WEEU’s Radio Revolution with John Treese

The sound of community is getting louder again. We sit down with WEEU owner John Treese to unpack how a 1931 AM station found fresh purpose with modern tech, live local programming, and an unapologetic focus on Berks County and the surrounding 16 counties their signal reaches. From the decisive frequency move to 830 AM and a 20,000-watt daytime boost to the nuts and bolts of licenses, towers, and engineering, John explains how coverage becomes connection only when you pair it with relevance.

We walk through the overhaul that made the station feel alive: renovated studios that inspire confidence on camera, expanded streaming, and a new video-forward approach to high school football and basketball. Sports serve as a bridge across neighborhoods and generations, supported by a lively scoreboard show featuring coaches, reporters, and standout athletes. The commitment to free, no-paywall content keeps access open for families, fans, and advertisers who want reach without friction. Along the way, we touch on the hardest challenge—bringing back local radio news in a world with fewer radio journalists—and the practical steps WEEU is taking through call-in forums and clear pointers to trustworthy sources.

John’s path from college radio to station ownership adds heart to the strategy. He argues that radio lost ground when it stopped talking to people like they mattered; WEEU’s answer is to open the doors wide. That means internships, school partnerships, student performances in-studio, and series like Outstanding Student that put young voices on air. It also means inviting new hosts to pitch ideas, test their talent, and help build a daily lineup that’s live and local from early mornings into drive time. If you care about local media, community sports, and hearing your neighbors on the mic, this conversation will remind you why radio still matters.

Follow WEEU at 830weeu.com and on Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok. If this story resonated, share it with a friend in Berks County, leave a review, and subscribe for more conversations that put local voices first.

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Welcome to The Brad Weisman Show, where we dive into the world of real estate, real life, and everything in between with your host, Brad Weisman! 🎙️ Join us for candid conversations, laughter, and a fresh take on the real world. Get ready to explore the ups and downs of life with a side of humor. From property to personality, we've got it all covered. Tune in, laugh along, and let's get real! 🏡🌟 #TheBradWeismanShow #RealEstateRealLife

Credits - The music for my podcast was written and performed by Jeff Miller.

Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Open And Local Guest Reveal
• 2:42 WEEU’s History And Power Upgrade
• 6:12 AM Signals, Engineering, And Coverage
• 11:07 Bankruptcy, Ownership Shift, And Opportunity
• 16:02 From Radio Fan To Radio Owner
• 20:32 Live Shifts, Early Career, And Radio’s Magic
• 26:03 Tech Overhauls And Adding Video
• 30:28 Why Local Matters And Opening The Doors
• 35:08 The Vanishing Radio Journalist Problem

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:26

From real estate. The market as a whole sometimes will affect the right in the real life. We all learn in the movies. If you think about it, Wayne Dyer might not attract everyone. And everyone in between.

SPEAKER_00: 0:43

The Brad Wiseman show. And now your host, Brad Wiseman.

SPEAKER_01: 0:49

All right. Here we go.

SPEAKER_05: 0:50

Hello, baby.

SPEAKER_01: 0:51

Another Thursday.

SPEAKER_05: 0:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 0:53

It's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_05: 0:54

Back like the Terminator.

SPEAKER_01: 0:56

Yeah, yeah. I'll be back. Is that what that meant? Black Like the Terminator. Yeah, back like the. That was good. I got that right away. Sometimes I don't get your jokes. And not that they're not good. I just don't understand them.

SPEAKER_05: 1:07

Mexican humor, baby.

SPEAKER_01: 1:09

No, that's funny. So you know what, you know, we don't always do local, um, but today we're gonna be with a local guest here, and I'm really excited about it because we've been talking to him and his wife uh for quite some time, and we're finally gonna sit down. Uh, you probably know this. If you're local, you've heard of the station WEEU. Uh, it's been around forever, and we'll find out how long it's been around in a couple of seconds here. But uh, there's new ownership there, new management, new ownership, and it's John Triese and his wife Christine, and they were crazy enough to buy a radio station, but we're gonna find out that it's gone pretty well, and I think it's gonna do very well because we got some great people that are running it now. So without any more delay, John, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_03: 1:53

I'm great. And I appreciate you taking the time to sit down and invite me into the studio here. This is pretty nice. Thank you. I'm almost I'm jealous, actually. I'm gonna say almost. This is really good.

SPEAKER_01: 2:04

It's cozy. But you guys, hey, I've seen your new digs. And I I've been following you guys on on Instagram and stuff like that. And I have to say, you guys did a nice job. I appreciate it. It really needed it.

SPEAKER_03: 2:15

It was a lot of work.

SPEAKER_01: 2:17

Yeah, a ton of work. I'm sure it was. And uh yeah, and let's just dig into that. I mean, you know, WEEU has been around for how long?

SPEAKER_03: 2:25

Since uh I believe 1931.

SPEAKER_01: 2:27

1931.

SPEAKER_03: 2:28

So it is it is one of the older radio stations in Pennsylvania. Um but not the oldest.

