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WLOA
WLOA (1470 AM) is a commercial rhythmic contemporary radio station licensed to Farrell, Pennsylvania. Owned by Over/Under, LLC, the station serves both the Sharon, Pennsylvania, and Youngstown, Ohio markets. WLOA also simulcasts over Youngstown translator W272EI (102.3 FM). The WLOA studios are located in the city of Meadville, while the transmitter for WLOA resides off of South State Line Road in Masury, Ohio; W272EI's transmitter is located off of Mabel Street in Youngstown's Lansingville neighborhood. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WLOA is available online.
The station first signed on the air as WFAR, a 500-watt daytime-only station, on October 3, 1954. The station was founded by Sanford A. Schafitz, a native of the Youngstown area, doing business as Farrell-Sharon Broadcasting Company. Before WFAR went on the air, a dispute occurred between Greater New Castle Broadcasting Corporation and Schafitz. Greater New Castle Broadcasting Corporation wanted to put a 1,000 watt daytime-only station on 1460 kHz in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and Schafitz wanted to put a 500 watt daytime only station on 1470 kHz. The FCC ruled in favor of Schafitz on September 4, 1953, and he put the station on the air shortly thereafter.
WFAR applied for a power increase to 1,000 watts daytime on February 1, 1955, granted by the FCC on September 22, 1955. An application to operate 24 hours a day, transmitting 1,000 watts daytime and 500 watts at night using a three-tower directional antenna system, was filed on April 10, 1957; WFAR also sought to change transmission locations to South State Line Road in Masury, Ohio, its current location. The FCC granted the request on September 24, 1958, and these operating parameters were implemented by 1961. Around this time, Schafitz also started up WWIZ in Lorain, Ohio in 1958 and was involved in the launching of WXTV in Youngstown, despite the latter having authority to sign on as early as 1955, WXTV didn't formally launch until 1960.
WFAR's license was almost denied renewal in the wake of findings that Schafitz transferred station control of WWIZ to The Journal of Lorain without authorization from the FCC weeks before the station signed on, which was further complicated by Harry Horvitz (the chief owner of Journal Publishing) and his attempt to buy the station outright in 1961. The Journal was a party that actually tried to get the station assigned in the first place via a complicated straw-man transaction designed to circumvent the legal requirements which prevented the newspaper from holding a license. (Prior to the 1948 establishment of the radio station WEOL in Elyria, Ohio, The Journal had a near monopoly on news gathering in the city of Lorain.) The Journal paid a total of $56,000 for all the authorized nonvoting and voting preferred stock in WWIZ, a transaction later cited by the FCC as a means to finance WXTV's construction.
The licenses for WFAR, WXTV and WWIZ were designated for hearing by the FCC in March 1962 as part of a review of all of Schafitz's holdings; days after the designation was announced, WXTV failed to sign on due to "technical difficulties" and never resumed broadcasting. WXTV was denied a license renewal, and a license to cover a construction permit to move to channel 45 because Schafitz failed to disclose that Guy W. Gully, who was 50% owner of WXTV, was indicted for a felony.
On March 25, 1964, the FCC issued the decision to deny the license renewals of WWIZ and WXTV and ordered them off the air by June 1. However, the FCC allowed the license for WFAR to be renewed. WXTV's channel allocation was reassigned to Alliance as an educational frequency and was eventually occupied by WNEO. The license for WWIZ was appealed before the Supreme Court, and ultimately was revoked in late 1966. WWIZ then operated under a temporary permit until being ordered off the air entirely on July 14, 1967, with a replacement station being launched on December 4, 1969 as WLRO (and today known as WDLW).
In 1976, WFAR was joined by WFAR-FM, operating at 95.9, and signing on on December 28 of that year. Both stations shared the same call letters despite WFAR-FM's city of license as nearby Sharpsville, and having its own independent programming.
Schafitz died in May 1979. WFAR and its sister station, WFAR-FM, were sold on October 24, 1980 to Broadcast Service Communications, Inc., a company headed by Robert E. Kassi, for $603,750. WFAR was immediately rechristened with the new call letters WGBU, with the Top-40 and oldies format being dropped in favor of beautiful music, news and talk, eventually adopting a full-time news and talk format by 1982. WFAR-FM was rechristened as WGBZ, adopting a rock format and aspiring to serve Youngstown.
