WAOB-FM (106.7 MHz) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Serving the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, as well as parts of Eastern Ohio and the West Virginia panhandle, it is owned by St. Joseph Missions and it simulcasts a Catholic radio format with sister stations WAOB 860 AM and WPGR 1510 AM. The stations carry programs from the EWTN Radio Network.
WAOB-FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 37,000 watts. Its transmitter is on VIP Drive near Interstate 79 in Wexford, Pennsylvania. The radio studios and offices are located on Ligonier Street in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
Previously, 1996 to 2009, 106.7 FM was legendary Urban Contemporary - R&B station WAMO-FM.
History
Easy Listening and Rock
106.7 FM signed on in . Its original call sign was WWKS. For much of the 1960s and 1970s, it was a automated beautiful music and easy listening station known as "Kiss FM."
During the 1980s, as easy listening music saw its audience aging, management decided to go in another direction. The station flipped to classic rock. By November 1993, 106.7 FM was known as "The Force" with an album rock format.
The Force touted itself with the motto "The Best of Rock." The station flipped to modern rock in 1995 as "106-7 The X", WXDX. The station became the Pittsburgh affiliate for Howard Stern, beginning that November.
WAMO-FM Urban Contemporary
On April 10, 1996, at 3 p.m., WXDX swapped frequencies with WAMO-FM, an urban contemporary radio station. That resulted in WAMO-FM moving to the 105.9 frequency. This came after Clear Channel Communications, the owner of WXDX, paid Sheridan Broadcasting (WAMO's owners) to swap frequencies, wanting better full-market coverage. Sheridan was also running into financial difficulties during this time, agreeing to the frequency swap to keep the station in the black.
The swap resulted in WAMO-FM moving to the 106.7 frequency, with limited coverage in Pittsburgh's southern suburbs. To make up for the loss of coverage, WAMO-FM was also simulcast with WSSZ to cover part of the metropolitan area, beginning that same year. In 2004, WAMO-FM relocated its transmitter, resulting in better coverage. At the same time, WSSZ broke from the simulcast and shifted to Urban Adult Contemporary and became WJJJ-FM, "Majic 107.1." In 2004, the station changed its longtime on-air brand from Hot 106, WAMO to 106.7 WAMO, Pittsburgh's #1 for Hip Hop & R&B.
Frequency swap
On May 15, 2009, Sheridan announced that it had sold WAMO, WAMO-FM and WPGR-AM to St. Joseph Missions for $8.9 million. The deal was approved by the Federal Communications Commission, and the stations were to change to a Catholic religious format by February 2010. All thirty-five WAMO employees were laid off or fired after the sale closed, leaving Pittsburgh without an Urban formatted outlet. The call letters were changed to WAOB upon the transfer of ownership.
The news of this sale attracted a lot of attention, and the reaction from listeners. African-American radio listeners were left with no options in the Pittsburgh radio market; however, due to the high ratings WAMO-FM had with its Urban format, it was assumed another station in Pittsburgh would switch to Urban Contemporary to take advantage of the newly available audience. Some had hoped that WOGI would pick up the Urban format. Instead, Keymarket sold the station to Educational Media Foundation, which replaced WOGI's Country music format with its "K-LOVE" Christian contemporary network.
At 6:07 p.m. on September 8, 2009, WAMO-FM discontinued broadcasting. Its last song was Boyz II Men's It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday, which was followed by silence. Since then, other outlets began adding some form of Urban or R&B programming, as AC outlet WLTJ launched a nighttime Adult R&B program called "Q after Dark" aimed at a 25-54 audience in the same month.
In addition, the Hip Hop music and R&B titles playlist was increased on Clear Channel Communications's WKST-FM (96.1 Kiss FM), a Top 40 station.