SPEAKER_01: 2:33

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 2:34

Uh also not the oldest in Reading, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_01: 2:36

Wow. Yeah. WREW maybe? I was gonna say that's what I thought. Yeah, yeah, WREW up there in the hill. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:43

But WEEU started from you know small power. Yeah. There's a whole story there. But w the thing that attracted Christine and I and myself to it is that this is a station that is one of the more powerful stations in the state of Pennsylvania. It's it's got a massive station.

SPEAKER_01: 2:58

Now, when you say that, like that why why is that? Like, how does that work? Do you have equipment that makes it powerful? Is it because of the location? Is it because of the hills?

SPEAKER_03: 3:06

Well, uh just down the street from here, yeah, there's broadcasting square. Yes. And that used to be the transmitter cycle. I remember that. Yeah, for targetists and I forget how many towers there were that. There was a bunch there. There's a map in the basement that we found of the old of the old site that has the towers on it. But it it it was there, and I think it was 5,000 watts during the day. It was either five or one, but anyway, it was a small power. When they sold the property, they moved it out uh by Interstate 78 in Charlesville. Oh, yeah. That's where our towers are now. Didn't know that. Yeah, so it's a heck of a drive. I'll say that. You have to go out there and do something. But what it gave them the opportunity to do is uh take a look at the the signal and how much more power they could increase by manipulating where the signal went, what frequency it was on. If you remember, it was on 850 for a while. Yes. And then it switched to 830. The place 830 on the dial gave them the space they needed to increase power. Now we're 20,000 watts day with with a very unique night signal, which is 6,000 watts at night. And what that means is 20,000 watts lets us touch about 16 counties in the state of Pennsylvania, Eastern PA during the day. And at night we are well into Philadelphia, uh, you know, uh Schuylkill County, toward the Lehigh Valley.

SPEAKER_01: 4:18

What's the difference between day and night?

SPEAKER_03: 4:20

It's it's the way the AM frequency uh works in the atmosphere. So during the day, uh you're it the the the signal doesn't travel as far with the power. Okay. But at night, uh I think it's the called the ionosphere. I'm sorry for and engineers out there. You can tell me it was because of so mad at me for more.

SPEAKER_01: 4:36

You can tell me it's because of Mickey Mouse, I wouldn't know the difference.

SPEAKER_03: 4:39

But at night, the ionosphere will take the signal and it just carries it forever. So you have to you know you have to limit it. And then other stations are uh they're they're given uh the right to broadcast at certain powers.

SPEAKER_01: 4:54

So you So you can't just you can't just go out there and say, okay, we're gonna send it as far as we can. No, no, you can't have certain geographic area.

SPEAKER_03: 5:01

It's it's engineered. Engineers who are much brighter than I am take a look at the signal, and then they have to engineer how the towers will reflect the power of the of the broadcast and how it's going to interfere with a station in Cleveland versus a station in you know Delaware versus a station in New England that has the power. So you can't step on somebody else's signal. But that's where you know you get license for that, and there's studies that are done before licensing is goes into place. But when they did the uh you know the move, yeah, they got this massive power increase and made it a very wow, I I in my opinion, a very viable radio station.

SPEAKER_01: 5:36

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03: 5:36

Even being on AM today in you know 2025.

SPEAKER_01: 5:40

Yeah. But you but you're obviously you're throwing the net out further. You you absolutely so when it comes to marketing and stuff like that for you guys, you can say, hey, by the way, we're not just reading here. We're we're we're out beyond reading. We're Berks County, we're getting a little bit into maybe School County and Lancaster. I mean, I don't know where it goes, but that's incredible. Never knew that.

SPEAKER_03: 5:57

No, I mean I can s I can sit at the Philadelphia International Airport and still here. And and it's like a local signal down there, which is pretty amazing. That is pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_01: 6:05

That's awesome. Very cool. Very cool. So, yes, so you obviously you know about a little bit about radio. It used to be owned by was it Rennie Eagle used to own it for. For many decades. Many decades they owned it. And then it then it got bought out. I knew they weren't doing that well for a little bit.

SPEAKER_03: 6:19

Well, the the the paper went under.

SPEAKER_01: 6:21

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 6:22

So during that bankruptcy, all the assets had to be sold off.

SPEAKER_01: 6:24

It's gone.

SPEAKER_03: 6:25

And EEU was one of those.

SPEAKER_01: 6:26

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 6:27

And it went to bankruptcy auction. There was a a time where it was.

SPEAKER_01: 6:30

And nobody wanted it, right?

SPEAKER_03: 6:32

Well, people wanted it, but it's yeah, for the price. But yeah, and yeah, I mean, it it's weird because the radio station is like multiple things. So there's property, there's a license, there's the physical assets, there's all of these things that go with it. So I think at the bankruptcy auction, the thing that was up for auction was a license. But if you buy the license, now, you know, I mean, if you don't get the tower site, if you don't get the studios, how are you doing it? Yeah, you're not doing anything. And to rebuild that facility that's out in at in Charlesville, it's nearly impossible. The fiscally, nobody's gonna do it. It doesn't make any sense today.

