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WAOB-FM (106.7
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 ...
) is a
non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that is not carried out in the interest of Profit (economics), profit. The opposite is Commerce, commercial, something that primarily serves profit interests and is focused on bu ...
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 Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Serving the
Pittsburgh metropolitan area Greater Pittsburgh is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania, United States. The region includes Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, Pittsburgh's urban core county and economic hub, and s ...
, as well as parts of Eastern
Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
and the northern panhandle of West Virginia, it is owned by St. Joseph Missions and it simulcasts a
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
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, ...
with
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 ...
s WAOB 860 AM and WPGR 1510 AM. The stations carry programs from the
EWTN The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) is an American basic cable television network which presents around-the-clock Catholic programming. It is the largest Catholic television network in America, and is purported to be "the world's larges ...
Radio Network. WAOB-FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 37,000
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. Its
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 VIP Drive near Interstate 79 in Wexford, Pennsylvania. The radio studios and offices are located on Ligonier Street in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Previously, 1996 to 2009, 106.7 FM was legendary
Urban Contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary r ...
/ R&B station WAMO-FM.


History


Easy Listening and Rock

106.7 FM signed on in . Its original
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 ...
was WWKS. For much of the 1960s and 1970s, it was an automated beautiful music and
easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...
station known as "Kiss FM." During the 1980s, as easy listening music saw its audience aging, management decided to go in another direction. The station flipped to
classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...
. By November 1993, 106.7 FM was known as "The Force" with an
album rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM broadcasting, FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of Rock music, rock albums and is currently associated ...
format. The Force touted itself with the motto "The Best of Rock." The station flipped to
modern rock Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college and commercial rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. ...
in 1995 as "106-7 The X", WXDX. The station became the Pittsburgh affiliate for Howard Stern, beginning that November.


WAMO-FM Urban Contemporary

On April 10, 1996, at 3 p.m., WXDX swapped frequencies with WAMO-FM, an
urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary r ...
radio station. That resulted in WAMO-FM moving to the 105.9 frequency. This came after Clear Channel Communications, the owner of WXDX, paid Sheridan Broadcasting (WAMO's owners), to swap frequencies, wanting better full-market coverage. Sheridan was also running into financial difficulties during this time, agreeing to the frequency swap to keep the station in the black. The swap resulted in WAMO-FM moving to the 106.7 frequency, with limited coverage in Pittsburgh's southern suburbs. To make up for the loss of coverage, WAMO-FM was also simulcast with WSSZ to cover part of the metropolitan area, beginning that same year. In 2004, WAMO-FM relocated its transmitter, resulting in better 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''.


Frequency swap

On May 15, 2009, Sheridan announced that it had sold WAMO, WAMO-FM and WPGR AM to St. Joseph Missions for $8.9 million. The deal was approved by the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
, and the stations were to change to a Catholic religious format by February 2010. All 35 WAMO employees were laid off or fired after the sale closed, leaving Pittsburgh without an Urban formatted outlet. The callsign was changed to WAOB upon the transfer of ownership. The news of this sale attracted a lot of attention, and the reaction from listeners. African-American radio listeners were left with no options in the Pittsburgh radio market; however, due to the high ratings WAMO-FM had with its Urban format, it was assumed another station in Pittsburgh would switch to Urban Contemporary to take advantage of the newly available audience. Some had hoped that WOGI would pick up the Urban format. Instead, Keymarket sold the station to Educational Media Foundation, which replaced WOGI's
Country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
format with its " K-LOVE" Christian contemporary network. At 6:07 p.m. on September 8, 2009, WAMO-FM discontinued broadcasting. Its last song was
Boyz II Men Boyz II Men ( ) is an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. Formed in 1985, they have been a trio composed of baritone Nathan Morris, tenor Wanya Morris, Wanyá Mo ...
's '' It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday'', which was followed by
silence Silence is the absence of ambient hearing, audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low sound intensity, intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be exten ...
. 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
Hip Hop music Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music Music genre, genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African Americans, African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide r ...
and R&B titles playlist was increased on Clear Channel Communications's WKST-FM (96.1 Kiss FM), 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 ...
station.


Return of WAMO

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 African-Americans aged 25 to 54 in the Pittsburgh metro), which pending FCC approval, would have started in February 2010. On November 3, 2009, however, it was announced that those plans had fallen through after his son, Eddie Edwards Jr., confirmed that the senior Edwards withdrew the application due to health problems. On May 22, 2011, Martz Communications debuted the new WAMO on 660 AM and 100.1 FM, which is a translator with the callsign W261AX. It is licensed to Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania.


Catholic format

106.7 FM returned to the air on February 15, 2010, with a live broadcast of a
Catholic Mass The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass "the same Christ ...
. After its conclusion, the station announced that WAOB would begin regular programming on March 19, with only Mass broadcasts being carried in the interim. In March 2010, under new ownership, WAOB radio became known as WAOB "We Are One Body" FM Radio. It now operates as an official Catholic media outlet from its headquarters in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. According to its website waob.org:
"We Are One Body (WAOB) produces catechetical and contemplative programming. The programming is intended to present the life of the Church in a way that makes the Mystical Body of Christ more apparent: the Pope and bishops united with their priests, in their role as head, working together with the laity in their role as members. The catechetical programming consists of magisterial teaching from the Pope and bishops followed by conversations between priests who explain and elaborate on the magisterial teaching. The We Are One Body programming also contains broadcasts of lectio divina, led by priests, on Scripture, the writings of the saints, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church; leading listeners to interior silence and contemplation through meditation and prayer. The programming described above is supported by broadcasts of prayer from parishes, families and religious orders, including the Holy Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, and devotions such as the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet."


References


External links

{{coord, 40.6198, N, 80.0931, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title AOB-FM Radio stations established in 1960 Catholic radio stations AOB-FM