WECZ
| City | Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Punxsutawney – DuBois |
| Branding | News/Talk AM 1540 |
| Frequency | AM 1540 kHz FM 100.3 mHz |
| First air date | March 18, 1953 (AM) TBA (FM) |
| Format | News, talk, sports |
| ERP | 5,000 watts (day) 1,000 watts (critical hours) |
| Callsign meaning | EZ 1540 (former branding) |
| Owner |
Renda Broadcasting Corporation (Renda Radio, Inc.) |
| Website | weczam1540 |
WECZ (1540 AM, "News/Talk AM 1540") is an American commercially licensed daytime-only radio station, licensed to serve the community of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The station operates at 1,540 kilohertz with a maximum power output of 5,000 watts daytime, and 1,000 watts during critical hours. WECZ is owned by Renda Radio, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Renda Broadcasting Corporation of Pittsburgh.
WECZ also holds a construction permit to simulcast programming over W265DI, an FM translator also licensed to Punxsutawney. Once signed on, this translator will operate at 100.3 mHz, and at a power output of 250 watts. The translator had been initially licensed to Oswego, New York as W231BK and under the ownership of Bath, New York-based Family Life Ministries. Renda Radio, Inc. purchased the translator from Family Life Ministries on January 27, 2016, for $120,000. The transaction includes two other FM translators held by Family Life Ministries that were sold to Renda Radio. It is not yet known when W265DI will sign on the air.
WECZ became Jefferson County's very first radio station, having signed on the air in 1953 as WPME. The call letters were formed by the first letter of the last names of the station's three founding owners; Sheridan Pruett, Frank Miller, and Charles Erhard, doing business as Punxsutawney Broadcasting Company. The station began with a daytime-only power output of 1,000 watts, with studios at 103 North Gilpin Street in downtown Punxsutawney.
In the 1970s, WPME used the slogan "Western Pennsylvania's Musical Experience, WPME."
Until the early 1980s, WPME had an auxiliary studio on Main Street, and later 100 Franklin Avenue in Brookville, PA. A Brookville reporter reported Brookville area news, and news from the Jefferson County Courthouse there.
Like other small, community radio stations, WPME was a full-service station that offered music, news, and other local programming to local listeners daily from sunrise to sunset. Another AM station, WPXY, an Allegheny Mountain Network station, came on the air that same year, but was off the air by 1956.
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