SPEAKER_01: 7:07

That's that's amazing. So so then it went to another company um after that. And then somehow, how did you guys find out about this? Did you always want a radio station? So I I don't know if does anybody grow up going, I want to buy a radio station? I mean, nobody ever says they want to be a realtor either, just so you know, and then all of a sudden it happens.

SPEAKER_03: 7:25

I think I think people grow people used to grow up saying, I want to be in radio. Um I do. I think people still do. Yes, of course. And I was one of them. I grew up listening to radio. I was a big music radio fan. That's where I discovered I I was I was big into oldies, if you really want to know. So, like the um, you know, I I there were a lot of programs on in the in the late 90s that did a lot of like uh like deep dive kind of stuff. And they would bring out the you know, the the near misses, the the bubbling under hits, and it was a lot of great music that you just didn't hear. The B side. Yeah, and it was it was good stuff that you didn't hear on the mainstream formats of these oldie stations at the time. And the guys who would present this, and there I have a couple that were, you know, uh big influences in my life, but they were uh very knowledgeable. Yeah. And they would tell great stories about the music, great stories about the song, and introduce you to, you know, not just throwing any record on there. It's it's there because it's good for a reason.

SPEAKER_01: 8:19

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 8:20

And you know, it's gives it a story as opposed to and it introduced me to a lot of things that I never would have been introduced to, but it radio became appointment listening because of that. Yeah, and there were a lot of shows that every single week I was tuning into, you know, we you couldn't miss it. I would drive around when I was in high school, and I would even bring my friends with me. There was a station in like in Berwick, PA. And it was one of these shows was on. The uh the host is since passed. Um, but it was every Sunday night from five o'clock till nine, I would get in the car and we would drive around and listen to this program. Because it was stronger in an area, so we'd head toward there. You would drive up there. Yeah. It was like a road trip and we're hanging out.

SPEAKER_01: 8:57

A lot of people did that years ago.

SPEAKER_03: 8:58

But it's but it's the but it that's that's radio. Yeah, and it was it was just something that was so powerful and yeah, and then it gets in your glove. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 9:05

And then you want to do it. And then so, okay, so how did you get from that to you and your wife purchasing a radio station?

SPEAKER_03: 9:12

Well, I went into radio.

SPEAKER_01: 9:13

You did, so you were in radio.

SPEAKER_03: 9:15

So uh in college, uh I was all I always loved radio, so I wanted to be involved. So I got involved at the college radio station, Elizabeth Town College's WWE C. Right, right. Um, but uh I ended up becoming the station manager. I was not a com major, I was a political science major. Okay. And but I loved radio, so I knew a lot. I taught myself a lot, so there was a lot that I could bring to the table, so they made me station manager, and I did that for a while. Um, and then one day I saw there's like a job post, a part-time job post on the wall from one of the real FM stations in town.

SPEAKER_01: 9:48

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_03: 9:49

And uh it was Warm 103 in York. And you know, we're not that far from York at the time, but I remember as a kid, that was one of the stations that one of the shows we listened to. I would we would tune it in. I'm driving around with my mom, and I would remember listening to this show on Warm 103, and I figured, well, you know, I'm gonna apply and see what happens, not thinking anything of it. Yeah, sure enough, I get a call from the PD, I get to go down and meet him, see this, see this radio station, and I've driven by it a million times, and it was just this dream come true. Oh, yeah. But then they actually hired me. And and and I didn't even know what to I didn't know. So now you're like, oh no. Well, yeah, well, absolutely I'm owned now. Yeah. So and and I and this is back in the day where and radios changed a lot. You know, back then the Then you have the carts and stuff. Did you have the I didn't have carts, but we were we were playing CDs. There were still carts in the building. Yeah. But uh, you know, we still had we had CDs, the music was on CD, commercials were on the computer. Um, but it's it, you know, it's one of those things where um yeah, what I was saying, uh this is what I was saying. The uh uh radios changed because it was at the time when everything was staffed. Yeah, so I got the overnight shift on the weekends. Yeah, so I was 12 a.m. to like 6 a.m. Saturday and Saturday morning and Sunday morning. All my friends are out partying and stuff. I'm playing the best variety of soft rock. Uh cool. Trying to stay awake.

SPEAKER_01: 11:06

Yeah, that's tough.

SPEAKER_03: 11:07

Um, but standing in front of that microphone for the first time, realizing that this massive signal, I'm in charge of it. And people are out there listening, and it it's you know, even though it is the overnight, people are consuming it. Yeah, and the phones would ring and all this stuff. But it was it was one of those things where you know, I would uh stand outside of the radio station after the shift was over and say, like, I cannot believe I'm getting paid to do this.

SPEAKER_01: 11:28

Oh, because it's so much fun.

