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Tyrone radio station upgraded

Mirror photo by Gary M. Baranec Announcer Rich Saupp works at Tyrone-based radio station WTRN, which is changing its music formats.

TYRONE — When Matthew Lightner purchased WTRN-AM, he promised to modernize the radio station and make some changes.

Last summer, Lightner, president of Lightner Communications LLC, Claysburg, completed the purchase of the station founded in 1955 by the late Cary H. Simpson. Simpson died on Dec. 27, 2016, at the age of 89.

Lightner has proven to be a man of his words.

WTRN has expanded its FM coverage and changed its music format.

WTRN has added another FM signal to provide clear and strong coverage in all of Altoona and southern Blair County at 96.9 Mhz. This is in addition to the 100.7 FM signal that covers northern Blair County and parts of Centre County.

The addition of the signal was made possible by the Federal Communications Commission’s AM revitalization program, which has allowed some AM stations across the country to apply for FM frequencies, Lightner said.

“The FCC realized that AM stations play an important part in serving the communities they are in, and some are struggling to survive because of more and more interference to the AM band. This is especially true for local channel AM stations like WTRN.

“Newer electronics like LED lights and computers can emit a great deal of noise in the AM band, which can interfere with AM radios, making it hard to clearly listen to lower power AM stations,” Lightner said.

As part of the program, the FCC mandates that the AM frequency still must remain on the air.

“WTRN still has a good amount of listeners who listen on AM, so we replaced the transmitter and antenna system to keep the AM going for the foreseeable future,” Lightner said.

Along with the addition of the Altoona FM signal, WTRN recently changed formats to “Easy Favorites 96.9/100.7,” which is a mixture of softer musical hits from the ’60s to today. In the past, WTRN was running a satellite delivered format.

“We wanted to take the station local and program our own music to better serve the needs of the area,” Lightner said.

However, with the switch to the new music format, WTRN did not abandon the “full service” format that it has been known for over its 63 years on the air.

During the day, the station features the easy favorites music format so listeners can tune in at work. The drive home is hosted live by Rich “Radio Rich” Saupp, who has worked at WTRN for more than 46 years.

In the evenings and on weekends, WTRN has many sports-related events like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Penn State and live local games, along with community-related events like parades and memorial day services.

WTRN also kept the 10 a.m. news hour, which features local news and information from around the area.

WTRN has also invested in streaming the station in as many formats as possible so it can be listened to around the world on many different devices.

Rose Black, executive director of the Tyrone Area Chamber of Commerce, is pleased with the improvements.

“He is bringing it up to the level of the other stations since taking it over and is moving in the right direction. A local radio station is very important to the community. They spread the word about things, and they are accessible to us. They cover most of our events,” Black said.

Lightner is optimistic about the future.

“It’s been a tremendous challenge and required a lot of capital to take WTRN from it’s 1960s equipment to where we are today, but we are very excited for the next 63 years on the radio,” Lightner said.

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