City Duquesne, Pennsylvania Slogan Positive & Encouraging | Branding "K-Love" Frequency 98.3 (MHz) | |
Broadcast area Duquesne, Pennsylvania / Pittsburgh First air date July 10, 1967
(as WESA-FM) | ||
WPKV, is an American radio station, serving the Pittsburgh area. The station operates at 98.3 MHz with an ERP 3.5 kW and is licensed to Duquesne, Pennsylvania. Its transmitter is located in Pittsburgh. [1]
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Also known to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Is W204CT 88.7 Air1 Radio [2]
As WESA-FM
WPKV was originally Adult Top 40 WESA-FM, the sister station of WESA, and was licensed to Charleroi, Pennsylvania; first going on the air in 1967 and under the ownership of Laubach Radio Properties.
Created out of necessity to serve the Mon-Yough area because its AM sister was only licensed to operate during sunrise to sunset hours, WESA-FM offered some separate programming during the day, but at night, picked up where WESA was forced to leave off. Both stations became a full-time simulcast once new FCC regulations were passed eliminating the rule mandating that combination AM/FM license holders originate separate programming for half of the broadcast day.
As WZKT "Z98"
In 1998 WESA-FM abandoned its call letters and adult contemporary full-service format, and flipped to Top 40 as WZKT (Z98), but that format would go away in January 2000 after it was sold to Keymarket Communications.
Keymarket, which had owned and operated "Froggy" branded country music stations throughout Pennsylvania already for ten years, had been looking to gain a foothold in the Pittsburgh market. The opportunity presented itself for Keymarket to acquire WESA and WZKT, and both stations were sold for $1.3 million.
Keymarket, in March 2002, petitioned the FCC for permission to change the station's city of license to Duquesne, allowing them to realize the intended goal of targeting Pittsburgh proper. By the end of the decade, Keymarket had acquired other signals surrounding Pittsburgh enough to target the city from a multitude of different frequencies, and could focus the station on possibly another format.
WPKV today
On August 28, 2009 Keymarket announced that it sold WOGI to Educational Media Foundation, which announced plans to bring the K-LOVE Christian Contemporary music format to Pittsburgh as early as September 1, 2009. This format is on the air today and the call letters were subsequently changed to WPKV.