WAEB (790

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...

) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

licensed to

Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in eastern Pennsylvania, United States. The county seat of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, it is the List o ...

, and serving the

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley () is a geography, geographic and urban area, metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a co ...

region of eastern

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. It airs a

news-talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews wi ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios and offices are on Alta Drive in

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...

. By day, WAEB is powered at 3,600

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s. But at night, to protect other stations on 790 AM from interference, it reduces power to 1,600 watts. It uses a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

at all times, shifting from a two-

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

in the daytime to five towers at night. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on Church Street near MacArthur Road ( Pennsylvania Route 145) in Hokendauqua.

History

Top 40 hits

WAEB

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on April 15, 1949. It was powered at 500 watts in the daytime and 1,000 watts at night. WAEB was an

affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platfo ...

of ABC Radio.''Broadcasting Yearbook 1951'' page 258. Retrieved June 2, 2025.
/REF> The studios were at 7th and Hamilton Streets. The

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

refers to the three major cities in the Lehigh Valley: Allentown, Easton and

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

. The station was sold to Rust Broadcasting in 1957. Under Rust ownership, it began a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

format, playing hit music for the young people of the Lehigh Valley. Its slogan was ''Music Radio 79 WAEB''. (It was a short distance on the AM dial from legendary Top 40 outlet WABC 770 in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

.) In 1961, WAEB added an FM

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

WAEB-FM WAEB-FM (104.1 MHz, "B104") is a commercial radio station licensed to Allentown, Pennsylvania, and serving the Lehigh Valley. The station airs a contemporary hit radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios and offices are on A ...

at 104.1

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

. For the first few years, both stations

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

WAEB's Top 40 format. WAEB-FM broke away from the simulcast in the late 1960s, airing an

automated Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

beautiful music format.

Adult Contemporary and Talk

By the 1980s, young people began to look for their music on the FM dial. That prompted WAEB to evolve into a

hot adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

format in 1983. By 1985, it was more of an older-leaning

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

station with plenty of

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

on the

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

. In 1986, WAEB added evening syndicated talk shows, and overnight talk shows were added by 1989. But WAEB continued to air a mix of adult contemporary and oldies music during the day. WAEB and

were sold to CRB Broadcasting in the late 1980s. In 1992, WAEB dropped its remaining music shows and had made the transition to a news/talk format.

Changes in ownership

In 1995, WAEB and WAEB-FM were sold to Capstar along with 95.1 WZZO and 1270 WKAP. The stations all went to AMFM Broadcasting as a result of the Chancellor/Capstar merger in 1999. AMFM later merged with

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

, which owned WODE-FM and WEEX. That put the company over the limit of stations in could own in the Allentown radio market. Clear Channel was forced to sell an AM and FM station to be under legal ownership limits. Clear Channel gave Nassau Broadcasting cash plus WODE-FM and WEEX in exchange for

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

stations WSUS, WNNJ, WNNJ-FM, WHCY, and a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...

s with WDLC, and WTSX. As a result, WAEB, WAEB-FM, WZZO and WKAP became Clear Channel stations.

21st century

In January 2007, 1470 AM dropped its oldies format, switching to

Christian radio Christian radio refers to Christian media radio formats that focus on Christian religious broadcasting or various forms of Christian music. Many such formats and programs include contemporary Christian music, gospel music, sermons, radio dramas, ...

programming with a change in its call letters to WYHM. In response, WAEB launched an

Internet radio Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...

station playing oldies music on its web site. Today, its sister station, 1470 WSAN, plays oldies from the 1960s and 70s. On September 4, 2009, the northernmost tower mast of the station's five-tower antenna array located in Whitehall Township was toppled when a vandal or vandals cut the tower's

guy-wire A guy-wire, guy-line, guy-rope, down guy, or stay, also called simply a guy, is a tensioned cable designed to add stability to a freestanding structure. They are used commonly for ship masts, radio masts, wind turbines, utility poles, and ten ...

Programming

Weekdays on WAEB begin with a local information and interview program hosted by Bobby Gunther Walsh. The rest of the schedule is nationally syndicated talk shows from co-owned

Premiere Networks Premiere Networks, Inc. (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. It is th ...

: ''

The Glenn Beck Radio Program ''The Glenn Beck Radio Program'' is an American conservative talk radio show, hosted by commentator Glenn Beck on over 400 radio stations across America, his company's own TheBlaze Radio Network, with a live television simulcast weekdays on The ...

'', '' The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show'', ''

The Sean Hannity Show ''The Sean Hannity Show'' is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Sean Hannity. The program is broadcast live every weekday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. The show is produced in the New York City studios of radio station WOR and is transmitt ...

'', '' The Jesse Kelly Show'', '' The Michael Berry Show'' and ''

Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 198 ...

with

George Noory George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American talk radio, radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is radio syndication, syndicated to ...

''. On weekends, specialty shows are featured on money, health, travel, technology and the law. Syndicated weekend shows include '' Rich DeMuro on Tech, The Weekend with Michael Brown, The Ben Ferguson Show, Sunday Night with Bill Cunningham'' and '' Bill Handel on the Law'', as well as repeats of weekday shows. Most hours begin with an update from

Fox News Radio Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. History In 2003, ...

References

External links

*
790 WAEB
at Twitter {{authority control 1949 establishments in Pennsylvania IHeartMedia radio stations News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1949 AEB