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Saturday, July 30, 2011

The Saturday Aircheck

1190 AM WOWO, Ft. Wayne, In. and Ron Gregory


Located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, WOWO is currently transmitting on 1190 kHz at 50,000 watts during the daylight hours and 9,800 watts during the nighttime hours. An application is on file with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to add a fourth tower to the three tower directional antenna array and increase nighttime power to 15,000 watts.

From 1941 to 1995 WOWO was well-known, in both Indiana and areas to the east, as one of the clear-channel AM stations. This was due to the station broadcasting continuously at 50,000 watts of power both during daylight and nighttime hours. From sunset to sunrise, WOWO's directional antennas were configured to broadcast to the eastern United States. These directional nighttime broadcasts were branded as WOWO's Nighttime Skywave Service, the "voice of a thousand Main Streets". During the 1970s, the station's hourly ID (required by the FCC) stated: "50,000 watts on 1190, WOWO, Fort Wayne, Group W, Westinghouse Broadcasting."

Because WOWO's Nighttime Skywave Service caused WLIB, also 1190 kHz, in New York City to cease broadcasting at sunset each day and resume broadcasting at sunrise, Inner City Broadcasting bought WOWO in 1994 so that they could transfer WOWO's FCC clear-channel license to WLIB, owned by Inner City Broadcasting. This reduced WOWO's potential audience—referred to as WOWOland—from much of the eastern United States to a much smaller local region in northern Indiana, northwestern Ohio, and south-central Michigan. Before the power reduction, when WLIB signed off at night, WOWO's air signal came booming through the speakers into the WLIB air studio.

From 1973 into the '80s, Ron Gregory was the evening talent on the then 50kw WOWO. This aircheck is from February 1982 and is compliments of historyofwowo.com website.


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