EMF acquires second full power FM in Pittsburgh
November 8, 2024Educational Media Foundation has acquired its second full-power FM in Pittsburgh from Forever Media as of today. This time it’s Burgettstown-licensed WOGH (103.5) which EMF paid $800,000. WOGH was originally WSTV-FM licensed to Steubenville, Ohio and was under the same ownership as WSTV-TV (9; now WTOV) and WSTV-AM (1340; now deleted). Prior to Forever owning the station it was WRKY. Despite the City of License change, the station’s antenna remains on Altamonte Hill on WTOV’s tower.
Several years ago EMF bought Duquesne-licensed WOGI (98.3; now WPKV) from Forever in 2009 bringing the K-Love format to Pittsburgh. 98.3 was originally Charleroi’s top-40 WESA-FM which served as a starting point for many of the area’s budding radio talent.
The move gives EMF more coverage to Pittsburgh’s western region and the Ohio Valley. But that means the end of a “trimulcast” for the Froggy country format which will continue to be heard on the current WOGI (104.3 Moon Township) and WOGG (94.9 Oliver).
Today’s acquisition included Baltimore, Ohio station WWLG (102.5; now WKVR) for just over $2 Million and introducing the K-Love format to Columbus region.
102.5 FM in “Baltimore” Ohio is the former WHIZ-FM in Zanesville.
I figured 103.5 would end up in EMF’s hands before long. As soon as they dropped the Willie classic country format I knew it was a stop gap before selling. It\’s still sad to see yet another local commercial FM go away, even if it was simulcast 20 of the last 25 years.
This post brings back fond memories of WRKY, Rocky 103, which ran some of the worst automation ever. I can recall listening to them on a speaker pillow in the wee hours of the morning when they’d kick to a newscast from two days prior which started off “It’s currently 93 degrees in Steubenville…” It will be interesting to see whether EMF just simulcasts K-LOVE here or goes with one of their other formats like Air 1.