The featured image above shows the exterior of the Beaver Falls City Building.
Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio News Correspondent. Published January 11, 2021 at 8:25 P.M.
(Beaver Falls, PA) The newly reorganized Beaver Falls City Council met Tuesday evening for a meeting. It was announced that the city will be working with Allegheny Health Network for a vaccine clinic that will feature a cash incentive for those not vaccinated. Also, the fire department would like the public to know that anyone in need of smoke detectors can acquire them and have them installed for free by contacting the department. Fire Chief, Mark Stowe, relayed that the department responded to 102 building fires in 2021, resulting in $1,115,550 in losses, which is double the amount of 2020. Council also approved the general fund expenditures at a total of $162,535.13 as well as two repository purchases at 814 3rd Avenue and 2805 College Avenue.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Pittsburgh center Evgeni Malkin could make his season debut when the Penguins face the Anaheim Ducks. Coach Mike Sullivan says he anticipates the four-time All-Star and 2012 Hart Trophy winner will be a “game-time” decision as Pittsburgh continues its West Coast swing. The 35-year-old Malkin hasn’t played since undergoing right knee surgery in June. Malkin has been skating with his teammates for several weeks and was cleared to start taking contact recently.
The game will be broadcast live on Beaver County Radio with pregame at 9:30 and puck drop set for 10:00 PM.
(New Brighton, Pa.) Our Lady of the Valley is announcing that it will be canceling Bingo for the next three weeks at the Holy Family Parish in New Brighton. The organization said in a release that “Due to concerns about the rising COVID Cases, and orders from the Pittsburgh Diocese to temporarily suspend all other non worship church activities.” Bingo is tentatively scheduled to reopen Wednesday evening February 2, 2022. Stay tuned for more details, or call the parish office at (724) 847-3538.
(File Photo)
Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at 10:33 AM (Beaver Falls, Pa.) Beaver County Commissioner Jack Manning joined Mike Romigh on Teleforum Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at 9:10 AM to discuss “The State of The County” Breakfast that was held by the Beaver County Chamber of Commerce on Friday, January 7, 2022 and replayed on Beaver County Radio at 12:30 PM Monday, January 10, 2022.
Manning told Romigh “I think it was pretty positive and I echo Commissioner Camp’s comments that Beaver County is going to be the fastest growing county in the state.”
The pair also spoke about broadband, infrastructure, jobs, wages, the Shell Cracker, housing, and how Beaver County is adapting as we are coming out of the pandemic.
You can listen to Mike’s interview with Jack by pressing the play button below.
(Midland, Pennsylvania) – The 2022 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day commemoration, hosted by the Midland Women’s Civic Club, will celebrate perseverance and Dr. King’s quote; “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”. For the second consecutive year, and due to the pandemic, it will be streamed live as a virtual event via Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center’s Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LincolnParkArts) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYEzxy0Vg4DuH_pp6l7xKnA/videos?view=0&sort=da) platforms on Monday, January 17thbeginning at 1:00 p.m.
Those reflecting on the theme of perseverance will include Jen Mura Miller, Executive Director of The Center, a non-profit organization addressing the needs of children and families in Midland; Valerie Mc Elvy, the founder of Professional Outfitters and Variety Shoppe under the Agency of the Franklin Center of Beaver County and sole proprietor of We’re At Your Service in New Brighton; Aisya Washington, a Midland-native and former scholarship winner who now works as a fashion stylist in New York City; and special guest Najee Harris, the Pittsburgh Steeler rookie running back out of the University of Alabama.
The signature underwriter of the event is Lincoln Learning Solutions. Key sponsors include the Midland Borough School District, the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, Baden Academy Charter School, Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, Midland Innovation + Technology Charter School, and Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center which is producing the event. Proceeds directly benefit students bound for college through the MWCC’s Greater Midland Scholarship Foundation.