SPEAKER_03: 11:29

So because it's so much fun. And you just I've never lost that. So you know, I worked there for a number of years and never got out of radio. Uh helped out with some local stations in Montgomery County and just stayed involved. I've done you know some internet stuff just uh, you know, on a hobby side, but uh in I ended up getting into software as a real profession. Oh wow. Um and then working for some startups, we've you know, went through a couple of cycles of these startups. Our last one was coming to an end, and it was time for us to decide what our next step was going to be. And Christine and I both have an entrepreneurial sp spirit. Yeah. I've always been interested, and I'm always looking to see if there's something available that somebody's going to sell. And WBEU just happened to come on the market. Uh the the owner of Twilight Broadcasting at the time was uh pretty much divesting of all their radio holdings. And that was the last one. Looked into it, it's it was still on the air, it still had a loyal following, it still had base billing, and uh it still owned its property. So it was it was this it kind of lined up as a perfect storm, and it was like, okay, well, if we're gonna give this a shot, this is this is the time. This this is the one that would give us the best opportunity. We're not building it from the ground up. We have to fix it, yeah, but we're not building it from the ground up, which is which was uh uh great.

SPEAKER_01: 12:46

Yeah, that's awesome. No, and like I said, uh it's from the pictures and everything, and what you guys are doing. I can just tell by the outreach, can tell by there's new material, there's new people, there's there's still some people that were there before too, which is cool. Um, but it it's you know, it's kind of like you're you're reinventing it. You know, and I think you have to. I mean, like we were talking about a little bit before we went on, is how podcasting, which we're doing right now, you know, has become a different has not a not competition, if I want to, it's not really that. It's just it's another avenue for something for somebody to listen to to get their information. Um, but then you know, when you look at the two things, they're saying for the future, they're gonna kind of have to mat become married in a way. Because I know you guys are doing a lot of streaming. Yeah, you're doing streaming and a lot of the shows are now our podcasts. I you can't every show. Every show is a podcast, right? So I think that's something that I think because you guys took over, I don't think that would have happened.

SPEAKER_03: 13:39

They would do they were doing some of that. Some of that, yeah. But um, where we've changed things, uh, I I think we've made the biggest change is in how we've incorporated video into like our sports broadcasting. That has been a big change. Um really the the equipment updates at the station were the biggest thing. The technological upgrades, it was it was very old and and it it needed a lot of help.

SPEAKER_01: 14:04

I was in there uh on Mike Faust's show. Okay, on feedback way back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. On feedback with Mike Faust. And it was right before he retired, actually. I was one of the last one of the last times I was on there was with him, and and it was amazing how the I remember going in there going, Whoa, this stuff's falling apart. You know, it was it was definitely like some old equipment in there. But it was still working, but you know, it it's it looked it, you know. So when you're doing video and something looks like it's ancient, it tends to not be good.

SPEAKER_03: 14:30

Well, and also with you know, in any business, it's you know, you're in you're in real estate. Yeah. So if you are bringing a client and you're and you're and you're bringing a client in to do paperwork or whatever, and they you bring them into a place that is not presentable, I don't know that they get a lot of confidence in you when you do it. So true, yeah. And that's the same thing here, too. So we have everybody in and that's the point of what we're doing. We it's local radio, and it's very different from what you have uh what the industry has become. It's become very nationalized, very homogenized. Yeah. You have a lot of up stuff a lot of radio stations, but not a lot of local people anymore. And uh things are operated from states far, far away and programmed. They don't know anything about the market.

SPEAKER_01: 15:10

They don't know anything about the market or the people in the community.

SPEAKER_03: 15:13

No, and they're not they're not doing anything to provide an opportunity for the community to have a voice. And that's where our vision for WEU is, is we want those doors open. We want to provide a forum, we want to provide a platform for Reading, the Greater Berks area, and everybody under our coverage map. Like I'd you know, love to have you know Montgomery County and uh Chester County and you know Schuylkill and get all of these areas involved. And we've you know branched out to that, but you know, we provide that voice. And when you have senators and state representatives and business leaders and potential clients, our clients, coming through the door, you have to have a presentable place that not only they will look at with you know a sense of confidence, but you can also walk through it with a level of pride. And I think that we've and I appreciate you saying nice things about it, but we've you know, I feel like we've after it was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, but we've gotten to a point where WEEU is it it is a it's it's a gem in Reading now again. Good.

SPEAKER_01: 16:11

That's good to hear. That's really good to hear because I would when it was when there was talks of it not being around anymore, it was kind of sad. You know, it was because it's like a staple of of of Berks County. And and I remember my grandpa, I mean being in my grandfather's car and drive it around and he'd have that on. Yeah. I mean, it was on the radio all the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 16:28

It's it's whether it's local news, which is you know one of the things that we would love to get back to. Yeah. It's hard. It's hard, yeah. It's hard now. It's you know what makes it hard? They don't radio news people aren't being made anymore. Everybody is a uh uh an Instagram or social media journalist, or they're a podcaster, or something in the in the or they want to be in TV. Journalists say they the the aspiration is to be in television. Nobody wants to be a radio, uh, a radio journalist anymore. So to find somebody who's going to say, like, you know, I'm really excited to get out to that school board meeting, yeah, and I want to go to the county commissioner meeting and I want to report on this thing that happened downtown and do this, you know, on the radio every single day. They just don't make them anymore. So it gets hard to find them. And it yeah, that's that's one of the biggest challenges.

