WRTA’s “The 11th Hour” host Doug Herendeen broadcasts at the Altoona studio. The station is marking 75 years on air. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Saturday is a special day in Blair County broadcasting history.

On June 18, 1947, WRTA-AM went on the air at 6:30 a.m. at 250 watts of power from its studio in the old Penn Furniture building on 12th Avenue.

Roy F. Thompson, trading as the Thompson Broadcasting Co., established WRTA, then an affiliate of the 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 was working for the Altoona Tribune under Bob Boyer. He allowed me to work at WRTA doing sports as a favor to Roy Thompson,” Maierhofer said. “I did sports but didn’t get paid.”

The station has moved several times over the years.

In 1956, WRTA moved into the basement of the Penn Alto Hotel, and in 1981, it moved into a new building on 12th Avenue next to the Penn Furniture building. The station moved into its present 2513 Sixth Ave. location in 2007.

Ownership also has changed over the years.

Thompson sold WRTA to the Altoona Trans Audio Corp., composed of Martin J. Malarkey Jr., John L. Miller, Horace Richards and Louis “Lou” Murray in March 1956.

In September 1982, the Altoona Trans Audio Corp. elected David Rodney “Rod” Wolf as president and chief operating officer. Wolf had joined WRTA in January 1957 serving in various roles.

In November 2003, Wolf announced the sale of WRTA to David A. Barger, president of Handsome Brothers Inc. After Barger died, his wife, Rebecca Barger, sold the station to Lightner Communications LLC (Matt Lightner) in July 2019.

Barger said her late husband loved radio.

“Many years ago, he did the news for WRTA under the name Dave Allen. Acquiring WRTA was an opportunity he could not pass up. By default, he began to do the morning talk show and grew to love it,” Rebecca Barger said.

Lightner had worked for Wolf in the 1990s as a part-time engineer.

“I knew the great history of the station, so I was ecstatic when it became available for sale. It was important to the owner at the time, Rebecca Barger, to sell the stations to someone that would continue with WRTA’s long tradition of local programming and community service into the future,” Lightner said.

Many former employees fondly remember their days 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 starting broadcaster. … It was a good place to get a good grilling in Blair County journalism,” said King, who worked at WRTA from 1972-84.

Kooman, who worked at WRTA in the late 1970s, said, “It was an exciting and fun time for someone new in the news business. People really cared about having local news on the radio.”

Cem Maier, who worked at the station in various roles from the early 1970s to late 1990s, agreed that local news and sports as well as community service were very important.

“We always paid a lot of attention to hiring the right people to handle the news,” Maier said. “Community service was really important, but sports became the biggest money maker. We got so involved in sports. Charlie Weston and I did five or six games a week. Sports and news and community involvement really helped us stand out.”

WRTA was known as the “adult station” in town, said Steve Clark, who worked at WRTA in 1971 and then from 1991 to 2005. “The work environment at this time was very pleasant and we prided ourselves as the station that provided the necessary local news, sports and weather that other stations were not providing.”

WRTA was well known for its Republican-leaning editorials.

“Rod and Lou owned the station, and they were present every day. Rod did editorials that exposed problems in the city and county government. It was an interesting time,” Kooman said. “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 no one had ever done.”

WRTA 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 went to a talk radio format in the early 1980s.

“The local talk hosts did a great job of being a voice for the listeners and weren’t afraid to call out elected officials on issues when necessary,” 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 taking over WRTA, including new equipment and transmitters, improved the 98.5 FM coverage and purchased video and audio equipment.

Lightner said the future looks bright.

“I feel WRTA, and local radio is going to be here for a very long time. In a way I feel we are going back to the beginning, when radio was new and evolving and was heavily driven by technology,” Lightner said. “Radio is changing, with audio content available on the internet, listeners listening on their phones, new 5G technology that will allow streaming the station to your car most anywhere in the world. So, the delivery method is evolving beyond AM and FM, and with so many choices to listen to, it’s going to be more about great content and producing local programming to engage local listeners.”

Reaching 75 years is a great accomplishment.

“Seventy-five years of being locally owned is a great accomplishment, and I’m glad to be part of its history. It’s nice that WRTA is still providing more local content than any other area station,” Maguda said.

WRTA will mark the anniversary this weekend by playing some past jingles and other audio around its normal programming commemorating the event. On Monday, some past WRTA employees will share some memories during the “WRTA Mornings” show from 7 to 9 a.m.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 814-946-7467.