WAMO (AM)
WAMO (AM)
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WAMO (AM)

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WAMO (AM)

WAMO (660 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, and serving the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. It broadcasts an urban contemporary radio format, is owned by the Martz Communications Group and is operated by Audacy, Inc., under a local marketing agreement (LMA).

Its studios and AM transmitter are located in Braddock, east of Pittsburgh.

By day, WAMO is powered at 1,400 watts. To protect the nighttime signal of Class A station WFAN in New York City on the same frequency, WAMO is a daytimer, required to go off the air at night. Programming is also heard on 250-watt FM translator W297BU (107.3 MHz) in Pittsburgh. It uses the FM dial position in its moniker WAMO 107.3.

The station signed on the air on August 25, 1960. Initially, the station broadcast on 1470 kHz in Portage, Pennsylvania, halfway between Johnstown and Altoona, under the call sign WWML. It operated as a daytime-only station.

It saw numerous changes in format (usually between country and oldies) and call sign; it was variously known as WWML, WRML, WHYM, WZGO, and WFJY. In 1990, 1470 finally received permission from the Federal Communications Commission to operate at night with a limited power of 88 watts. Though successful financially in its earlier years, the station and its FM sister, then known as WZGO, experienced a sharp decline during the mid 1980s, as did the local economy, in part due to the collapse of the region's steel-producing and coal-mining industries.

Under FCC rules which permit a station owner to move a daytime-only station and change its frequency, WFJY was relocated to the Pittsburgh area with a new frequency and city of license around 2004. On 660, the station first signed on with the callsign WCIX, before changing to WPYT.

The station formerly carried programming from then-owner Alex Langer's National Radio Network programming lineup until the network ceased operations in March 2010. Martz planned to put an urban/urban AC format on the station, returning this programming to the Pittsburgh market for the first time since WAMO (860 AM) and WAMO-FM (106.7) were sold to Catholic broadcasters in 2009.

On May 21, 2011, WPYT and translator W261AX (100.1 FM) signed on with the promised mainstream urban format, but have always had a shift towards rhythmic contemporary. At the end of 2011, they changed their slogan to "Pittsburgh's home for Hip-hop and Hottest Hits" and became an official rhythmic contemporary station.

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