First air date 1942 Facility ID 73979 City of license York Area York, Harrisburg Sister stations WSOX, WGLD, WARM-FM | Class B Frequency 910 kHz Owner Cumulus Media Branding News Radio 910 | |
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Broadcast area York-Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Power 5,000 watts (day)
1,000 watts (night) Callsign meaning Susquehanna Broadcasting Associates (Former owner) Format Talk radio, All-news radio | ||
WSBA (910 AM, "News Talk 910") is a radio station in York, Pennsylvania. The station used to be owned by Susquehanna Radio until 2005, when it was purchased by Cumulus Media. During the 1960s and 1970s, WSBA was a leading top 40 music station in the Harrisburg-York-Lancaster area; it was also the flagship station of Susquehanna Radio's top 40 stations (which also included WHLO, WARM, and WICE).
Contents
On-air personalities
Sports
History
An article in the Gazette and Daily July 24, 1942 headed "Will Occupy New Radio Station Monday" quotes the Station Manager Robert L. Kauffman as saying the station will go on the air sometime in the late summer. Otis Morse will be the Program Director and Willis Weaver will be the chief engineer. A terse advertisement in The Gazette and Daily August 26, 1942 (Page 2 bottom of Column 1), simply said, "On the air soon - 900 the mid-point on your dial." This ad was repeated on August 27, 1944. and on August 28 and August 29.
The announcement of opening on September 1, 1942 came in The Gazette and Daily on August 31, 1942.
The September 1, 1942 Gazette and Daily Page 2 article announced, 'WSBA On the Air Today'. It may be well to note for readers that this was a morning paper that was on the street usually by 3 AM. The station opened its service to the community with a prayer by the Rev. Paul E. V. Shannon of the first United Brethren Church. The York Mayor Harry B. Anstine read his Heroes day proclamation. Much of the programming reflected that the nation was nearing the end of the first year of World War II.
The station had a 240-foot antenna and a 1000 watt transmitter. An advertisement on page 3 that say called WSBA "York's own radio station."
The station currently has the transmitter and a four tower antenna system located on Susquehanna Trail York PA. Longitude 39° 59' 57.00" N Latitude 76 ° 44' 43.00" W Longitude (NAD 27) The towers are at 121.3 meters (398 ft) elevation with a height of 75.3 meters (247 ft). Their tops are 196.6 meters (645 ft) above sea level.
WSBA-AM was first on the air in September 1942. WHP (AM) in Harrisburg, PA which first aired in 1925 predates it by 17 years. WLXW now WHYL in Carlisle, PA was first on the air in 1948, six years after WSBA (AM) and WGET (AM) in Gettysburg, PA first aired August 27, 1950. WHVR AM in Hanover, PA went into operation on January 2, 1949 on 1280 kHz with a power of 1000 watts.
Other stations in York in the 1950-1970 period included WORK-AM which was older music and WNOW-FM and WNOW-AM which was mainly country. (Cites and more data will be added as I locate it)
WSBA-AM moved from 900 to 910 kHz in October 1949. It still continued to be listed in radio listings as the old frequency 900 kHz through the middle 50s when the Gazette and Daily discontinued the radio listings. The only references I can locate to the 910 is the October 24, 1949 advertisement in the Gazette announcing that the station was going to full-time. To do that the frequency had to change. This is confirmed and discussed in more detail in the Publication, Susquehanna First 50 Years by Phillip K. Eberly.
During the 1950-1980 period WSBA AM was the information station. Ed Wickenheiser was one of the newscasters in the earliest reporting of the TMI incident in 1979 and is cited in the book TMI by investigative reporter Mark Lane.
During Hurricane Agnes and Eloise, snowstorms and the like, WSBA was the go to station for information. When disasters hit, regular programming stopped.
During the late 50s and early 60s the station did a rundown of the top 40 on Saturday afternoon.
Ralph Lockwood was a long term morning host during that period and had a fictional sidekick Luscious Laverne. Ed Lincoln was another personality at that time who had a feature, the hit of the week which was played every night on his program. That was available in Sol Kessler's Hi Fi Shop for $.59 during that week. This is noted in an AD in The Gazette and Daily April 26, 1957
In addition to pioneering in AM Radio the WSBA team was interested in improvement. On November 21, 1947 Otis Morse IV spoke to the York Exchange club about [Frequency Modulation] (FM) radio. This was pioneered by Armstrong, one of the early pioneers and inventors of radio. [WSBA-FM] appears first in programming guide February 28, 1949 in the Hanover Sun at the 103.3 the current frequency of [WARM 103], which is its successor. The efforts of WSBA personnel to enhance the community is seen in an article in a January 7, 1950 article in The York Gazette and Daily advertising a seminar that was being presented - Otis Morse from WSBA and others from WNOW-AM, WORK-AM, and WRZE-FM 98.3 (Per radio listing The Hanover Sun May 12, 1953) were participating.