SPEAKER_01: 17:19

Yeah, it is a challenge. It's and I think every and we're so used to just getting it online too the next day. Because all the townships now, they publicize all everything online. Sure. You know, which they have to, it's part of public public knowledge and stuff. But you're right, I never thought about it that way. It's interesting.

SPEAKER_03: 17:33

But if you're and and the beautiful the the th the thing about radio that I love, it's the the immediacy of it. Yeah, and and you have the immediacy in social media and you get your feed, your feed is as quick as anything else can be. Your feed is also full of a bunch of garbage. And it's always full of a bunch of garbage. With radio though, if you know we are presenting quality programming that you're engaged with anyway, and you you're there for a reason. Hopefully, you you you know, with that audience continues to grow. But if we're able to uh you know funnel that information into bite-sized pieces, that you're able to get enough information so you know what's going on, and if you need more information on it, point you to the sources to get it. That's that to me is the success of doing local radio news. And at some point we're gonna get back to that. That's you know, that's right there on our target list. But um you've got to find the right people and the yeah make it make it happen.

SPEAKER_01: 18:27

That's interesting. Yeah, and and and that's one of the things that's funny when I was looking on your guys, you know, because I'm in the podcast world, I was kind of looking to see what AI had to say about the differences between podcasts and radio. And it was saying, it was funny as it talks about, you know, in podcasting, we don't typically we're not live anymore. We were. I mean, when we first started the show, we were live. That got to be real a big a big pain in the butt because the guests didn't show up on time, and then you tried to be live. It was uh it was it was rough.

SPEAKER_03: 18:54

Welcome to the heart world. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01: 18:56

So yeah, so no, it was live, it was live. Um, and then we decided obviously go to being recorded. And and I think our audience has picked up on that. That's we try not to to do dates and stuff like that, but you know, we we try to keep it that way. But right. Yeah, so going live is one thing. Weather, things like that that we just don't have. And and and current events, things are going up right now, you know, that or today. Uh also, you guys still do what do you still do the call, like people can call in and talk while you're while you're on on the show. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03: 19:23

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 19:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 19:24

What one of the things in in my time growing up that really got me hooked on the importance of radio was you were you remember the 1972 flood? I mean, you're you're I was two years old.

SPEAKER_01: 19:34

You were you were young. I'm 55.

SPEAKER_03: 19:36

I wasn't there.

SPEAKER_01: 19:37

Yeah, I figured you weren't. Thanks a lot for bringing that up. But I was the guest is trying to say he's younger than me, which is fine. No, no, I was seven, I was 72. I was two years old, but my my I was 72. I look really good. Um, but no, yeah, my my mother had been through it, and her parents lived on Minor Street in Reading.

SPEAKER_03: 19:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 19:56

And the water was up to the second second floor.

SPEAKER_03: 19:59

It was it was something else. And I grew up in Sealins Grove. Oh, yeah. Sunbury Sunbury, and in Susquehanna River, the two branches connect there.

SPEAKER_01: 20:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_03: 20:07

And it was uh big like the flooding was just ridiculous up there. And uh one of the stations, and I used to work for them, WKOK in Sunbury, they it to me, this was like one of the most incredible stories is that and to show the importance of radio, especially at the time, you have all these people who are cut off from the world. You know, the floods happening, communications are down, there's no cell phones or internet or anything like that. But um, you have all these people who have been displaced. And the radio station was in the flood area, so they sprung into action, they went into like an emergency emergency broadcast uh uh formation, if you want to call it that, but they went up to the transmitter site, which was on a mountain or on a hill, and sent a couple people up there. And what they did for hours, they had like one reel-to-reel tape because one deck, just to give them a break, but they were just taking calls, and people would call. I'm you know, I'm here. Um, if my family's looking for me, I'm safe, I'm here, or this person has an extra room available if you need this. This is over here, you know, and and it was the the power of that lifeline that radio provided. I there I have the audio tapes of it, and it's just it it gives it gave me chills. That's cool. But it's but to me, that's the importance of radio. And that's the thing that I think really differentiates what radio can be versus you know the you know the podcasting platforms and some of the other stuff that you're doing. Because, you know, with like feedback, for example, when something happens, now there's a forum for people to call in and ask questions call in and talk. And if they need to get something off their chest, you know, within reason, they get their thing, get things off their chest. But it's a great way to get uh you know, have a litmus test of what's going on in the area and see what people are actually thinking.

SPEAKER_01: 22:16

I agree. It's cool. No, it's it's uh I like that. That's what I like about the talk radio platform. Um so what's your so what's your vision? I mean, you guys have been doing this for how long?

SPEAKER_03: 22:25

Uh since February of 2024. So you're we're pushing two years.

