Tady: Beaver County gets new FM station; Lincoln Park musical artist has Beaver Falls gig
Ambridge's 64-year-old radio station made its FM debut a week ago.
Tune into 95.7 FM to hear WMBA airing its same mix of news, talk, local interviews and sports, as still also heard on the AM dial at 1460, and simulcast with Beaver Falls-based WBVP at 1230 WBVP and 99.3 F.M.
Jumping aboard FM gives WMBA a broader reach, both geographically (especially farther south and east) and conceptually (good luck finding anyone under age 45 who's ever listened to AM radio.)
"Shortly after firing up the transmitter, emails and texts began coming in from other station staffers in Brighton Township and New Brighton reporting that 95.7 was coming in great," general manager Mark Peterson posted on Facebook. "One company official even chimed in that the “Signal was strong in Gibsonia.'"
The Gibsonia area is home to WMBA's new owners, St. Barnabas Broadcasting, which also owns conservative talk station1320 WJAS and its counterpart, 99.1 FM in Pittsburgh.
Simulcasting with WBVP since 2000, WMBA broadcasts from the same tower and transmitter site in Bell Acres used since the station went on air in 1957.
Bundled together as Beaver County Radio and working from the same Beaver Falls studio, WMBA and WBVP features daily morning talk by local hosts Matt Drzik and Eddy Crow, who spend 25 minutes each Thursday, starting at 11:35 a.m., chatting about pop culture and Beaver Valley entertainment with me in a show we call "Notes on Local Entertainment."
While very unlikely, I'd love to see either the Beaver Falls or Ambridge station branch off into separate programming. Can you imagine the buzz if one of those stations became the Pittsburgh region's first Yacht Rock station playing the hits of Toto, Michael McDonald, Steely Dan, Kenny Loggins, Carly Simon, Pablo Cruise, George Benson, Robbie Dupree, Hall & Oates, Nicolette Larson and Christopher Cross?
You know my mantra about radio: Less talk, more rock.
Love these Supervillains
"Riding in a GTO/Cruising down (Route) 65/Mama, you're my sexual napalm/Believe it, I'm still alive."
Now there's a lyric that demands attention. It's from "Joyride," the starting line to "Play That Rock and Roll," The Semi-Supervillains' high-octane new album I'd highly recommend.
I'd argue "Joyride" makes the best lyrical use of Route 65 since "Jimmy Magg's Baden Bowl" by garage-rockers Wade in the late-1990s.
Though technically, The Semi-Supervillains were thinking further south on 65.
"The song is about 'borrowing' my uncle Bob’s GTO and heading down to East Carson Street with my buddies to impress some women," Semi-Supervillains' lyricist Vinnie Longhi said.
Ah, but that uncle, Bob Horvath, hails from Monaca, proving again all roads eventually lead to Beaver County.
The Semi-Supervillains formed in Weirton, W.Va., and record in and pretty much relocated to Nashville, but still consider Pittsburgh a home base of sorts. The 'Burgh is where the band would have performed an album release show this weekend. Given the Covid Omicron surge, that show will be rescheduled for late-February or early March, likely at a South Side joint like Club Cafe or The Smiling Moose, Longhi said.
Released Jan. 14, "Play That Rock and Roll" hollers out to people who dig rock'em, sock'em music, with dueling guitars and '70s stomp and swagger.
Songs like "Lick a Toad," a careening boogie-blues rave-up with a police chase and jail warden, and "Snowplow Man," a raw, throaty blast of boastfulness, suggest Semi-Supervillains have arrived to liven up the party.
The Route 65-referencing "Joyride" notched ample Youtube views while netting airplay from 102.5-WDVE in Pittsburgh and Q94.3 in Central Pennsylvania.
The album's title track reminds me a bit of Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger." Semi-Supervillains' press kit assigns the all-important RIYL ("recommended if you like...") status to fans of Dirty Honey and Jack White's The Raconteurs.
"We are proud of every detail in the final product, including this grassroots marketing campaign," Longhi said.
If "Play That Rock and Roll" foreshadows what 2022 has to offer musically, we're fortunate.
Lincoln Park singer books B-Falls gig
Gabriella Salvucci forges ahead with her singing and songwriting.
The youngest recording artist ever signed to Misra Records, and currently a student at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School in Midland, Salvucci will perform Jan. 26 at Local 724 Studio in Beaver Falls.
"It’s my first show of 2022, and I’m super excited to debut some of my new songs including a song I co-wrote last summer with Dave Pahanish in Nashville," Salvucci said.
Pahanish, formerly of South Park Township, co-wrote chart-toppers "American Ride" by Toby Keith, and "Without You" by Keith Urban.
For the Beaver Falls show, Salvucci will entertain along with Pittsburgh soul singer Jay Michaels, who impressed me last year at Pittsburgh Vegfest in Allegheny Park, and the alt-rock band We're Almost Home.
"I’m thrilled to be performing with such great artists," Salvucci said. "The show starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are $12 at the door."
Local 724 Studio is an all-ages, DIY show and rehearsal space at 3420 Fourth Ave.
More Beaver County entertainment: Tady: NOMaD brings rockin' country to Midland; Beaver County actress turns model
Beaver Valley dining news: What's Cooking? A Rochester bar with lobster & a possible Thai eatery in Beaver
Scott Tady is the local Entertainment Reporter for The Beaver County Times and Ellwood City Ledger. He's easy to reach at stady@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @scotttady.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Tady: Ambridge gets new FM station; Lincoln Parker has Beaver Falls gig
