WAOB-FM
| City of license | Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, and Northern West Virginia |
| Branding | 106.7 WAOB |
| Slogan | We Are One Body |
| Frequency | 106.7 MHz |
| First air date | 1960 (as WWKS) |
| Format | Religious (Catholic) |
| ERP | 37,000 watts |
| HAAT | 169 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 52747 |
| Callsign meaning | We Are One Body |
| Former callsigns | WWKS (1960-1995) WXDX (1995-1996) WAMO-FM (1996-2009) |
| Owner | St. Joseph Missions |
| Webcast | Streaming AAC |
| Website | waob.org |
WAOB-FM, formerly WAMO-FM, is a radio station serving the Pittsburgh area. It is owned by St. Joseph Missions, a Catholic-based organization based in Pittsburgh. WAOB-FM is licensed to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, broadcasts at 106.7 MHz. Its transmitter is located in Wexford, Pennsylvania.
When WAOB was WAMO-FM, its owner was Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation, which had owned the station from 1973 to 2009. During its tenure under Sheridan, WAMO's format was Urban Contemporary up until September 8, 2009, when it signed off for the last time. The station was relaunched as a non-commercial outlet in February 2010.
History
WAMO-FM signed on in 1960 at 105.9 and had the most powerful signal coverage in western Pennsylvania. It also had various formats during its early years, which also included AOR, Disco,[1] and CHUrban. However, it had better success with its Urban Contemporary direction. In 1974, WAMO-FM and WAMO began separate programming. WAMO aired gospel programming aired on weekdays, while on weekends, it simulcasted WAMO-FM. WAMO-FM was formatted as an Urban contemporary station with gospel programming on Sunday.
On April 10, 1996, at 3 PM, Sheridan swapped signals with WXDX-FM and moved to the 106.7 frequency. It also simulcasted its format with WSSZ to cover the eastern part of the metropolitan area beginning that same year. In 2004, WAMO relocated its transmitter, resulting in full-market coverage; at the same time, WSSZ broke from the simulcast and shifted to Urban Adult Contemporary and became WJJJ-FM, "Majic 107.1". In 2004, the station changed its longtime on-air brand from "Hot 106, WAMO" to "106.7 WAMO, Pittsburgh's #1 for Hip Hop & R&B".
On May 15, 2009, Sheridan announced that it has sold WAMO, WAMO-FM and WPGR-AM to St. Joseph Missions for $8.9 million. The deal has been approved by the Federal Communications Commission, and the stations were to change to a religious format by February 2010. All 35 employees were let go after the sale closed, leaving Pittsburgh without an Urban formatted outlet. The call letters were changed to WAOB upon the transfer of ownership.[2][3]
The news of this sale attracted a lot of attention,[4] and the reaction from listeners,[5][6] who will be left with no options in the market.[7][8] However, due to the high ratings WAMO-FM had with its urban format, it was assumed another station in Pittsburgh would switch to Urban to take advantage of the newly available audience. Some had hoped that WOGI would pick up the Urban format because its signal (98.3) was ripe for targeting WAMO's audience, but instead Keymarket sold the station to Educational Media Foundation, who replaced WOGI's Country format with its K-Love Christian contemporary brand.
At 6:07 pm EST on Tuesday, September 8, 2009, WAMO-FM discontinued broadcasting. Its last song was Boyz II Men's It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday, which was followed by silence. Since then, other outlets began adding some form of Urban or R&B programming, as AC outlet WLTJ launched a nighttime Adult R&B program called "Q after Dark" aimed at a 25-54 audience in the same month. In addition, the hiphop & R&B playlist was largely increased on Clear Channel's WKST-FM (96.1 Kiss FM), a top 40 station that had been moving towards a rhythmic top 40 direction, but with Mainstream top 40 rival WBZW (B94) switching to Sports Talk, this once again left Pittsburgh without any full-time R&B/Hip-Hop or Urban outlet as WKST has toned down the Rhythmic content.
In October 2009, Eddie Edwards, the one-time owner of then independent television outlet WPTT, announced that he was acquiring AM outlet WPYT, a station with good daytime coverage but not so good coverage at night. Edwards hoped that he could fill the Urban void with this new outlet (in actuality the format would be Urban Talk, targeting 25-54 African-Americans in the Pittsburgh metro), which pending FCC approval, would have started in February 2010. However on November 3, 2009, it was announced that those plans have fallen through after his son, Eddie Edwards Jr., confirmed that the senior Edwards withdrew the application due to health problems and was hospitalized under a doctor's care.
106.7 FM returned to the air on February 15, 2010 with a live broadcast of a Catholic Mass. After its conclusion, the station announced that WAOB would begin regular programming on March 19, with only Mass broadcasts being carried in the interim.
106.7 FM history
106.7 FM signed on in 1960 as WWKS. By 1994, 106.7 FM was known as "The Force". The Force touted itself with the motto "The Best of Rock". The station flipped to modern rock in 1995. In 1996, Clear Channel, the owner of the Force, paid Sheridan Broadcasting to swap signals with WAMO-FM, giving it better signal coverage.
WAMO's return
On May 22, 2011, Martz Communications debuted the new WAMO on AM 660 and 100.1 FM, which is a translator under the W261AX call letters. It is licensed to Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. [9]
References
- ↑ from www.rjdiscousa.com
- ↑ "Reports: Sheridan Sells Pittsburgh Trio" from R&R (May 15, 2009)
- ↑ "WAMO's format to change with sale" from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (May 16, 2009)
- ↑ "Sheridan/Pittsburgh Buyer Leap-Frogged Into Deal" from R&R (May 18, 2009)
- ↑ from Radio-Info Pittsburgh message board
- ↑ from City-Data Pittsburgh message board
- ↑ "Questions remain about future of WAMO radio after its sale" from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (May 18, 2009)
- ↑ "Ciao, WAMO -- we hardly knew you anymore" from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (May 19, 2009)
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WAOB
- Radio-Locator information on WAOB
- Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WAOB
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