WSHH

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WSHH

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City of license	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Broadcast area	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Branding	Wish 99.7
Slogan	Soft Rock
Frequency	99.7 (MHz)
First air date	1948
Format	Adult Contemporary
ERP	15,500 watts
HAAT	274 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	55709
Former callsigns	WJAS-FM (1948-1970s)
Owner	Renda Broadcasting
Website	wshh.com

WSHH is an adult contemporary radio station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station, which is owned by Renda Broadcasting, operates at 99.7 MHz with an ERP of 15.5 kW (The lower power is due to the antenna being mounted on an extremely high tower in the area). Its transmitter is co-located with NBC television affiliate WPXI in Pittsburgh.

History

WSHH signed on in 1948 as WJAS-FM, and was a very successful easy listening station during the 1970s and 1980s. During that time, it adopted the current WSHH call letters and Wish brand, even though it didn't adopt the current adult contemporary format until 1989.

The "Wish 100" brand was assumed in the mid-1970s, at a time when easy listening FM stations, once created out of necessity to meet FCC non-duplication requirements, were starting to become profitable. Mostly automated sister stations of AM outlets, usually Top 40 or adult contemporary, easy listening FM stations were cheap to operate, catering to "at-work" listeners with little DJ talk between records.

During the 1970s, beautiful music was well represented on Pittsburgh radio. WKJF (93.7) was the leader for many years. It later became WKOI, and finally WJOI in 1974. KDKA-FM (92.9) also played automated beautiful music during the day and classical music at night. It became WPNT in 1979 with beautiful music (no more classical) and live announcers. By the late 1970s, WSHH was the number 2 station behind KDKA-AM. They had a full staff of live announcers. In 1982, Nationwide Communications fired most of the staff replacing them with an automated "live assist" format. John Ford was the last live announcer before the switch.

During Wish's halcyon years, the station had only two announcers for the 24-hour broadcast day...program director and morning announcer Joe Fenn and afternoon announcer Tom Malloy. Both men would work a live four-hour on-air shift, but their pre-recorded voices would be heard for the remaining 8 hours.

Wish was sold in 1984 to its current owner, Renda Broadcasting Corporation. It was the first major market FM acquisition for company president Anthony F. Renda, who had also owned WIXZ (now WGBN) in suburban McKeesport during the 1970s (he would buy this station back by the end of the 1990s) and had acquired WPXZ and WECZ in Punxsutawney three years prior to the acquisition of Wish.

The groundwork had been laid for a format change in 1988, when Renda lured legendary Pittsburgh DJ Jack Bogut away from WTAE (now WPGP) to do mornings. The following year, Wish decided to challenge former easy-listening-turned-soft-adult-contemporary WLTJ's position as the leading "at-work" radio station.

WSHH today

WSHH runs far ahead in the Pittsburgh Arbitron ratings against WLTJ to this day. In 1997, WSHH moved from its longtime home on Crane Avenue in Greentree to Parrish Street, just off Greentree Road and approximately a mile from the Crane Avenue building. This new building houses WSHH and sister AM stations WGBN and WJAS, as well as the corporate offices for Renda Broadcasting. WSHH transmits from the WPXI-TV broadcast tower atop the former "Television Hill" in the Fineview neighborhood on Pittsburgh's North Side.

In November 2009, WSHH became the market's only Adult Contemporary outlet licensed in the city due to WLTJ's shift to Hot Adult Contemporary, although rimshot rival WLER-FM of Butler, Pennsylvania began flipping to adult contemporary responding the hot AC flip of WLTJ from AC. By 2012, WSHH became Pittsburgh's last remaining AC, making it the first time in a long time Pittsburgh went down to only one AC station after its rimshot rival WLER-FM flipped to active rock.

Christmas Music

During the Christmas Season, Wish 99.7 plays Christmas themed music. Delilah and The John Tesh Radio Show usually start playing Christmas music first, then the whole station plays Christmas music 24/7. During 2012, WISH started playing it 24/7 on November 16. They, like many other stations, reverted to regular programming on December 26, the day after Christmas. Its AC rival WLER-FM of Butler, Pennsylvania did not air wall-to-wall Christmas music programming from the weeks of November–December.

External links

• WSHH official website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WSHH
• Radio-Locator information on WSHH
• Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WSHH