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WOWO
WOWO (1190 AM) – branded News/Talk WOWO 92.3 FM 1190 AM – is a commercial talk radio station licensed to Fort Wayne, Indiana, serving primarily the Fort Wayne metropolitan area. Currently owned by Federated Media via licensee Pathfinder Communications, WOWO serves as the Fort Wayne affiliate for: Fox News Radio, The Glenn Beck Program, The Dan Bongino Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The Buck Sexton Show, Coast to Coast AM; and was the flagship station for the Fort Wayne Komets.
The WOWO studios are located at the transmitter site for sister station WKJG on Maples Road in Fort Wayne, while the station transmitter resides in Roanoke. Besides its main analog transmission, WOWO used to broadcast over an in-band on-channel HD Radio signal; although it simulcasts over both analog Fort Wayne translator W298BJ (107.5 FM), WFWI (92.3 FM), and the HD2 digital subchannel of WMEE; and streams online with availability on the iHeartRadio platform. WOWO is one of three primary entry point stations for Fort Wayne in the Emergency Alert System.
Historically, the station is perhaps best known for having been a clear-channel station with extended nighttime skywave range from 1941 until 1999; it was downgraded to a Class B AM signal after a 1995 ownership transfer briefly put it under common ownership with WLIB in New York City. WOWO was also the first radio station in the world to broadcast a live basketball game, and the first station to be acquired by Westinghouse Electric Corporation subsidiary Westinghouse Broadcasting, which owned the station from 1936 to 1982. WOWO's call letters are usually phonetically pronounced on-air as "Wo-Wo", rhyming with "go-go."
WOWO was first licensed in 1925 to the Main Auto Supply Co. at 213 West Main Street, and began broadcasting on March 31, 1925, with 500 watts of power on 1320 kHz. The station was put on the air by Chester W. Keen, owner of Main Auto Supply, and studios were located upstairs in the company building. WOWO was the fourth station to be established in Fort Wayne, but because the first two—WFAS, licensed to the United Radio Corporation in 1922, and WDBV, licensed to the Strand Theatre in 1924—had each ceased operations a few months afterwards, it is the second-oldest-surviving, after WGL, which signed on the year before as WHBJ.
At the time of its establishment a majority of new radio stations received call signs from a sequential list maintained by the regulators at the Department of Commerce, but station owners were also permitted to make special requests, and a contemporary report commenting on WOWO's distinctive call letters suggested "The trick call letters, it is believed, will add to the novelty of the plant." By choosing WOWO for easy pronunciation as a two-syllable word, in the station had a call sign that exhibited more brevity than even three-letter versions. Despite this, announcers and disk jockeys on WOWO were originally prohibited from calling the station "Wo-Wo" on the air until the late 1960s, when a contest was introduced to identify songs in which the "woe" sound appeared. The WOWO call sign was later back-filled as a tongue-in-cheek acronym: "Wayne (as in Fort Wayne) Offers Wonderful Opportunities".
In 1927, WOWO was made a pioneer station joining the CBS Radio Network and remained a CBS network affiliate until 1956. In 1928, Keen sold WOWO to Fred Zieg, who also owned WGL. In 1929, Zieg received government approval to move WOWO to 1190 kHz with a power of 10,000 watts and to move WGL over to WOWO's former 1320 kHz. Until WOWO's purchase by Westinghouse in 1936, Zieg managed the advertising sales of both WOWO and WGL through WOWO-WGL Sales Service, Inc.
On July 4, 1929, the building housing WOWO and WGL caught fire. No casualties were reported, and operations were moved to a nearby location; amazingly enough, the station's large pipe organ, a familiar sound on the station, was not damaged in the blaze. Operations were resumed the following day, and the WOWO pipe organ was later relocated to Gospel Temple in Fort Wayne.
In 1930, WOWO was the first radio station in the world to broadcast a live basketball game. It is also considered to be the first station to broadcast live Indiana high school sports events.
