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WLER-FM (97.7
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
mainstream rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent a cross between classic rock, active rock and alternativ ...
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 ...
that officially can be heard in
Butler County, Pennsylvania Butler County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 193,763. Its county seat is Butler. Butler County was created on March 12, 1800, from part of Allegheny County and named in honor of Gen ...
, but can also be heard in parts of northern
Allegheny County Allegheny County ( ) is a county in Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's second-most populous county, after Philadelphia County. Its county seat and most populous city is Pit ...
, including
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
. The station operates with an ERP of 4,600
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 and is licensed to
Butler, Pennsylvania Butler is a city in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is north of Pittsburgh and part of the Greater Pittsburgh region. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,502. Butler is named after Major General ...
. WLER-FM is owned by St. Barnabas Broadcasting, a division of the Saint Barnabas Health System.


Beginnings


As WISR-FM

WLER-FM's beginnings, like most FMs, were rather humble. The station began in 1949 as WISR-FM, when the AM license had been issued for those same call letters when the license was first granted in 1941. The ownership at that time, Butler Broadcasting Company, chose to turn the license back to the FCC after having the FM license failed to make any kind of an impact financially.


As WBUT-FM

However, the license was recovered years later by WISR's AM crosstown competitor,
WBUT WBUT (1050 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station, licensed to Butler, Pennsylvania, in the northern suburbs of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. It is owned by St. Barnabas Broadcasting, a division of the Saint B ...
, returning to the air in 1959. The station operated as WBUT-FM for many years until the late 1970s, when the call letters were changed to WLER-FM, and the station began to originate more of its own separate programming, though much of it was done through voice-tracked automation on a 10-inch reel tape-based automation system constructed by owners Bob and Ron Brandon. The station was an adult contemporary formatted station for much of its existence, using music and personalities provided by Concept Productions, based in Roseville, California. The procedure of voice-tracking was a relatively new concept at the time, before becoming standard practice in the late 1990s. The presentation of the voice-tracked announcers led many to believe that Steve Tyler, Dave Ware, and Terry Nelson were all on-site. The station simulcast from 6 to 8am during morning drive and during the last three hours of the day before signing off at 10pm.


As WLER-FM and format changes to hot adult contemporary & adult contemporary

WLER saw its biggest change in the spring of 2006, when the WBUT simulcast ended and the station began to take on a more
Adult An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social an ...
CHR (Top 40)-oriented approach. Where its two AM affiliate stations tend to serve Butler County, WLER gravitates more towards the suburbs north of Pittsburgh, as well as surrounding communities such as Grove City,
Franklin Franklin may refer to: People and characters * Franklin (given name), including list of people and characters with the name * Franklin (surname), including list of people and characters with the name * Franklin (class), a member of a historic ...
,
Mercer Mercer may refer to: Business * Mercer (automobile), a defunct American automobile manufacturer (1909–1925) * Mercer (consulting firm), a human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York City, US * Mercer (occupation), a merchant or tra ...
, Kittanning, and
New Kensington New Kensington (known locally as New Ken) is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 12,170 at the 2020 census. It is situated along the Allegheny River northeast of Pittsburgh and is part of the Pittsb ...
. Since the flip of
WLTJ WLTJ (92.9 FM broadcasting, FM, "Q92.9") is a commercial radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is owned by the Frischling family through licensee WPNT Media Subsidiary, LLC, and broadcasts a hot adult contemporary radio format. The sta ...
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 Syste ...
, WLER-FM returned to its
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, being the only station in Pittsburgh similar to its
WSHH WSHH (99.7 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the flagship of Renda Broadcasting, Renda Media and airs an adult contemporary radio format. WSHH is Pittsburgh's affiliate of the syndicated Deli ...
rival, but becoming similar to
Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...
's
KZPT KZPT (99.7 FM) is a hot adult contemporary radio station licensed to and serving the Kansas City metropolitan area. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its transmitter is located in east Kansas City, and studios are located in Mission, Kansa ...
in terms of sound. It also carried the ''Hollywood Confidential'' show as well. WLER-FM is reported as AC on RadioStationWorld.com, but does not report to
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 analytic ...
or
Nielsen BDS Broadcast Data Systems (also known as Nielsen BDS, BDS or Luminate BDS) was 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 publishe ...
. WLER-FM is one of the few AC stations in
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 ...
not broadcasting wall-to-wall
Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...
from the weeks of November–December (until the 26th) and one of the few major-market AC stations to stick to its AC format from November–December (a trend done with
WMJX WMJX (106.7 FM) – branded Magic 106.7 – is a commercial adult contemporary radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. The WMJX studios are ...
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
which started playing wall-to-wall christmas music every holiday season since 2013), although its
WSHH WSHH (99.7 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the flagship of Renda Broadcasting, Renda Media and airs an adult contemporary radio format. WSHH is Pittsburgh's affiliate of the syndicated Deli ...
rival airs them.


Format change to "The Rock Station"

During the Memorial Day Weekend of
2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...
, WLER-FM flipped its format from
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 ...
to
active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...
and is now branded as "The Rock Station" with new imaging. This left only
WSHH WSHH (99.7 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the flagship of Renda Broadcasting, Renda Media and airs an adult contemporary radio format. WSHH is Pittsburgh's affiliate of the syndicated Deli ...
for the
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 ...
audience. The station flipped from All Hitz 97.7 to The Rock Station on May 25, 2012 at 4:45 PM. The last song as an
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 was
Nickelback Nickelback is a Canadian Rock music, rock band formed in 1995 in Hanna, Alberta, Hanna, Alberta. Throughout its history, it has consisted of lead guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, rhythm guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist Ryan ...
's "
Someday Someday or Some Day may refer to: Film and television * ''Someday'' (1935 film), a British film directed by Michael Powell * ''Someday'' (2011 film), a Japanese film directed by Junji Sakamoto * ''Someday'' (2021 film), an Indian Hindi-lang ...
". The stunting then began with "All Radio is dead" and a montage of All Hitz 97.7 promos and music was played. Then it was announced. "Surprise. Here's something to remember this Memorial Day Weekend. We kicked All Hitz to the curb. Welcome to your new home for rock. The Rock Station 977 WLER-FM. Butler. Cranberry.". The first song on The Rock Station was
Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drummer), Rick Allen (drums), Phil Collen (guitar, ...
's "Rock Of Ages".


Additional Programs

The Rock Show - Morning show with Jay Kline weekdays from 6-10 am Rock Fabrik with Bob Cupp - Saturdays at 10 pm The Grass Roots Show - Sundays at 7 WLER is home to Slippery Rock University Football.


External links

* * {{coord, 40.8976, N, 79.8892, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title LER-FM Radio stations established in 1949 1949 establishments in Pennsylvania Mainstream rock radio stations in the United States