State Sen. James Brewster said the first time Jason Togyer interviewed him for a Tube City Online Radio program in 2015, the room that he used to record his show at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in McKeesport was so small, “I almost had to sit on his lap.”
No more. Wednesday Tube City Community Media Inc. celebrated the opening of a new digital media and podcasting studio inside the former McKeesport Daily News Building in McKeesport. Plenty of room in that former storage closet now for interviews, several speakers said, plus new equipment in Studio B that will aid in many ways for its weekly podcast and support new ventures.
All this is possible, executive director Togyer said, because of a $25,000 grant from a Pennsylvania Department of Education Job Training and Education grant Brewster, D-McKeesport, and his staff helped secure for the nonprofit Togyer founded in 2012. The process took about 18 months, and in addition to equipment, money has been set aside for an outreach program to public and parochial high school students and university students to introduce them to radio and journalism. That couldn’t happen before with the 40- to 50-year-old equipment Tube City used for its internet broadcasts.
Brewster and other McKeesport and state officials gathered for a private event at the Tube City Center for Business & Education in downtown McKeesport. A public open house will be held later.
The internet radio shows and weekly podcast have been using Studio A, which has been built with donated and used equipment, Togyer said, “some of which is older than I am.” Although it is still operational, and will remain there for some time, it just wasn’t appropriate or the right fit to teach young people about radio and how to create radio programs.
Togyer said Brewster asked him several times if he “couldn’t do better” with the broadcast effort. And as with Tube City’s other journalism ventures, such as the Tube City Almanac the executive director created in 1996, he did with help from supporters and his 12-member board. For the past 12 months, the online site had 285,000 readers who viewed 6.5 million pages, with about 80% visiting more than one, according to a timeline provided at the event. The most popular features of the website are the news and obituaries.
The Tube City Almanac serves Duquesne, North Versailles, White Oak and adjoining areas in addition to McKeesport. Tube City Online Radio broadcasts community programs 24 hours daily and is available on most streaming services. In addition to Americana and folk music, rhythm and blues, easy-listening, big bands and other genres produced by 12 to 14 DJs, it also offers alternative rock music from independent artists overnight. The station carries hourly newscasts from U.S.-based Public News Services and U.K.-based Feature Story News. The past 12 months the station had more than 40,000 listeners, according to the timeline.
Tube City Online Radio provides programming to WRCT, CMU’s student radio program, as well as WEDO-AM and WZUM, a jazz-format station available online and via AM and FM radio. The latter two stations partner with Tube City Online Radio on its weekly 30-minute public affairs podcast, “Two Rivers, 30 Minutes.”
The new studio houses an archive of about 2,000 vinyl albums and 45 records, as well as books on the music industry, journalism, and radio and TV broadcasting. Another 10,000 digital music files are available online, Togyer said.
Money the nonprofit raises from grants and advertising pays its freelancers and contributors, covers web domain and music licensing fees and services, and charges associated with maintaining the building’s Wi-Fi and internet infrastructure.
Major donors include the G.C. Murphy Co. Foundation, the Flynn Family Foundation, Striffler Family Funeral Homes and Finney Funeral Homes. Tube City Community Media gets additional gifts from McKeesport-area community members.
Togyer said the idea to add internet radio to the journalistic work began when small radio stations in the area started to disappear, just like local newspapers. “We wanted to do something about that,” he told the audience. “We wanted to do something positive.”
Brewster recounted at the event how his office and the city worked to obtain the former Daily News building once Trib Total Media closed it, an effort that started when he served as McKeesport’s mayor. He said Togyer’s organization was one of the first tenants. The results have provided much needed news and information, which he said “has been very fair,” and a broadcasting source for McKeesport and Mon Valley residents.
Togyer presented a portable internet radio to Brewster in appreciation for his help in shepherding the grant, something he said the retiring state senator can use on his hunting and fishing trips.
The grant provided sufficient funds for a new network switch, a reliable and secure firewall, a mixing board, compressor, power supply, three new CD players, two new turntables, and new microphones and arms for them. Labor to construct the studio was donated.
Prior to starting the nonprofit, Togyer worked as a reporter for the Daily News at the start of his journalistic career, with stops at the Observer-Reporter in Washington, Pennsylvania, and the Beaver County Times before working in communications for the Mon Valley Initiative and Carnegie Mellon University. Togyer current full-time job is communications manager for the University of Pittsburgh Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
He said he is thankful to have been mentored by editors and longtime journalists at The Daily News, and the outreach project springs from the need to provide that guidance to young people who are unfamiliar with radio but intrigued by creating audio online and possibly pursuing it as a profession.
Togyer said money has been reserved for the student outreach program, which he plans to launch in the near future. Funds have also been set aside for the purchase of a small transmitter to erect on the building’s roof to add and improve over-the-air broadcasting. That in turn will widen its radio audience as people could tune in to the station via radios in their cars and homes, too.
“People in the Mon Valley don’t have good broadband [access],” he said, acknowledging that the cost can also be out of reach. “It’s the biggest issue.”
Helen is a copy editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but she's currently on strike. Contact her at hfallon@unionprogress.com.