SPEAKER_01: 22:29

Yeah. Wow, that's great. So what what's what's your vision? Like what what do you what are some of the things you're like, man, we want to do this, implement different things. I mean, I know you've been implementing a lot of things. You said something about a a new afternoon show possibly coming up, I think is what some you had somebody written on here.

SPEAKER_03: 22:44

Yeah, we're in the process of the the what we're really the the end game of what we're trying to do is provide local content and as much of it as we can possibly do. And right now we're we're live with mornings with Mike from six until ten, uh six until nine, and very popular. He has a great following and he's been doing it for a long time. He's a staple.

SPEAKER_02: 23:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 23:01

We have feedback, which has been on since forever. Jack Holcomb was a was the feedback. That's what my grandfather was. And Mike Faust there. Now Bill Saunders has been on for over four years now, and um in everyone, every one of those incarnations had its own different flavor, but it's feedback is a very popular program. We had a great ratings book this last uh this last uh uh it was this spring book. Um very popular. But it's it's all about local content. We uh tried something in the afternoon that didn't work, and now we're in the process of workshopping a new program because we need another bookend for for our local programming. So if we can get from 6A until 6P and have the majority of that be live local, produced right here in Reading, then we're we're in a great spot. That's awesome. We we've added a lot of other programming too, including some uh, you know, we talked about sports and um we all WEU's for the longest time has had a very robust and very high quality sports program, yeah, local high school football and basketball. And uh we've taken it to another level by adding video coverage to all of the games that we do. So not only do you get to hear Bob McCool, uh, you know, sports or Berks County Sports Hall of Famer, Bob McCool do his call do his calls, and uh he he does a fan. If you haven't heard him, you you gotta uh tune it in. He does a great job and really honor to these kids.

SPEAKER_01: 24:19

That's an art, man. It's art. When I listen to the sports casters, I always think, how in the world do they have all that information in their heads and and pull it out when they need it? Like they I just don't understand.

SPEAKER_03: 24:30

It is a skill that I do not possess.

SPEAKER_01: 24:32

Neither do I.

SPEAKER_03: 24:33

And the amount of respect that I have for Bob for being able to do well, and it's one thing, because you have you know to get off on the tent, right? Meryl Reese, for example, follows the Eagles and he's got a lot of stats on the Eagles, and he does his research on you know the other team, and he'll know what's going on there. For Bob, it's a different pair every single week. We're not following one, it's because we you know we have 16 counties to cover. We're trying to cover Burks as best we can. So we do our game of the week, but he's covering different teams every single week. He must love it though.

SPEAKER_01: 25:01

He has to have a passion. He lives and breathes it. Because you there's no way like I can talk about real estate pretty much all day. Sure. Because I've done it for 33 years, but it's the same kind of thing. Like, you know, when you know your your topic, but I still look at that with sports, and I just like it blows my mind.

SPEAKER_03: 25:16

Yeah, I don't know how he does it. Blows my mind. It's incredible. So being able to bring the video to that and from a from a an advertiser support advertiser-supported perspective, it gives everybody an opportunity to consume it. There's no subscription, it's all free, everything is accessible. And that's the other thing about radio is that it is free. Any everybody can consume it. Anyone, there's no restrictions. And you know, with our everything that we add beyond this, the podcast, the video content, whatever, it's the whole point is to make it available. And there's never no paywalls, none of that kind of stuff, no, you know, passwords to log into, any of that kind of stuff. But that that was a big thing. Um, we brought in a sports director who used to work with me in Lansdale at a radio station, and he brought on uh an extension of sports after our game. We do a scoreboard show where he talks to writers and reporters, and he brings in coaches and athletic directors, and it's it's a uh uh Friday night recap of everything that's happened, not only just in Berks County and the Lancashire Lebanon League, but he goes beyond that. He goes, he's talking to people in York County, he's talking to Harrisburg, he's Shimokin is having a fantastic. Shimokin' season. Haven't heard that word for a while. And he's talking about that because it makes it makes a difference in the in the world of state sports, he's bringing it all in. And it's a very fun, laid-back, and very informative program that's brand new to WEEU. Um, you know, there's people we have a show on dirt track racing that's different. It's the only one. And uh again, it's you know, covering some of the local tracks here locally, and as that is growing, it continues to expand too. So it's about finding these, you know, the the content that's not available and giving it a platform and expanding on it as much as we possibly can.

SPEAKER_01: 26:57

So what about a real estate show? I mean, come on, you've got to get a real estate show going.

SPEAKER_03: 27:01

Uh you have my phone number, right?

SPEAKER_04: 27:04

I can get you a phone.

SPEAKER_01: 27:05

So we've talked about that might happen at some point.

SPEAKER_05: 27:08

I have a question. If there's someone out there listening or watching to uh to this and they think they got the talent, they feel passionate about talking, and they want to test their hands or get your feedback on uh how they do on radio, being a radio host. Like you say that they don't make them anymore, you're not they're not popping up. How can they do that? Like an audition. You mean like an audition?

