Branding "WEDO AM 810" | Frequency 810 (kHz) | |
City McKeesport, Pennsylvania Broadcast area Pittsburgh metropolitan area Slogan "Your Station of Nations" Translator(s) 93.3 W227DB (McKeesport) | ||
WEDO (810 AM) is a multicultural radio broadcasting outlet serving the area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station, which is owned by Robert and Ashley Stevens through licensee Broadcast Communications, Inc., broadcasts at a clear-channel frequency of 810 kHz with a power level of 1,000 watts. The city of license for the station is McKeesport, Pennsylvania. The station maintains its studios and offices on Lincoln Way in White Oak, Pennsylvania.
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Because WEDO shares the same frequency as "clear channel" station WGY in Schenectady, New York; it broadcasts only during the daytime hours.
On Tuesday, September 15, 2015, it was announced that 810 Inc. agreed to sell WEDO to Broadcast Communications, Inc. of Irwin, Pennsylvania, licensee of WKFB, WKHB, WANB, WKVE and three FM translators in the Pittsburgh market, plus other broadcast properties in the Cumberland, Maryland market. The sale was finalized on January 5, 2016, at a purchase price of $175,000.
History and programming background
The station's programming offerings consist of various Catholic, ethnic, oldies, and paid programs, not much different from when it first signed on the air back in 1947, at around the same time as another McKeesport-licensed radio station, WMCK AM 1360. Among the programming aired includes a local oldies show at noon on weekdays, an Irish show on Sunday afternoons and a live traditional Latin Rite Mass from an SSPX chapel at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning.
WEDO has had only this call sign, and only two owners in its six-decade history. Tri-City Broadcasting first put the station on the air and operated it until 1972, when it was purchased by 810, Inc., a wholly owned company headed by local entrepreneurs Ralph and Judith Baron. Following the death of Ralph Baron, Judy Baron, now residing in Florida, has recently established a trust that would control the station in the event of her death or incapacitation.
During the 60s and 70s, WEDO became known for its Top 40 music presentation and even received more notoriety when they relocated their studios and offices inside Midtown Plaza Mall on Fifth Avenue in downtown McKeesport during the 1970s. The mall, one of the first in suburban Pittsburgh, enabled shoppers to watch the DJ's in real time as they did their on-air shifts.
In the early 1980s, when FM emerged as the leading technology for music, WEDO gradually dropped its music for the program-oriented format that it originally had in its formative years. As McKeesport's downtown economy continued to deteriorate, so did tenant business in Midtown Plaza Mall, as many of the stores went out of business or relocated into the suburbs. With few tenants left in the building, the property's managers turned off heat to several areas of the mall in an effort to reduce operating costs. A heating problem one day in 2000 resulted in a frozen pipe bursting in the mall and leaving the radio station in about two inches of standing water. According to a former employee, it was the second time that such an incident occurred.
Management then decided to relocate to a different building. WEDO cleared its equipment and furniture out of the mall weeks later and moved to its current location at a former bank location at 1985 Lincoln Way, where it occupies the second floor.
WEDO in the news
In the spring of 1999, WEDO was the victim of a not-so-innocent and dangerous prank committed by local high school students at its transmitter facility in Forest Hills, as explained in the April 13th and 29th, 1999 issue archives of the Tribune-Review...
WEDO people
John James managed the station from June 1982 until retiring in 2014. James' predecessor, David Leiner took over for longtime manager John Longo in 1980. Longo went on to own and operate WCNS, about 50 miles (80 km) east of Pittsburgh until his retirement in 2014. Jeremy Bosse manages the station today.