WISL (1480 AM) was an American

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 A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

to serve the

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

Shamokin, Pennsylvania Shamokin - (; Saponi Algonquian languages, Algonquian ''Schahamokink'', meaning "place of eels") (Unami language, Lenape Indian language: Shahëmokink) is a city in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Surrounded by Coal Township ...

. At the time of the license expiration in 2006, the station was owned by Basic Broadcasting and the

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which va ...

was held by Basic Licensing, Inc., of

Quakertown, Pennsylvania Quakertown is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2020, it had a population of 9,359. The borough is south of Allentown, Pennsylvania, Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Bethlehem and nor ...

Early days

The station was assigned the license 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 ...

on July 7, 1947. WISL began regular broadcast operations in January 1948 with studios at Rock and Sunbury Streets in downtown Shamokin. WISL was originally owned by Radio Anthracite, Inc., with Henry W. Lark serving as company president. The company name reflected the

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

heritage of the Shamokin area. The call letters were for the owner's wife, Isobel S. Lark. This ownership would persist into the 1980s. In September 1997, Laurel Broadcasting Company, Inc., reached an agreement to sell this station and its 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 ...

to MJR Media, Inc., (Charles Michael Hagerty, president). The combo sold for a combined sale price of $400,000. The deal was approved by the FCC on November 19, 1997.

2000s

In August 2001, MJR Media, Inc., reached an agreement to sell the AM/FM station combo to

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 ...

through its Clear Channel Broadcasting Licenses, Inc., subsidiary. The combined price for both stations was reported as $800,000. The deal was approved by the FCC on October 2, 2001. This ownership would prove short-lived as Clear Channel Communications, desiring to keep only WISL-FM (now

WBLJ-FM WBLJ-FM (95.3 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a country music format. The station is licensed to Shamokin, Pennsylvania, United States. The station is owned by iHeartMedia. It is simulcast on WBYL WBYL (95.5 FM) is a country music formatt ...

), reached an agreement in August 2002 to sell WISL to Basic Broadcasting subsidiary Basic Licenses, Inc. The deal was approved by the FCC on September 16, 2002. At the time of the sale, WISL was playing an

adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...

music format but when it resumed broadcasting in November 2002 it switched to a satellite-fed

oldies music 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 200 ...

format. However, the station suffered from a series of financial and technical difficulties and ultimately fell silent for good in late 2003.

Shutdown

After more than 50 years of broadcasting, WISL's final broadcast license expired on August 1, 2006. The call sign was deleted from the FCC database on May 19, 2008. To honor WISL's history, an Internet radio station has been created at www.WISL1480.com including photographs of the early days in Shamokin.

References

External links

Facility details for Facility ID 36706 (WISL)
in the FCC Licensing and Management System
FCC History Cards for WISL
(covering 1946-1981 as WLRP / WISL)
WISL 1480 Website
{{Sunbury-Selinsgrove-Lewisburg Radio ISL (AM) Defunct radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1948 Radio stations disestablished in 2006 Shamokin, Pennsylvania 1948 establishments in Pennsylvania 2006 disestablishments in Pennsylvania ISL