SPEAKER_03: 27:36

To be uh you can always reach out. I mean, our door is always open. It's a matter, you know, we're we're we're curious. And we and that's a that's a nice thing too, is uh as I say that they don't make them anymore. They they make people who really want to be in radio. We have we have we have there's a there's at least two Gen Zers on our on our staff right now, and they're fantastic people. And they all came in with this passion and love for what they do, and it's in radio. And you if you told me that there was gonna be somebody who was born after the year 2000 and 2000 that would want to be in radio, I would have told you you're out of out of this world, but but they're they're here. And the flow of people from Alvernia that have come through, the the the tours that we do, everybody looks at this and they're like they've never seen it. They have in many in many cases, the younger people don't even know it exists, so that when they find out that it's there, they're like, wow, wait, wait, how do I how can I be involved? Like, can I, you know, what can I do? And you know, we've have great internship programs for that. Um, you know, we've hired people out of our internship programs, and you know, it's you know please come and see us because we'd love to talk to you.

SPEAKER_01: 28:42

Our kids probably kids probably have no idea. Like, I gotta tell you that Catherine Carson, do you have any clue what a radio station is? I'm serious because everything's on sat, everything's satellite, everything's XM Series XM. So you you start to think like I don't think they even know. I think they actually learned when I I bought an I got an old radio from a house that I was um gonna sell and I had it refurbished. And the only station it gets is WEU and Wild or Two. Okay, that's it. Two big powerful stations. Right, and that's all it gets. But when I'm sitting there tuning it in and it's going all that stuff, they're looking at me like, why don't you just push the button and get it to go on there? Because that's not how it works. That's not how it works. But it's pretty neat, but it's it's yeah, those signals are strong. I can listen to both of those on this old oh, it's like 1940s.

SPEAKER_03: 29:28

It's amazing. Yeah, it is pretty cool. But it's cool. But that's cool to you.

SPEAKER_01: 29:31

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03: 29:32

But you but here's the thing though, and and this is this is my belief why the younger generations have gotten away from radio is it really isn't relevant. Yeah, it has stopped being relevant. And I mean, I can speak from personal experience is that once music radio stopped talking to me, I mean I well, I don't have any use for it.

SPEAKER_02: 29:49

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03: 29:50

So if you're you know playing me the same 15 songs over and over and over again, I'm in I'm living in a world where I can get whatever I want whenever I want it. Why do I need your silly playlist? Well, you know, why you speel requests.

SPEAKER_01: 30:01

Remember, you spell request songs. Right. And that went away. That went away.

SPEAKER_03: 30:05

So so because it's not relevant, there's no personality there anymore. You you've you've had a whole generation that has moved away from it and have have accepted other things to find that content.

SPEAKER_01: 30:16

Which is podcasting. Podcasting. Podcasting, uh, social media, all these things. But the pendulum swings.

SPEAKER_03: 30:22

It does swing.

SPEAKER_01: 30:23

It swings.

SPEAKER_03: 30:23

And that's the thing that we are trying to bring back. Yeah. And that's what we're trying to trying to capitalize on. But you need to let people know and you need to let them know it's there, but you have to give them a r uh a reason why it's relevant to them. And that's the the one of the reasons people ask why we would spend so much time in sports. Sports connects everybody.

SPEAKER_01: 30:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 30:41

Sports typically isn't divisive. Sports is, you know, it tells Unless it's Eagles in Dallas. Well, there you go. In our world here, in our world, we all agree. For the most part, pretty much throughout the year. Is that Maggie? One of our Gen Zeers, Maggie May, is a big Dallas fan.

SPEAKER_01: 30:58

Oh, okay. Cool figure. So she gets a lot of things. Wait, Maggie May? Maggie May. Maggie May. Okay. I'm just thinking of Maggie. Just like the Rod Stewart's. Well, it's funny. Yeah, it's a great song. I'm just thinking of Maggie Ma. We had her in here. She played acoustic guitar and we're singing. So she's really cool. Different person. Yeah, different person. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 31:12

But but with sports is when we are at these games and we're doing the interviews, we're we're we're a legitimate part of the media. And when somebody comes up to you with a WEU mic flag and a WEU shirt on, they've been calling your game. It's been, you know, we we were at your practice, we were, you know, sharing content with you on social media, and there you are, your you know, quarterback or whoever, your player of the game, or your coach is being interviewed, or we're bringing you into the studio for the slice of sports program as part of your team to talk about being an athlete and stuff. Now it's relevant. Now it's something that is is is important to you, is important to your friends, is important to your family, and it's only available there.

SPEAKER_02: 31:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 31:52

And that's what makes it special, and that's what makes it click. The more of that we do, the more younger people are gonna realize hey, there is something here and give us a tr give us a shot. And I I mean, you're you listen to talk radio. Yeah, I inch I got myself introduced to talk radio and fell in love with it. Yeah, and I didn't didn't listen to talk radio before. Um, but once I once I discovered it and I found the things I liked, I was hooked.

