Slogan "The Good News" First air date 1947 (as WILY) | Frequency 1080 kHz Format Christian | |
City Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Broadcast area Pittsburgh metropolitan area | ||
WWNL is a Christian radio station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The station, which is owned by Steel City Radio, Inc., broadcasts at 1080 kHz with a daytime power of 50,000 watts (25,000 watts during critical hours).
Contents
History
WWNL was originally WILY, a station which primarily served an African American audience in the 1950s; in 1957 it became WEEP, a top 40 station, before switching to the call letters WYRE in 1961 (and then back to WEEP). Unable to compete with KQV in the format, WEEP changed to country music in 1965, in which it enjoyed its greatest success, and for which it is best remembered. The station format complemented its then (WDSY) FM sister station in the 1970s, which was originally WEEP-FM. Other than a one-year period with a news/talk format in 1976, WEEP aired a country format for almost three decades.
By the 1980s, WEEP simulcasted WDSY part of the day, before flipping to an oldies format on December 15, 1986. This would last until September 1990, when it adopted a failed all-business news and talk format that lasted until February 1992, when its call letters were changed to WDSY-AM and the station became a full simulcast of its FM sister. This was shortlived, as a management change resulted in a complete separation of programming between the two stations, with the station going back to the WEEP call letters and affiliating with ABC/SMN's "Real Country" format delivered via satellite in September 1992. It later returned to a full-time simulcast of the FM in March 1995, again as WDSY-AM.
In February 1997, WDSY-AM was sold and flipped formats to gospel music as WPGR. In July 1999, the format moved to 1510, and following two months of simulcasting, 1080 changed to WWNL and a Christian format. Starting out as a music-based station, WWNL has added more talk and paid programming in recent years. The WEEP call letters are now assigned to a defunct radio station in Virginia, Minnesota.
The WYRE callsign was assigned to a very small 250 watt AM station on 810 kHz in Annapolis, MD. In the 60s it broadcast a Top 40 format. Today it is a Spanish-language station.
History of call letters
The call letters WWNL were previously assigned to an AM station in Newport, Kentucky. It initially broadcast on 1110 KHz but moved to 740 KHz in 1948.