WOTH (107.9 FM, "Hot 107.9") is a

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 ...

broadcasting a top 40/CHR format. Licensed to

Williamsport, Pennsylvania Williamsport is a city in and the county seat of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 27,754. It is the principal city of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a populati ...

, United States, the station serves the Williamsport area. The station is currently owned by Van Michael, through licensee Backyard Broadcasting of Pennsylvania LLC.

History

The previous call letters, WRVH, once belonged to a Hudson Valley, New York, FM station, located at 105.5 on the FM dial, broadcasting as a class A facility with 3,000 watts of effective radiated power. Its studio was located on

New York State Route 292 New York State Route 292 (NY 292) is a short state highway in the Hudson Valley of New York in the United States, bridging Putnam and Dutchess counties. The southern terminus of the route is at an intersection with NY 311 in t ...

in Patterson, NY. That station was licensed in 1982 and was the brainchild of Edward Valentine, who served as the station's general manager, as well as co-owner. It was owned by Richard Novik of North Salem, and Edward Valentine of Wappingers Falls, a retired engineer with International Business Machines. The station played "Beautiful Music" format during the weekdays and on Sunday evenings at 7:30PM, the station featured an audiophile-oriented program called "Adventures in Sound", hosted by Anthony Fast. The station changed to Adult Contemporary format after the Beautiful Music format ended in 1986. The WLMY calls were originally on the station known today as WCOR-FM, in suburban

Olean, New York Olean ( ) is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in Cattaraugus County, New York, United States. Olean is the largest city in Cattaraugus County and serves as its financial, business, transportation and entertainment center. It is ...

. WBYB was a semi-satellite of

WLMI WLMI is a radio station licensed to Grand Ledge, Michigan, serving Lansing. Owned by Midwest Communications, it broadcasts a classic hits format branded as "Cruisin 92.9". History What is now WLMI began life as WCER-FM at 92.7 FM in Charl ...

in Kane, PA. In 2008, Backyard Broadcasting had attempted to buy WBYB (then known as WFRM-FM), but could not follow through and lost the bid to WLMI's owners. WLMI changed the call sign to WLMY, but then, switched it quickly to WBYB (while the owner claims this was a reference to the

Bob FM BOB FM is the on-air brand of a number of FM radio stations in the United States and formerly in Canada. The BOB FM format mostly concentrates on album rock, alternative rock and pop hits from the 1980s and 1990s, especially those popular duri ...

brand that WLMI was running, BYB was also, coincidentally, an abbreviation used by Backyard Broadcasting), began broadcasting its own

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 against Backyard's market leader,

WPIG WPIG (95.7 FM broadcasting, FM) is a radio station located in Olean, New York. Branded as "95.7 The Big Pig", the station operates a country music radio format, format. It is owned by Seven Mountains Media. History The station originally signed ...

, and hired several former WPIG staffers. Thus, Backyard likely picked up the WLMY calls as a (relatively weak) retaliatory gesture. In another coincidence, WOTH was, in a previous incarnation, the FM sister station to WLYC (AM 1050), which was owned by the same company as WLMI until 2010. On January 7, 2020, WLMY changed its callsign to WOTH. On January 15, 2020, WOTH launched a contemporary hit radio format, branded as "Hot 107.9".A Hot CHR Launch in Williamsport
Radioinsight - January 16, 2020

References

External links

* {{Contemporary Hit Radio Stations in Pennsylvania OTH (FM) Radio stations established in 1990 1990 establishments in Pennsylvania Contemporary hit radio stations in the United States Williamsport, Pennsylvania