Altoona Radio: Controversial Talker Wendy Bell Gets Time Slot On WRTA

Lightner Communications has announced the addition of Wendy Bell to the on-air for its News/Talk WRTA 1240 AM / 98.5 FM.

Bell will air mornings 9 to noon starting today.

Earlier this year Bell hosted a show on Pittsburgh's WJAS 1320 AM / 99.1 FM. It's unclear why Bell was out at WJAS after about two months of full-time hosting.  

Wendy Bell

Previously, Bell was host of a show on Audacy's KDKA 1020 AM in Pittsburgh. She joined the station in 2019.  Bell was taken off the station’s afternoon lineup Sept. 4 after she suggested park rangers “shoot on sight” people who deface public monuments.

The statement was recorded in a video June 26 during her live radio show and published on Facebook, where Bell looks into the camera and says: “My easy solution for the park rangers and hopefully snipers who are going to be watching for this is to shoot on sight.” Bell then imitated the sound of a gunshot. “Shoot! Done! No more messing with monuments. You want to mess with a monument? Done! Get out!”

Bell’s comments also spurred KDKA-TV, which is owned by Viacom and isn’t affiliated with the radio station, to distance themselves from Bell.

In March this year, Bell made a public speaking appearance at a rally in downtown Pittsburgh where about 150 protesters aired grievances regarding mask mandates and the 2020 election results, among other things.

“I’ll bet some of you were even at the big insurrection on Jan. 6, peacefully assembling, listening to the real president of the United States,” she said to cheers.

Bell started her career in 1998 as a TV News Anchor/Reporter at WTAE-TV and worked there up to 2016, when she was an anchor. She is a 21-time Emmy Award-winning reporter and news anchor with 5 Edward R. Murrow Awards for excellence in writing, reporting and news anchoring, 11 Golden Quill Awards, 17 Associated Press Awards and more than 2 dozen NAPBA nods.

She was fired in 2016 for comments she posted online in the aftermath of a shooting in Wilkinsburg that used racial stereotypes and generalizations to talk about the crimes.

Bell alleged she was discriminated against when she was fired and sued WTAE’s parent company Hearst. She settled the lawsuit in 2018.