WPAY (1400 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 to serve the community of

Portsmouth, Ohio Portsmouth is a city in Scioto County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located in southern Ohio south of Chillicothe, Ohio, Chillicothe, it lies on the north bank of the Ohio River, across from Kentucky and just east of the mouth of th ...

. The station was last owned by Douglas L. Braden and the final

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 Radio Stations WPAY/WPFB, Inc. Established in 1925 in

Bellefontaine, Ohio Bellefontaine ( ) is a city in Logan County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located 48 miles (77 km) northwest of Columbus, the population was 14,115 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Bellefontaine micropolit ...

, the station ultimately moved to Portsmouth in 1935. WPAY fell silent in June 2011 following the divestiture of sister station WPAY-FM and its license was revoked in June 2012.

History

The station was first licensed, as WHBD, on February 13, 1925 to Charles W. Howard in Bellefontaine, Ohio."New Stations"
''Radio Service Bulletin'', March 2, 1925, page 3. The original call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call signs. The station later moved to Mt. Orab, over from Bellefontaine, and ultimately to Portsmouth, over from Mt. Orab. The call letters were changed to WPAY on March 1, 1935. After WPAY's owner sold its

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 to WNKU licensee

Northern Kentucky University Northern Kentucky University is a public university in Highland Heights, Kentucky, United States. Established in 1968, it is the youngest of Kentucky's eight public universities. The university has seven constituent colleges in arts and science ...

in January 2011, owner Douglas L. Braden was unable to find a buyer for the lone small-market AM station and the decision was made to take the station off the air for financial reasons while seeking a new buyer. Before falling

dark Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...

, WPAY broadcast a

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...

format branded as "Talk 14" to the

Scioto County, Ohio Scioto County is a county along the Ohio River in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Ohio. At the 2020 census, the population was 74,008. Its county seat is Portsmouth. The county was founded on March 24, 1804, from Adams County and i ...

, area. The station, which began broadcasting in Portsmouth on April 15, 1935, ended over 75 years of service in the city, and 85 years overall, on June 3, 2011. Under the terms of the

Telecommunications Act of 1996 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of ...

, as a matter of law a radio station's

is subject to automatic forfeiture and cancellation if they fail to broadcast for one full year. After the station's broadcast license was revoked, the WPAY call sign was deleted from the FCC database on June 8, 2012.

References

External links

Facility details for Facility ID 65835 (WPAY)
in the FCC Licensing and Management System
FCC History Cards for WPAY
(covering 1927-1979 as WHBD / WPAY) {{Huntington WV Radio PAY Defunct radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1925 Radio stations disestablished in 2011 Portsmouth, Ohio 1925 establishments in Ohio 2011 disestablishments in Ohio PAY