The Midland Women’s Civic Club invites the general public to make MLK Day a “day on” of fellowship and enlightenment to benefit local students through scholarships from the safety and comfort of their homes, offices, and any COVID-safe environment.
(File Photo)
Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at 9:54 AM HARRISBURG – Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) ordered a special election to be held on Tuesday, April 5, 2022, to fill the vacant seat in the 24th Legislative District in Allegheny County.
The seat was vacated when Rep. Ed Gainey was sworn as the Mayor of Pittsburgh.
House rules state the speaker shall issue a writ for a special election to be held on a date which shall occur on or before the date of the first municipal election which occurs not less than 60 days after the issuance of the writ.
“Voters in Pennsylvania are already receiving a lot of information about new districts and major elections this year,” Cutler said. “This special election is to complete the term under the current, or old, map. Therefore, holding the election on its own unique date, and not coinciding this special election with the primary, eliminates potential confusion for voters.”
Candidates for the office will be selected by a process designated by their respective political parties, and the winner of the special election will take office after the results are confirmed.
(Photo Courtesy of Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium)
Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at 9:45 AM (Pittsburgh, PA) -Guests to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium may notice a unique penguin among the black and gold colony: a one-winged, one-year-old gentoo penguin named Floppy. Floppy, named by a donor shortly after his birth, is the only known penguin with an amputated wing at a zoo or aquarium in the United States. The prodecure took place in late 2021 and the penguin’s recovery is progressing well.
In August 2021, aquarists at the PPG Aquarium noticed some swelling near the young penguin’s shoulder. Floppy was given an X-ray and it was confirmed that he had broken a wing bone. The vets and aquarists offered care and monitored the injury for signs of natural healing for several weeks. However, it became apparent that the bone was not healing properly. Surgical repair was ruled out due to the location of the break, so the Pittsburgh Zoo’s Animal Care staff diligently consulted with other institutions before it was decided that the best avenue of recovery was to have the wing amputated.
Floppy’s surgery successfully occurred on September 8th. While amputation was the best option for Floppy, he had to re-learn how to swim, dive, float, navigate his habitat, and exit the water. The Animal Care team has closely monitored his progress and has been pleased every step of the way. He is able to perform most activities fairly well, and the staff of the PPG Aquarium has installed a ramp so that he that can better enter and exit the water. In late 2021, Floppy was reintroduced to the colony and can now often be seen publicly in his habitat.
Floppy continues to make progress towards a full recovery every day. The life expectancy of penguins in the wild is 10-15 years, but living in aquariums, they can reach over 30 years of age. He and his fellow
penguins can be seen in their habitat at the PPG Aquarium year-round. Floppy is expected to remain indoors at this time, though on weather-permitting weekends through February, other members of the penguin colony can be seen exploring outside during the Penguins on Parade event.
(Photo courtesy of PA Media Services)
Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at 09:13 AM
Wolf: Vaccine is strategy to fight COVID-19, not shutdowns
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf is brushing aside questions about whether he’ll issue more orders for shutdowns as cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 spread quickly and fill Pennsylvania’s hospitals with unvaccinated patients. Wolf, speaking on KDKA-AM radio in Pittsburgh, reiterated Tuesday that the vaccine is his administration’s strategy for fighting COVID-19. He says people need to get vaccinated. Wolf’s Department of Health expects new cases to peak in January, followed by a peak in hospitalizations in February and a peak in deaths in late February to early March. Hospitals hit by severe staffing shortages have been sounding the alarm as largely unvaccinated COVID-19 patients fill hospital beds.
Story and photos by Mark Peterson. Published 6:50 A.M. January 11, 2022. Featured photo: St. Barnabas Broadcasting, Inc. President, William V. Day and WBVP-WMBA General Manager, Mark Peterson pictured at the WBVP transmitter site in 2019.
