WAMO (AM)
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| WAMO | |
| City of license | Millvale, Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Pittsburgh metropolitan area |
| Branding | "AM 860, WAMO" |
| Frequency | 860 (kHz) |
| First air date | 1948 |
| Format | Urban Adult Contemporary/Urban Talk |
| ERP | 1,000 watts (Daytime) 830 watts (Nighttime) |
| Callsign meaning | W Allegheny Monogahela Ohio |
| Owner | Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation |
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This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (December 2007) |
AM 860, WAMO is a radio station specializing in programming to Pittsburgh's African-American community. The station, which is owned by Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation, broadcasts at 860 kHz with an ERP of 1 kW-D/830 W-N pattern and is licensed to Millvale, Pennsylvania.
[edit] History
WAMO-AM, which signed on in 1948 as WHOD, licensed then to Homestead, before changing its call letters in 1956 (The AMO referring to the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers), has served the area for over 50 years, although the Urban contemporary format it started with is now on its FM sister station.
It was also a daytimer until the 1990s when its signal was upgraded, and its city of license was changed from Pittsburgh to Millvale. For a time during the 1990's, the station bounced back between the call letters WYJZ and WAMO.
What put WAMO on the map, though, was in the 1950's, when WAMO disc jockey Craig "Porky" Chedwick, started playing a variety of what then came to be known as "the first oldies", scouring record bins for lost R&B recordings, building up a library for such material and creating through his show what came to be later known as "Pittsburgh's Oldies", a show and style later imitated by many DJ's in Pittsburgh, as well as across the country. Many credit Chedwick with being the father of "Oldies" radio.
On January 31, 2006 WAMO inked a deal with Radio One to pick up its Urban Talk format. The change took place on February 27, 2006. This format did not last long, and on August 28, 2006, the station returned to a music format it described as "R&B and classic soul," retaining the Tom Joyner and Bev Smith programs in mornings and late-nights, respectively.
