More Power to You: Midwest NCSY Radio Hour to Move to 5,000 Watt Station in June

14 May 2007

MORE POWER TO YOU: MIDWEST NCSY RADIO HOUR TO MOVE TO 5,000-WATT STATION IN JUNE, INCREASING ITS RANGE BEYOND CURRENT 1,000-WATT LIMITS

It won’t be necessary to keep your ear so close to the radio anymore in the Chicago area to hear the Midwest NCSY Radio Hour, which since the beginning of the year has been building an audience on 1,000-watt WEEF, 1430-AM. Effective in June, the program will be moving to WEEF’S 5,000-watt sister station WKTA, 1330-AM, which will increase its range considerably, with a signal extending into Wisconsin to the north, beyond Elgin toward DeKalb to the west, to Joliet in the south, and eastward across Lake Michigan to Western Indiana and Michigan.

Did someone say, “Bigger audience?”

The show airs Sundays from 4:00-5:00 p.m. and is hosted by Moshe Isenberg, Associate Regional Director of Midwest NCSY, who brings a broadcast-quality voice and a smooth manner behind the microphone to the show. The program, featuring music, interviews, and a bit of Torah study, is a production of the Midwest Region of NCSY, the Orthodox Union’s national youth program.

Both WEEF and WKTA are owned by Polnet Communications.

“I explained to the company that we were growing and needed a larger station in order to reach more people who wanted to listen,” said Moshe Isenberg. “I think they did a little research themselves as well, and they gave us the same time slot, the same day, the same price ($150 a week) on a much more powerful station.”

Interestingly enough, the program was born through appearances Moshe made on the more powerful station, as a guest on Rabbi Eliezer Dimarsky’s Russian language outreach program on WKTA. Moshe responded to questions in English, which were then translated to Russian; immediately, Russian-speaking teens began coming in growing numbers to NCSY events. Building on this success, Moshe took his idea to Polnet management, and the program went on the air in January.

Moshe calls his program “the best hour in radio.” With its upcoming boost to 5,000 watts, more Chicagoland teens – and their parents – will have the opportunity to find out why.