Hubbry Logo
search
logo
WMNY
WMNY
current hub

WMNY

logo
Community Hub0 Subscribers
Write something...
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
See all
WMNY

WMNY (1150 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New Kensington, Pennsylvania and serving the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. It is owned by Gagan Deep, through licensee Radio 1150 Limited Liability Company. It airs a South Asian radio format featuring Bollywood music and talk, known as "Radio Dhoom."

By day, WMNY broadcasts with 1,000 watts, but to avoid interfering with other stations on 1150 AM, it reduces power at night to 70 watts. It uses a two-tower array directional antenna at all times. The station's transmitter facility is located on Regis Lane near the intersection of Murray Hill Road, in East Deer Township, Pennsylvania.

The construction permit for the station was granted on June 25, 1940. The first call sign was WKPA and signed on in October. It was initially licensed to operate on 1120 kHz, with a power output of 250 watts as a daytimer, required to go off the air at night. The station was granted permission by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate from October 3 to October 8 with extended hours to 10pm for dedicatory program reasons. The FCC also granted permission for WKPA to remain on the air until 3am from November 5 to 6 for election return reports.

WKPA operated at this frequency until the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) frequency re-allocation occurred in 1941. That year, WKPA moved to its present dial position but continued to operate at its daytime-only status.

WKPA was a typical, small-town radio station of its day. Local news, sports, and talk from the steel town of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, 20 miles northeast of downtown Pittsburgh. The station began at 810 Fifth Avenue, New Kensington, on the second floor of a two-story building that also housed a music store on the ground floor. Cooper Brothers, the owners of the music store, operated WKPA under the corporate name of Allegheny-Kiski Broadcasting Company, with Edward Kroen serving as the station's general manager and program director.

In 1957, Allegheny-Kiski Broadcasting Company applied for a construction permit to increase WKPA's power to its current level of one thousand watts, daytime only, which required the construction of a second antenna at its transmitter site in East Deer Township. Concurrently, the company applied for permission to add a second studio location at 321 Fifth Avenue in Tarentum. This second studio stayed in operation until 1963.

The Cooper family sold the station on July 2, 1964 to Nelson L. Goldberg, who had worked for the Cooper family as WKPA's general manager. Goldberg operated the station until its 1990 sale as Gateway Broadcasting Enterprises, Inc., not to be confused with Gateway Communications, which at that time owned a television station in Altoona.

Goldberg, an innovator, pioneer and visionary in the telecommunications industry, developed the first cable system to be acquired by Comcast.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.