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WOWO
WOWO (1190 AM) – branded News/Talk WOWO 92.3 FM 1190 AM – is a commercial talk radio station licensed to Fort Wayne, Indiana, serving primarily the Fort Wayne metropolitan area. Currently owned by Federated Media via licensee Pathfinder Communications, WOWO serves as the Fort Wayne affiliate for: Fox News Radio, The Glenn Beck Program, The Dan Bongino Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The Buck Sexton Show, Coast to Coast AM; and was the flagship station for the Fort Wayne Komets.
The WOWO studios are located at the transmitter site for sister station WKJG on Maples Road in Fort Wayne, while the station transmitter resides in Roanoke. Besides its main analog transmission, WOWO used to broadcast over an in-band on-channel HD Radio signal; although it simulcasts over both analog Fort Wayne translator W298BJ (107.5 FM), WFWI (92.3 FM), and the HD2 digital subchannel of WMEE; and streams online with availability on the iHeartRadio platform. WOWO is one of three primary entry point stations for Fort Wayne in the Emergency Alert System.
Historically, the station is perhaps best known for having been a clear-channel station with extended nighttime skywave range from 1941 until 1999; it was downgraded to a Class B AM signal after a 1995 ownership transfer briefly put it under common ownership with WLIB in New York City. WOWO was also the first radio station in the world to broadcast a live basketball game, and the first station to be acquired by Westinghouse Electric Corporation subsidiary Westinghouse Broadcasting, which owned the station from 1936 to 1982. WOWO's call letters are usually phonetically pronounced on-air as "Wo-Wo", rhyming with "go-go."
WOWO was first licensed in 1925 to the Main Auto Supply Co. at 213 West Main Street, and began broadcasting on March 31, 1925, with 500 watts of power on 1320 kHz. The station was put on the air by Chester W. Keen, owner of Main Auto Supply, and studios were located upstairs in the company building. WOWO was the fourth station to be established in Fort Wayne, but because the first two—WFAS, licensed to the United Radio Corporation in 1922, and WDBV, licensed to the Strand Theatre in 1924—had each ceased operations a few months afterwards, it is the second-oldest-surviving, after WGL, which signed on the year before as WHBJ.
At the time of its establishment a majority of new radio stations received call signs from a sequential list maintained by the regulators at the Department of Commerce, but station owners were also permitted to make special requests, and a contemporary report commenting on WOWO's distinctive call letters suggested "The trick call letters, it is believed, will add to the novelty of the plant." By choosing WOWO for easy pronunciation as a two-syllable word, in the station had a call sign that exhibited more brevity than even three-letter versions. Despite this, announcers and disk jockeys on WOWO were originally prohibited from calling the station "Wo-Wo" on the air until the late 1960s, when a contest was introduced to identify songs in which the "woe" sound appeared. The WOWO call sign was later back-filled as a tongue-in-cheek acronym: "Wayne (as in Fort Wayne) Offers Wonderful Opportunities".
In 1927, WOWO was made a pioneer station joining the CBS Radio Network and remained a CBS network affiliate until 1956. In 1928, Keen sold WOWO to Fred Zieg, who also owned WGL. In 1929, Zieg received government approval to move WOWO to 1190 kHz with a power of 10,000 watts and to move WGL over to WOWO's former 1320 kHz. Until WOWO's purchase by Westinghouse in 1936, Zieg managed the advertising sales of both WOWO and WGL through WOWO-WGL Sales Service, Inc.
On July 4, 1929, the building housing WOWO and WGL caught fire. No casualties were reported, and operations were moved to a nearby location; amazingly enough, the station's large pipe organ, a familiar sound on the station, was not damaged in the blaze. Operations were resumed the following day, and the WOWO pipe organ was later relocated to Gospel Temple in Fort Wayne.
In 1930, WOWO was the first radio station in the world to broadcast a live basketball game. It is also considered to be the first station to broadcast live Indiana high school sports events.
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