WCST

WCST is a News/Talk/Sports formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, serving Berkeley Springs and Morgan County, West Virginia. WCST is owned and operated by Capper Broadcasting Company.

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.

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.

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. The Washington Hotel was owned at the time of the fire by the late Rev C S Fowler.

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for WCST
• Radio-Locator Information on WCST
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WCST