WWCH (1300
AM) is 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
Clarion, Pennsylvania
Clarion is a borough in and the county seat of Clarion County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located north-northeast of Pittsburgh and is part of the Pittsburgh DMA. Clarion was settled in 1839 and incorporated in 1841. In the past, the s ...
, the seat of government for Clarion County. WWCH is licensed to operate at a maximum power output of 850
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. WWCH has a
classic country format, simulcast with
WKFT (101.3 FM) in
Strattanville.
History
WWCH is the sole AM radio station in Clarion County, first going on the air as a daytime-only station with a maximum power output of 500 watts on June 12, 1960, from studios above the Garby movie theater on Main Street in Clarion.
The station was founded by William Curtis Hearst, his wife Harriet, and partners William Sheridan and Henry Troese. Hearst had a previous history of newspaper management and ownership for almost two decades prior to signing on WWCH, owning the ''Clarion Democrat'' and the ''Clarion Republican'' (both forerunners to the ''
Clarion News''). Both publications were sold to an Oil City-based publisher in 1965.
William Sheridan was company president at the time of startup. Hearst's son, William C. "Bill" Hearst, joined the station in 1978 after graduating from
Mansfield State College, taking control of the stations later that year. It was under his direction that the station saw its largest growth. The station moved from the Garby Theater to a converted house on Wood Street in Clarion, where WWCH was joined by an FM sister station, also licensed to Clarion, in 1985. That station is known as
WCCR-FM
WCCR-FM (92.7 MHz) is an American radio station licensed to the borough of Clarion, Pennsylvania. WCCR-FM operates with an effective radiated power of 3,000 watts. This station, along with its co-located AM sister WWCH, is owned by Seven Mountai ...
.
In the early 1990s, WWCH was awarded nighttime power authorization.
The stations moved to their current location at 1168 Greenville Pike in Clarion Township in 1994, where they adjoin their transmitter facilities. In 2015, WWCH launched an FM translator (W231DR), rebranding as "94.1 The Goat", with little change to its program offerings.
On November 7, 2022, Seven Mountains Media announced their purchase of WWCH, sister station WCCR-FM, and translator W231DR from Clarion County Broadcasting. Seven Mountains Media also owns
WKFT (101.3 FM) in
Strattanville, at the time a Clarion-area simulcast of
WIFT (102.1 FM) in
DuBois.
The purchase was consummated on March 1, 2023. On September 25, 2023, Seven Mountains Media relaunched WWCH, which had previously branded as "The Goat", as "Bigfoot Legends"; the station also began simulcasting on WKFT.
References
1961-62 Broadcasting YearbookBroadcasting Yearbook - Broadcast Stations Identified With Newspaper Or Magazine Ownership page B-228
External links
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{{coord, 41, 11, 57, N, 79, 21, 25, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title
WCH
Radio stations established in 1960
1960 establishments in Pennsylvania
Classic country radio stations in the United States
Seven Mountains Media