(Beaver Falls, PA) Every once in a while, the places that deliver the news, actually create the news. That was the case on Monday. After filing some paperwork with the Federal Communications Commission last week and working out some final technical details, WBVP and WMBA turned on the transmitter for a brand new F.M. radio station on Saturday morning. The new station can be found at 95.7 F.M. and can be heard throughout much of Beaver County and parts of Allegheny and Butler Counties. Much like new parents and grandparents like to show pictures and brag about their new children or grandkids, Station officials took to the airwaves on Monday to talk about their proud, new addition. William V. Day, President of St. Barnabas Broadcasting, Inc. and Beaver County Radio General Manager Mark Peterson, beamed from ear to ear, just like excited parents of a young lad who had just hit a home run at the little league ball park, as they discussed the debut of their newest station, W239CR – 95.7 F.M. The pair joined talk show host Mike Romigh as part of Teleforum yesterday to formally announce the presence of a fourth radio station to the Beaver County cluster.
During the special interview, Peterson talked about how the 95.7 F.M. will augment the existing coverage area currently being served by WBVP, WMBA and 99.3 F.M. “The good news is, moving forward, we now have just finally completed the project of putting this second F.M. radio station on the air and it’s actually WMBA’s translator, 95.7 and it’s signal originates from the tower site in Bell Acres . . . in the northern part of Allegheny County . . . I think listeners are going to discover [increased coverage] to the south and east. ” Peterson was making reference to and contrasting the coverage area of 95.7 F.M., with WBVP’s F.M. Translator, W257EA-99.3 F.M., which originated from a much more northern location in Pulaski Township, Beaver County.
St. Barnabas Broadcasting Inc. President, Mr. William V. Day, got a little nostalgic while promoting the new entity during the discussion, referring back to a period many years ago, when he worked for WBVP. “It does bring back memories, but there have been new memories created. . . [This new station] has caught the vision of what we are trying to do and it’s a thrill for me to be here this morning. [To be] back in Beaver Falls, be with you, the people who are listening to us.”
The debut of 95.7 F.M. is the latest chapter in glorious history for WMBA that started in 1954. That was when a company based out of Pottsville, PA, Miners Broadcasting Service, Inc., bought 10 acres of land along Big Sewickley Creek just over the Beaver County line near Ambridge. Over the next couple of years, a studio was built in the second floor above Action Tire on Duss Avenue in Ambridge. In addition, transmitting equipment was installed and 2 towers were erected on the newly acquired plot of land. By 1957, construction was complete and 1460 WMBA went on the air offering daytime only service on September 19th of that year. The next big change happened in 1988 when new towers and transmitting equipment were installed. This monumental upgrade enabled the station to create a slightly different nighttime broadcast pattern and thus paved the way for the FCC to approve an application for WMBA to broadcast 24 hours a day. In 2000, WBVP and WMBA became part of the same company and began simulcasting the same great local programming when Iorio Broadcasting Inc. bought WMBA from Donn Communications, Inc. This latest improvement of adding an F.M. station actually began in 2018, when an application for an F.M. translator station at 95.7 F.M. for 1460 WMBA was awarded a temporary construction permit by the Federal Communications Commission. The build out and testing was completed for W239CR-95.7 F.M. in December, 2021. Final approval to move forward and power the station up arrived this past Friday. That meant that on Saturday, January 8, 2022, at around 9:30 A.M., history was made again for WMBA when station engineer, Jim Roush, pushed the button on a newly installed F.M. transmitter at the station’s Bell Acres, PA tower site.
The F.M. Antenna bays used to originate the 95.7 F.M. signal that are mounted at a height of 390′ above the ground on WMBA’s broadcast tower in Bell Acres, PA
All four Beaver County Radio Stations, including the new 95.7 F.M., will continue to simulcast local community based programming that’s been a hallmark of the stations since since WBVP began serving the area in 1948. A complete list of daily programs can be found here.
Advertising opportunities are available. Call 724-846-4100, or click here for more information.
