*** Welcome to piglix ***

WLSW

WLSW
WLSW logo.png
City Scottdale, Pennsylvania
Broadcast area Scottdale / Connellsville
Branding "Music Power 104"
Slogan "The Home of the Hits"
Frequency 103.9 MHz
First air date December 21, 1971
Format Classic Hits
ERP 320 watts
HAAT 238 meters
Class A
Facility ID 36116
Callsign meaning Ludwig Stanley Wall (founder)
Owner Sharon Wall as administrator
Website musicpower104.com

WLSW is an American radio station, licensed in the Pittsburgh suburb of Scottdale, Pennsylvania it serves the Pittsburgh Media Market. The station operates at the federally assigned frequency of 103.9 MHz with an effective radiated power of 320 watts. The station was privately owned by Ludwig Stanley "Uncle Stan" Wall until his death on June 4, 2015.

WLSW first signed on the air back in 1971, founded by legendary Pittsburgh DJ Ludwig Stanley "Uncle Stan" Wall, who first applied for the frequency back in 1968 upon the advice of a friend who was a broadcast engineer. Wall had also been a DJ and later general manager for WTRA (now WCNS) in Latrobe prior to putting this station on the air.

Unlike many FM stations of its time, WLSW was a standalone operation. It's important to remember at this time this was an oddity, because few cars in those days were equipped with FM radios, and FMs were often simulcast by their AM sister operations. It's also important to remember that FM had barely begun to gain acceptance among its AM counterpart.

Nevertheless, WLSW forged ahead, with a format mainly composed of oldies, rock, and Top 40 music. Its studios, offices, and transmitter were located in a converted double-wide mobile home at the top of a mountain on PA Route 711 a few miles east of Connellsville. Geographic references were often made by the DJ's as "Magic Mountain", while others jokingly called the treacherous stretch of Route 711 as "Murder Mountain"--a reference to the steep climb and potentially treacherous winter conditions on this stretch of the highway.

In April 1984, Wall purchased WQTW, an AM station operating at 1570 kHz 15 miles north of Connellsville in Latrobe, for $66,000. The 1,000-watt station, which had the distinction of being Latrobe's first of two radio stations, had had its studios and offices destroyed in a fire the year before and had been silent for a period of about nine months.

Wall purchased WQTW and returned it to the air, and using his same formula for WLSW's beginning, parked another converted double-wide mobile home at the transmitter site on George Street in Derry Township for the station's operations. Under Wall's ownership, WQTW operated independently of its FM sister for a period of about six years until it was decided to simulcast WLSW over its airwaves, keeping separate oldies and polka programming on the weekends, and Derry Area high school football games.


...
Wikipedia

...