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WLOA
WLOA (1470 AM) is a commercial rhythmic contemporary radio station licensed to Farrell, Pennsylvania. Owned by Over/Under, LLC, the station serves both the Sharon, Pennsylvania, and Youngstown, Ohio markets. WLOA also simulcasts over Youngstown translator W272EI (102.3 FM). The WLOA studios are located in the city of Meadville, while the transmitter for WLOA resides off of South State Line Road in Masury, Ohio; W272EI's transmitter is located off of Mabel Street in Youngstown's Lansingville neighborhood. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WLOA is available online.
The station first signed on the air as WFAR, a 500-watt daytime-only station, on October 3, 1954. The station was founded by Sanford A. Schafitz, a native of the Youngstown area, doing business as Farrell-Sharon Broadcasting Company. Before WFAR went on the air, a dispute occurred between Greater New Castle Broadcasting Corporation and Schafitz. Greater New Castle Broadcasting Corporation wanted to put a 1,000 watt daytime-only station on 1460 kHz in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and Schafitz wanted to put a 500 watt daytime only station on 1470 kHz. The FCC ruled in favor of Schafitz on September 4, 1953, and he put the station on the air shortly thereafter.
WFAR applied for a power increase to 1,000 watts daytime on February 1, 1955, granted by the FCC on September 22, 1955. An application to operate 24 hours a day, transmitting 1,000 watts daytime and 500 watts at night using a three-tower directional antenna system, was filed on April 10, 1957; WFAR also sought to change transmission locations to South State Line Road in Masury, Ohio, its current location. The FCC granted the request on September 24, 1958, and these operating parameters were implemented by 1961. Around this time, Schafitz also started up WWIZ in Lorain, Ohio in 1958 and was involved in the launching of WXTV in Youngstown, despite the latter having authority to sign on as early as 1955, WXTV didn't formally launch until 1960.
WFAR's license was almost denied renewal in the wake of findings that Schafitz transferred station control of WWIZ to The Journal of Lorain without authorization from the FCC weeks before the station signed on, which was further complicated by Harry Horvitz (the chief owner of Journal Publishing) and his attempt to buy the station outright in 1961. The Journal was a party that actually tried to get the station assigned in the first place via a complicated straw-man transaction designed to circumvent the legal requirements which prevented the newspaper from holding a license. (Prior to the 1948 establishment of the radio station WEOL in Elyria, Ohio, The Journal had a near monopoly on news gathering in the city of Lorain.) The Journal paid a total of $56,000 for all the authorized nonvoting and voting preferred stock in WWIZ, a transaction later cited by the FCC as a means to finance WXTV's construction.
The licenses for WFAR, WXTV and WWIZ were designated for hearing by the FCC in March 1962 as part of a review of all of Schafitz's holdings; days after the designation was announced, WXTV failed to sign on due to "technical difficulties" and never resumed broadcasting. WXTV was denied a license renewal, and a license to cover a construction permit to move to channel 45 because Schafitz failed to disclose that Guy W. Gully, who was 50% owner of WXTV, was indicted for a felony.
On March 25, 1964, the FCC issued the decision to deny the license renewals of WWIZ and WXTV and ordered them off the air by June 1. However, the FCC allowed the license for WFAR to be renewed. WXTV's channel allocation was reassigned to Alliance as an educational frequency and was eventually occupied by WNEO. The license for WWIZ was appealed before the Supreme Court, and ultimately was revoked in late 1966. WWIZ then operated under a temporary permit until being ordered off the air entirely on July 14, 1967, with a replacement station being launched on December 4, 1969 as WLRO (and today known as WDLW).
In 1976, WFAR was joined by WFAR-FM, operating at 95.9, and signing on on December 28 of that year. Both stations shared the same call letters despite WFAR-FM's city of license as nearby Sharpsville, and having its own independent programming.
Schafitz died in May 1979. WFAR and its sister station, WFAR-FM, were sold on October 24, 1980 to Broadcast Service Communications, Inc., a company headed by Robert E. Kassi, for $603,750. WFAR was immediately rechristened with the new call letters WGBU, with the Top-40 and oldies format being dropped in favor of beautiful music, news and talk, eventually adopting a full-time news and talk format by 1982. WFAR-FM was rechristened as WGBZ, adopting a rock format and aspiring to serve Youngstown.