SPEAKER_01: 32:16

Yeah, it's it's that's all you need, though. Yeah, I absolutely, especially for local content. You're always thinking of something you could do too for the schools. I don't know why I'm always I'm always thinking like outside the box with different things, but you talk about sports. What about going into the schools when they have their shows, like their musicals, and afterwards actually interviewing them?

SPEAKER_03: 32:30

Oh, we've been talking about the show.

SPEAKER_01: 32:31

The stars of the stars of the shows. No, we've we've been we've been talking about doing uh to bring in another element of school because sports is great, but there's a lot of kids that don't do sports. And when we first took a lot I'm thinking about myself, I was the drama, I'm more music drama, whatever that's like our building is full of them.

SPEAKER_03: 32:48

Mike Keller was a drama kid, my wife was a drama kid. So and Jeff Nolan, our sports director of all things, was a drama kid. That's cool. But um, one of the things we did is uh one of the early things we did when we took over was we put together the WEU Outstanding Student Campaign.

SPEAKER_02: 33:02

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_03: 33:03

And what we reached out to as many school districts as would listen to us and uh had them nominate somebody to be an outstanding student. We had, I think, two students from a variety of school districts of people who responded and did vignettes on them. And there were there were profiles. We interviewed them, had their pictures, it was it was a social media, it was a radio, it was a website campaign. Cool. And the next year around, people were the school districts were asking us and wanting to be involved in it again.

SPEAKER_01: 33:32

So we're absolutely that's good with the schools, that's good, great stuff, yeah. Because that's what's gonna bring the younger people in. Yeah, yeah, it's gonna bring them in. That's awesome. Really?

SPEAKER_03: 33:39

Well, it has to and you know, and I g you talk about being the I talk about being the loc local forum. You know, Mike uh on the morning show has had multiple music, musical uh troops, I want to call it. I don't know. What I don't know, like I don't know. The school districts have put on these musicals.

SPEAKER_01: 33:58

Musicians.

SPEAKER_03: 33:59

Uh but no, he they've had you know people put on musicals. He has the the the the school musical group come in and they will talk about, you know, the director will talk and then they'll talk about their show. That's great. And then they'll even perform one of the whatever number they want to perform from the show live on the radio. And but again, you're bringing you know 15 something. I've seen that studio packed with like 20 kids all singing around the microphones. And they all they all love it.

SPEAKER_01: 34:27

Yeah, all love it. That's good. I love bringing the young people in. That's great. If before we wrap this up, tell me what do you want people to know about WEEU and what you guys are doing? And and you know, maybe just to tell the audience, you know, what you're doing, uh, how you can get involved with WU, how we listen, uh, how we get in touch with you guys in case somebody has an idea or is in wants to get involved with the station in some way. How do we do all that?

SPEAKER_03: 34:49

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, check out our website, 830we.com. Where follow us on all of our social media. It's Facebook, Instagram, we're on Xbox. We're on TikTok.

SPEAKER_01: 35:00

Would you believe that? I just got back on TikTok. I just got back on it because I heard we're gonna be buying it. So you're gonna be allowed to do it again. So I just I got out of it because once they said that it wasn't gonna be around, I'm like, why am I putting all this time into this? So this morning I started my TikTok again for the Brad Wiseman show. We're back on.

SPEAKER_03: 35:16

Well, and you can follow WEU. Yeah, absolutely. I will.

SPEAKER_01: 35:18

I think I already did, actually.

SPEAKER_03: 35:19

I know you did. Yeah, I thought I'd appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, Brad.

SPEAKER_01: 35:23

And your Instagram page is awesome too. You guys you guys are doing a great job with content on there.

SPEAKER_03: 35:27

We've uh just completely reinvented that. So uh, but check it out if you haven't seen it. Please do. We'd we'd appreciate that. Um, but uh it find out everything that we're doing. It's not there's always a misconception of what AM radio is. Yeah. The thing I could say is give us a shot, give us a listen, and I guarantee you you're gonna find something that's unique, that's different, and it's something that um will likely get you hooked.

SPEAKER_01: 35:52

Yeah. So that's what I'm hoping. Yeah, that's what I'm hoping. And you know what? I can tell you have a lot of passion for what you're doing. You really do. You're excited about what you're doing, you have a lot of passion for it, and I think that's what's gonna take the station to the next step. I think that's what's gonna reinvent it because you you you have that energy to want to do that, and I think it's really cool. So I'm I'm excited about seeing where you guys go.

SPEAKER_03: 36:12

Well, we can't do it without community support. So again, a great audience here in Reading. Yep, great community. Burks County, what a great place.

SPEAKER_01: 36:19

Check out their marketing, get on their station, do some marketing through there because I know people are listening to it. So it's a good thing. It's awesome. All right, there you go. John Trees, um, WEU, the voice of Burks and Beyond, I guess is what it says on the website. That's right. Um, no, but that's just good stuff. So please support the station. They are doing all kinds of good stuff. They're they're making it happen again here in Reading, which we're really excited about. So that's about it. Thanks for joining us every Thursday at 7 p.m. All right, see you later.