at the Altoona studios. The station is celebrating 75 years on the air. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski
Saturday marks a special day in Blair County broadcasting history.
On June 18, 1947, WRTA-AM began airing at 6:30 a.m. at 250 watts from its studio in the old Penn Furniture building on 12th Avenue.
Roy F. Thompson, trading as Thompson Broadcasting Co., founded WRTA, then a subsidiary of American Broadcasting Co.
In 1961, the Federal Communications Commission approved an upgrade to 1,000 watts.
Louis J. Maierhofer, who later owned several radio stations in the area, did a sports program for WRTA.
“I worked under Bob Boyer for the Altoona Tribune. He allowed me to work at WRTA and play sports as a favor to Roy Thompson.” according to Maierhofer. “I did sports but wasn’t paid.”
The station has moved several times over the years.
In 1956, WRTA moved to the basement of the Penn Alto Hotel and in 1981 to a new building on 12th Avenue next to the Penn Furniture building. The station moved to its current location on Sixth Ave in 2007. 2513.
Ownership has also changed over the years.
Thompson sold WRTA to the Altoona Trans Audio Corp., consisting of Martin J. Malarkey Jr., John L. Miller, Horace Richards and Louis “lu” Murray in March 1956.
In September 1982, Altoona Trans Audio Corp. David Rodney “Pole” Wolf as President and Chief Operating Officer. Wolf had joined WRTA in January 1957 in various capacities.
In November 2003, Wolf announced the sale of WRTA to David A. Barger, President of Handsome Brothers Inc. After Barger’s death, his wife, Rebecca Barger, sold the station to Lightner Communications LLC (Matt Lightner) in July 2019.
Barger said her late husband loved the radio.
“Many years ago he did the news for WRTA under the name Dave Allen. Acquiring WRTA was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. By default, he started doing the morning talk show and loved it more and more.” said Rebecca Barger.
Lightner had worked for Wolf as a part-time engineer in the 1990s.
“I knew the channel’s great history, so when it came up for sale I was thrilled. For then-owner Rebecca Barger, it was important to sell the stations to someone who would continue WRTA’s long tradition of local programming and community service into the future.” said lighter.
Many former employees have fond memories of their time at WRTA.
Karl King and Barbara Kooman (air name was Barbara Allen) worked in the news department under Wolf and Murray.
“It was a really good experience for a budding broadcaster. … It was a good place to have a good BBQ in Blair County journalism.” said King, who worked at WRTA from 1972-84.
Kooman, who worked at WRTA in the late 1970s, said: “It’s been an exciting and fun time for someone new to the news business. People really cared about having local news on the radio.”
Cem Maier, who worked in various capacities at the station from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, agreed that local news and sports, as well as community service, were very important.
“We’ve always been very careful to hire the right people to handle the news,” said Meier. “Community service was really important, but sport became the biggest moneymaker. We’ve been so into sports. Charlie Weston and I played five or six games a week. Sports and news and community engagement really helped us differentiate.”
WRTA was known as the “adult ward” in town, said Steve Clark, who worked at WRTA in 1971 and then from 1991 to 2005. “The working environment at the time was very pleasant and we prided ourselves on being the channel that provided the necessary local news, sports and weather that other channels did not provide.”
WRTA was known for its Republican-leaning editorials.
“Rod and Lou owned the station and were there every day. Rod wrote editorials exposing problems in city and county government. It was an interesting time.” said koman. “Rod and Lou were the kingmakers. They helped Bud Shuster with his campaign and helped Rick Geist get elected. The Republican-leaning editorials were something nobody had done before.”
WRTA has won numerous awards for its sports coverage and editorials from the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters and a national award from the Women’s Sports Foundation for coverage of high school girls’ sports.
WRTA transitioned to a talk radio format in the early 1980s.
“The local talk moderators did a great job of giving listeners a voice and weren’t afraid to call elected officials when needed.” said Ken Maguda, who served as operations manager from February 1988 to October 2019.
Lightner, whose Lightner Communications owns numerous other radio stations in the area, has made numerous improvements since acquiring WRTA, including new equipment and transmitters, improved 98.5 FM coverage, and purchased video and audio equipment.
Lightner said the future looks bright.
“I feel WRTA and local radio will be here for a very long time. In a way, I feel like we’re going back to the beginning when radio was new and evolving and heavily driven by technology.” said lighter. “Radio is changing, with audio content available online, listeners listening on their phones, new 5G technology making it possible to stream the station to your car almost anywhere in the world. So the delivery method is evolving beyond AM and FM and with so many listening options it will be more about great content and producing local programming to appeal to local listeners.”
Reaching 75 is a great achievement.
“Being locally owned for seventy-five years is a tremendous achievement and I am happy to be a part of its history. It’s nice that WRTA still offers more local content than any other station in the region.” Said Maguda.
WRTA will commemorate the anniversary this weekend by playing some past jingles and other audio files surrounding their regular program to commemorate the event. On Monday, some former WRTA employees will share some memories during the “WRTA Tomorrow” Show from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m
Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank can be reached at 814-946-7467.
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