WCST (AM)
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| WCST | |
| City of license | Berkeley Springs, West Virginia |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Berkeley Springs, West Virginia Morgan County, West Virginia |
| Branding | "92-9 Down Home Country" |
| Frequency | 1010 kHz |
| First air date | September 7, 1958 |
| Format | Country Bluegrass Americana |
| Power | 250 Watts daytime 17 Watts nighttime |
| Class | D |
| Callsign meaning | W Charles S. Trump see note |
| Affiliations | ABC Radio News West Virginia Metro News |
| Owner | Capper Broadcasting Co. |
| Sister stations | WDHC |
| Website | WCST Online |
WCST is a Country, Bluegrass, and Americana formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, serving Berkeley Springs and Morgan County, West Virginia. WCST is owned and operated by Massanutten Broadcasting Co., Inc.
[edit] History
WCST signed on the air on September 7, 1958. WCST started Dale Brooks, Tom Butcher, Kenny Robertson and Gary Daniels. They offered local programming, advertising and rock n' roll music. The call letters of the station were a tribute to Charles S. Trump, a major force behind getting the station on the air.
WCST adopted FM in 1965 and changed its genre to country music with the frequency 93.5 - It was sold in the 1980s to Sam and Mary Lou Trump and later to Emmett Capper in 1995.
For many years WCST played country music, 23 hours a day, why they went off the air for just one hour remains a mystery. AM1010 was reported to be dark several times, but is just a tough catch even within town limits due to a bad tower location and tower ground system.
WCST has applied for a construction permit to raise their daytime wattage to 267 watts, up from 250 and to get a better ground system. WCST operates for the time being from dawn to dusk, even though they are allotted 17 watts at night.
In the Summer of 2006, Berkeley Springs High School games and other local programming, which were heard on sister station WDHC were moved to WCST when WDHC moved to 92.9.
Also in 2006, WCST and WDHC finally made a presence on the internet of sorts, with a MySpace Group operated by employees of the station. This, to date, is the only online presence WCST and WDHC have had.
[edit] Footnote
WCST does hold a tragic footnote in the history of radio. In 1974, a member of their staff, a newly hired DJ from WSHP in Shippensburg, PA, died in the Berkeley Springs/Washington Hotel fire, along with 11 other victims. The fire, to this day, remains the most deadliest fire to happen in this region.
[edit] External links
- 92-9 Down Home Country Online
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WCST
- Radio Locator Information on WCST
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