WKHL (92.1 FM, "K-LOVE") is a

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radi ...

licensed to serve Palmyra, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by

Educational Media Foundation Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's large ...

and is an affiliate of K-LOVE, EMF's

contemporary Christian Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it i ...

music network.

History

The station was first licensed on December 4, 1959 with the WJWR call sign. It was owned by William N. Reichard. The station was sold effective January 1, 1961 to Radio Music, Inc. On July 20, 1965, the call sign was changed to WRLC, followed by a change in ownership to Harrisburg Broadcasting Corporation effective on August 27, 1965. Another ownership change took place effective April 14, 1969 to Clinton Broadcasting Company, followed by a call sign change on May 15, 1969 to WCTX. By 1977, the station was broadcasting a

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator m ...

format. By 1990, the station had switched to an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as wel ...

format, but by 1994 the format had switched back to beautiful music. On November 2, 1995, the station was sold to Quaker State Broadcasting corporation. Following the change in ownership, the station's call sign was changed to WNCE-FM on November 8, 1995. The station's

format was not changed. In 1999, AMFM, Inc, through licensee Capstar TX L.P., purchased WNCE-FM (along with WTPA) for $15 million. On October 3, 1999,

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly 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 fou ...

announced the purchase of AMFM, Inc., in a deal valued at $17.4 billion. As a condition of the Clear Channel-AMFM merger, the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and a ...

forced the new company to sell 99 radio stations in 27 markets in

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, including Harrisburg-area stations WTPA, WNNK-FM, WTCY and WNCE-FM. All went to

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 8 ...

. The sale of WNCE-FM was completed on November 28, 2000. Following the sale, the station switched format to

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prim ...

via a simulcast of Cumulus-owned sister station WTPA. On August 3, 2001, the station's call sign was changed to WWKL. The WTPA (FM) simulcast would continue until 2004. By 2005, the station had switched to a CHR/ rhythmic format, branded as ''HOT 92''. The move was part of a shakeup in the market when sister station WNNK shifted to

Adult Top 40 The Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40) chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data System ...

and to counter Rhythmic-leaning

Top 40 Mainstream Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/ CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the U ...

rival upstart WHKF-FM, a move that has paid off for them in terms of ratings. By 2006 WWKL began shifting towards a mainstream CHR direction to compete with WLAN-FM, even though as of 2009 they still reported to R&R/

Nielsen BDS Broadcast Data Systems (also known as BDS or Luminate BDS), is a service that tracks radio, television and internet airplay of songs. The service, which is a unit of MRC Data, is a contributing factor to North American charts published by co-owne ...

Rhythmic Airplay panel. This kind of direction has also sparked debate from radio message boards about stations that decided to add certain Pop and Dance tracks but stay within the Rhythmic realm.

Mediabase Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analyti ...

still reports the station as

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...

, and despite them not being

, they have always been a

rhythmic contemporary Rhythmic contemporary, also known as Rhythmic Top 40, Rhythmic CHR or rhythmic crossover, is a primarily American music-radio format that includes a mix of EDM, upbeat rhythmic pop, hip hop and upbeat R&B hits. Rhythmic contemporary never uses ...

due to WHKF airing a

format. In 2011, the

approved the purchase of

Citadel Broadcasting Citadel Broadcasting Corporation was a Las Vegas, Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada-based broadcast holding company. Citadel owned 243 radio stations across the United States and was the third-largest radio station owner in the country. Only iHeartMedia ...

by Cumulus, provided that Cumulus divest itself of three stations, two of which were WWKL (''HOT 92'') and WCAT-FM (''Red 102.3'') as well as the "intellectual property" of WTPA. Cumulus chose to swap the WTPA and WWKL licenses, effectively moving the WTPA call sign and the

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States and ...

format to 92.1, while the WWKL call sign and the CHR format moved to 93.5. The swap took place on September 16, 2011, after which WTPA changed its branding to ''92.1 WTPA''. Cumulus Media placed WTPA into a trust named Potential Broadcasting LLC. On October 12, 2012 it was announced that the trust had sold WTPA to Patrick H. Sickafus, owner of

WWSM WWSM (1510 AM) was a daytime-only radio station. Licensed to Annville- Cleona, Pennsylvania, United States, the station was owned by Patrick H. Sickafus and, until July 2022, aired a classic country format and featured programming from USA Rad ...

in Annville, PA. The transaction consummated on January 31, 2013 at a purchase price of $530,000.

Sale to Educational Media Foundation

On November 9, 2017,

purchased WTPA for $750,000. EMF planned to transition the station to become part of their K-LOVE

radio network, which in the Harrisburg area already includes translator W269AS and

WKHW (FM) #REDIRECT Khwai River Airport Khwai River Airport is an airport serving the lodges and camps around the village of Khwai in Botswana. The runway is from the Moremi Game Reserve north gate, and from one of the Khwai River hippo ponds. The ga ...

. WTPA went silent on January 31, 2018 in preparation for the ownership change. The sale consummated on February 1, 2018. On February 12, 2018, the FCC granted WTPA a new license, which modified the previous license granted in 2006 from commercial to non-commercial status. Two days later, on February 14, 2018, the FCC assigned the WKHL call sign to the station. Prior to this call sign change, a station with the WTPA call sign had been on the air in the Harrisburg market since 1980. WKHL resumed operations with K-Love programming on March 21, 2018.

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References

External links

* * {{K-LOVE KHL (FM) K-Love radio stations Educational Media Foundation radio stations Contemporary Christian radio stations in the United States KHL (FM)