ERP 780 watts Class A Frequency 103.9 MHz Format Urban contemporary gospel Area Delaware Valley | HAAT 276 meters Facility ID 12211 City of license Jenkintown Owner Radio One Branding Praise 103.9 | |
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Broadcast area Greater Philadelphia (Delaware Valley) First air date February 25, 2005 (as WRNB) Slogan Philadelphia's Inspiration Station | ||
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WPPZ-FM, "Praise 107.9", is a radio station owned by Radio One, that airs an urban gospel format. The station is licensed to Pennsauken, New Jersey and serves the Philadelphia market. It has studios located in Bala Cynwyd and broadcasts from a transmitter spire on top of One Liberty Place in Center City Philadelphia.
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107.9 History
The station originally operated as WSNJ-FM in Bridgeton, New Jersey, first broadcasting on 98.9 in the 1950s before moving to 107.7. In the early 2000s, the station's frequency and city of license were changed to allow it to move into the more lucrative Philadelphia market. To clear space on the FM band for the new operation, high school station WHHS was moved from 107.9 to 99.9 MHz and a Philadelphia translator of classical station WWFM was taken off the air. During transmitter testing, 107.9 used the call letters WPPZ and broadcast gospel music; owner Radio One eventually gave that call sign and format a permanent home in the market on 103.9 FM. Before WRNB went on the air in 2004, the call letters were used for a Radio One-owned sister station in Dayton, Ohio, now called WROU-FM.
On September 1, 2011, Radio One moved WRNB's programming to 100.3, and the Urban Contemporary format of WPHI-FM (which moved away from rhythmic contemporary earlier that year) moved to the weaker signal 107.9 FM as "Hot 107.9" (after stunting that weekend as "Michael Vick Radio" and "Rickey Smiley Radio") on September 4 at 5PM. The first song on Hot was Hot In Herre by Nelly.
On November 6, 2014, at 7 PM, WPHI dropped the "Hot" format and became the fourth classic hip-hop station in the United States (following KNRJ in Phoenix, KDAY/KDEY in Los Angeles and sister station KROI in Houston) as "Boom 107.9". The last song on "Hot" was I Like It by Sevyn Streeter, while the first song on "Boom" was 99 Problems by Jay-Z.
On September 27, 2016, at Midnight, WPHI and WPPZ swapped formats and call letters, with "Boom" moving to 103.9 FM, and "Praise" moving to 107.9 FM. (With the change, WPHI's classic hip hop format shifted to urban contemporary, returning the format to the 103.9 frequency for the first time since 2002 and marking the fourth attempt by Radio One to compete against long dominant WUSL.)