New station keeps format a mystery . . . for now

The addition of a new radio station, as well as a shift in ownership of four other local stations, could have the Centre Region changing the dials on its car radios, Walkmans and boom boxes.

WBUS-FM (93.7) will officially begin to broadcast during the second or third week of February, said Ron Rubin, station vice president and general manager. Although he would not release the station's format, Rubin said WBUS's programming will be broad-based and will target both college students and area adults as listeners.

"It's a format nobody else is doing," Rubin said.

The station, owned by the Boalsburg Broadcasting Co., operates from its studios at CATO Park in Ferguson Township. WBUS is currently playing an hour-long rotation of songs ranging from Bette Midler to R. Kelly. However, Rubin said the songs are no indication of WBUS's forthcoming format and the only reason the songs are played is because the station is required to keep the transmitter on the air at all times. In the next few weeks, Rubin said the station will begin teasing listeners as to what the programming of the station would be like.

WBUS's 6,000-watt signal, which broadcasts from a transmitter on Tussey Mountain, will reach the Centre Region and surrounding areas such as Huntington, Lewistown and Tyrone, Rubin said.

"It's one of the premier signals in State College," he said. Many of his local competitors have signals of only 3,000 watts, he added.

With nearly 30 years of broadcast experience, Rubin himself is no stranger to the radio industry. Prior to coming to the Centre Region, Rubin worked for the Westwood One radio network as well as in the Miami, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. radio markets.

However, the addition of WBUS is not the only major change in the local radio market.

College Township-based Talleyrand Broadcasting Inc., owner of WZWW-FM (95.3), applied to the Federal Communications Commission last year to purchase four local radio stations -- WBLF-AM (970), WIKN-FM (107.9), WQWK-FM (97.1) and WRSC-AM (1390) -- from Montana-based Citadel Broadcasting Co. Combined, Talleyrand Broadcasting would control slightly less than 40 percent of the State College radio market.

Representatives from Talleyrand Broadcasting did not return phone calls for this story.

While the threat of one company having a dominant role in a radio market is becoming more common nationwide due to some FCC deregulation of the radio industry, Rubin said he sees no problem competing with a local radio powerhouse.

"Radio stations are like a boutique," he said. "Small stores in small towns are able to compete with Wal-Mart."

However, Mike Jackson, program director of the University's student radio station, WKPS-FM (90.7), said the State College radio market has no room for new competition.

"The mass amount of people that are here are only listening to two or three formats, and those are already pretty well covered," Jackson said.

He added that the local commercial market is lacking a high-demand format among student listeners.

"They're definitely missing urban hip-hop and rap," Jackson said. "That's something we have the most of."

Jackson said if a station did switch to that format it would face tough competition.

"Even if a rap or urban station would come here, I doubt (students) would listen to it because we have it covered, and we don't play commercials," he said.