WWGE

Infobox Radio station
name = WWGE


city = Loretto, Pennsylvania
area = Johnstown, Pennsylvania
branding = "The Edge 1400"
slogan =
airdate = 1922
frequency = 1400 kHz
format = Talk/Personality & Sports
power = 1000 Watts
class = C
callsign_meaning =
former_callsigns = WTAC, WJAC, WWSF, WAMQ, WJRV, WEBG, WBZV
owner = Pennsylvania Radiowerks
licensee =
sister_stations =
webcast = [http://www.streamcommando.com/castcontrol/playlist.php?port=9068 Listen Live]
website = http://www.edge-radio.com
affiliations = Saint Francis University, Pittsburgh Pirates, Pittsburgh Penguins, Westwood One, Sports USA, Sporting News Radio, USA Radio Network, Radio America, TRN

WWGE is a commercially-licensed AM radio station serving Cambria County, in west central Pennsylvania. WWGE operates at the federally-assigned frequency of 1400 kilohertz and a maximum power output of 1,000 watts. Its programing is currently simulcast on Birach Broadcasting Corporation-owned WKGE AM 850 in Johnstown. The station is licensed to the community of Loretto and is owned by Pennsylvania Radiowerks, LLC.

History

According to the station's website, WWGE's roots go all the way back to 1922, when it first signed on the air as WTAC-AM in November of that year. In the eight decades that have passed, WWGE has seen a myriad of call letter and frequency changes along the way. WTAC signed on at the dial position of 833 AM and went through three different channel assignments before settling on AM 1400 in 1941.

The AM 1400 frequency first appeared in the region as one of many channel assignments for WJAC-AM in Johnstown, which first signed on the air in 1925. WJAC later moved to AM 850 in 1963, leaving AM 1400 open and available.

AM 1400 was picked up by St. Francis College (now St. Francis University) that year and signed on as WWSF October 7, 1963. The college continued its ownership of the station until about 1981, when it was sold to Sherlock-Hart Broadcasting, a company headed by legendary Pittsburgh broadcaster Ed Sherlock and partner Neil Hart. Rebranded as WAMQ, the new country-formatted station moved from the college campus to the First United Federal Building in Ebensburg, where it remained until it was sold in 1992 to Sherlock-Hart Broadcasting employee Tom Stevens, who had worked for Sherlock-Hart Broadcasting's FM property WBXQ in Altoona (but licensed to Cresson).

Stevens purchased the station for $55,000, changed to call letters to WJRV and the format to soft rock, and relocated the studios to his home. Unforeseen circumstances later forced Stevens to sell the station in 1995. The station went to another owner under the call letters WEBG (the call letters of another Ebensburg AM that had been given up years before) before being sold to Radiowerks in 1999.

Programming

WWGE is primarily programmed with various syndicated talk radio programs, generally geared toward a male audience. The station boasts an all-syndicated lineup of the Steve and DC Morning Show, The Laura Ingraham Show, G. Gordon Liddy, and The Mike O'Meara Show. Evenings, overnights, and weekends are filled by programs from Sporting News Radio. WWGE is also the home for Leo Stanek's "Sunday Sounds of Polka Music," a locally originated program prominently featuring the Polish-style polka.

WWGE is also the flagship station for Saint Francis University Red Flash Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the NFL on Westwood One as well as the Sports USA Radio Network. WWGE also broadcasts local sporting events from Penn Cambria, Bishop Carroll, and Central Cambria High Schools.

External links

* [http://www.edge-radio.com WWGE official website]
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