This past summer the radio industry, in particular the Urban community, was shocked to learn that heritage urban outlet WAMO and its urban AC sister WAMO-AM, would be sold by Sheridan Broadcasters and the new owners would take the stations in a new format direction. That left the African American community in Pittsburgh without a station to call its own.

While there have been several potential broadcast owners who wanted to fill the void, no terrestrial radio station in Pittsburgh has picked up the urban banner.

What Pittsburgh does have now are two new Internet radio stations led by former WAMO VP of Programming Ron Atkins. Atkins, who was laid off along with the staff of both WAMO AM & FM when the sale went through, decided to launch 101The Blaze.com and RadioMagicpittsburgh.com .

So far, Atkins has been building the stations visibility in the community – both in Pittsburgh and in the radio industry. It’s an uphill battle, but it’s one he’s passionate about and believes in. And in a time in radio when one could easily give up, give in, or move on, Ron Atkins chooses to continue to serve the community he’s been part of for over 15 years.

Explain why you decided to launch the Internet stations and how you decided to approach the programming:

Atkins: I knew we needed to fill the void left by WAMO AM & FM going away. My goal was to try and fuse the two format genres together, but at the same time let them have their own unique target. I program them just like I would program a terrestrial station. That’s why people – the listeners – are responding so well. And we’re growing our listenership quickly. I felt that I needed to give them something that they were comfortable and familiar with. I couldn’t step out on a limb and be too aggressive or too underground, like a lot of Internet radio. I don’t have the time or the resources to retrain the listeners.

The stations have drops, just like a terrestrial station. Pat Garrett is our station voice for both Blaze and Magic. On Blaze, we have two jocks: J. Cruze, who was heard on WAMO for years, and our midday personality Sharmyn, who was also on WAMO. They both voicetrack their shifts. I plan to start doing a morning show on Magic in a few weeks. This is a great opportunity for the jocks as well because they build on the brand they’ve established over the years on WAMO, and can continue to grow their brand in Pittsburgh.

You and I talked about the fact that you’re making Blaze and Magic, locally based stations. Why is that important?

Atkins: It was very important to me to make sure the online stations remained local. People often think of the Internet as a world-wide opportunity. But my goal was to build on what I knew here with my history and experience in the market. More importantly, I didn’t want to abandon the listeners of Pittsburgh. I have a commitment to them, the ones I‘ve befriended and served over the years. They need a place they can turn to, not only music, but for information about this city and this community. They can’t get it anywhere else on the airwaves here, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. When WAMO was silenced and its voice “Muted” (as one person described it to me), the voice of the African American community in Pittsburgh was basically muted as well.

So I hope to give them their voice back … Online.

You can’t put up an Internet station, let alone two, on your good looks. It takes money – more than you might expect. And time. I’m a one-trick pony – I program, manage, sell. I do it all. Making it a Pittsburgh station will also help me to get and keep local advertising. If I’m targeting the folks here, then I can get support from the local clubs, local barbershops, and car dealerships – all of which have already started advertising with us.

How are the local advertisers responding to the concept?

Atkins: They’re loving it! I just came back from a meeting with one of the local Pittsburgh clubs. We’re planning on doing some big things with them and The Blaze. We’re setting up a concert with Young Jeezy, which we will broadcast live – streaming video from the club. We’re planning on doing more shows after this one as well. We’ve set up a whole state-of-art system with three different cameras, so people can choose which part of the club they want to check out. It allows the user to interact with the club, even if they’ can’t be there right then. The thing is, we never did anything like this with the old WAMO. That’s what’s so great with the new technology. People start to think out of the box.

How have the record labels responded?

Atkins: They’re coming on board one by one. We’ve already got support from Richard Nash at Capitol, and from Koch. Some other folks have made verbal commitments. The toughest thing is to get them to understand the value of advertising on a website, as apposed to a radio station. They’re accustomed to things like Cume and TSL. With us, they’ll be buying into a new concept: the value of the people and the connections to the community here in Pittsburgh. We’ll still be able to provide exposure for their artists in order to sell their products in this market.

How have you been marketing the stations in Pittsburgh?

Atkins: We’ve been very busy on all levels, but mostly in the social media networks – Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. We’ve also taken it to the streets in the old fashioned way of getting the word out – with flyers in the stores, at the barber and beauty shops, and so on. Word of mouth has been a factor as well. People are looking for a new outlet to hear their music so as soon as they find out about us, they check us out, and then they tell their friends to check us out. In the spring, I plan to do advertising on cable television as well.

People in the industry were truly saddened by the demise of WAMO. What issues led to the company selling the station?

Atkins: Honestly, it was simply a financial issue. The company (Sheridan Broadcasting) was hit really hard by the downturn in the economy. And that was after years of not doing so well to begin with. For years, AURN (American Urban Radio Networks) carried WAMO. But it simply couldn’t do it any longer. When you look at the competition in this market – stations like “Kiss” or “B94”, they’re owned by the major broadcast groups, which have the resources to withstand the bad economy. WAMO in essence, was a stand alone. It just couldn’t compete financially any longer.