WDIG (AM)

Infobox Radio station
name = WDIG


city = Steubenville, Ohio
area = Wheeling
branding =
slogan =
airdate = 1973 (as WLIT)
frequency = 950 kHz
format = Urban Oldies
power = 1,000 Watts Day
erp =
haat =
class = D
facility_id = 73769
coordinates = coord|176|26|49|N|176|34|6|W
callsign_meaning =
former_callsigns =
owner = World Witness For Christ Ministries, Inc.
licensee =
sister_stations =
webcast =
website =
affiliations = Expand|date=December 2007 WDIG (950 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Urban Oldies format. Licensed to Steubenville, Ohio, USA, it serves the Wheeling area. The station is currently owned by World Witness For Christ Ministries, Inc.

History: Beginnings as WLIT

This station first signed on the air as WLIT back in 1973, and was the last AM station to come on the air in the Steubenville market.

Steubenville, like Pittsburgh and Wheeling, the larger cities surrounding it, fell economically due to the collapse of the steel industry in the early 1980s. The steel industry supported much of the retail industry, which radio depends upon for its survival. After the collapse, many local stations in the area, were in a literal fight for survival. WLIT was no exception to this, and despite hard times, managed to forge ahead and struggle through the 1980s, until it was purchase by Romano Cironi, Sr. in the late 1980s.

Following the ownership change, the call letters were changed to WDIG and the new owners adopted an oldies format, delivered via satellite through the "Pure Gold" 60's and 70's oldies format delivered through the Satellite Music Network. The call letters were a play on words for "DIG", the popular youth slang term of the 60's to reflect the new sound.

However, in the early 1990s, the station began to have much more serious problems, as two oldies-formatted FM stations suddenly began to dominate the landscape. WJPA in Washington, Pennsylvania switched to oldies and embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign to attract new listeners. A new adult contemporary FM station, WWYS, had been launched in Cadiz, Ohio at 106.3 back in 1990. It too switched to oldies and now with the FM competition, WDIG found itself fighting for its survival, but the fight proved futile, as the station fell silent in 1992, and would not return until over a year later.

Rebirth

WDIG returned to the air with a new gospel format after the station was purchased from Cironi in late 1993. This ownership arrangement continued for three years, until it was purchased by Pittsburgh urban radio programmer and manager Del King, who had leased an AM station in Pittsburgh trying to launch his adult urban contemporary format, but the lease deal ended following that station's sale.

King purchased WDIG under the name of his company, Chae Communications. The station was sold to its current owner in 2002.

External links

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