WNTI
| City | Somerset, Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Somerset, Pennsylvania |
| Branding | Newstalk 1490 WNTJ, 990 WNTI |
| Frequency | 990 kHz |
| First air date | January 15, 1951 |
| Format | News/Talk (WNTJ simulcast) |
| Power | 10,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 56364 |
| Former callsigns | WVSC (1951-2004) WNTW (2004-2013) WLLI (2013-2017) |
| Owner | Forever Media Inc. |
| Website | WNTI Online |
WNTI (990 AM is an American radio station, licensed to serve Somerset, Pennsylvania; the seat of news/talk for Somerset County. The station broadcasts on a frequency of 990 kHz and a maximum output power of 10,000 watts, using a two-tower directional antenna system. The station is a simulcast of WNTJ out of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
The very first radio station in Somerset County, this station signed on as WVSC on January 15, 1951. Operating as Somerset Broadcasting Co., the owners were T. H. Oppegard, President & General Manager and Carl R. Lee, Sales Manager and Chief Engineer. The call letters stood for an acronym of "We're the Voice of Somerset County. The station for many years programmed a full-service format of news, sports, and talk, much of it local. The station was also the longtime local voice of ABC News, including the legendary Paul Harvey. WVSC was joined by an FM sister station, WVSC-FM, on June 15, 1966.
On May 11, 1970, WVSC-AM-FM was purchased by Ridge Communications, headed by I. Richard Adams. It would be under Ridge Communications' ownership that WVSC would see its biggest growth.
WVSC managed to survive an aggressive new AM competitor, WADJ, which came on the air in 1981. That same year, Ridge Communications decided to expand their footprint by successfully applying for a license for a new AM station northwest of Somerset in Indiana County. However, Ridge was unable to raise the capital necessary to put the new WRID (which stood for RIDge Communications) AM 1520 in Homer City on the air, and the construction permit and license were sold to the newly formed Raymark Broadcasting, of Indiana. That station is known today as WCCS, which coincidentally was the original call letters for competing station WCCL, which had given up the WCCS call letters for WWZE.
In the mid-1980s, WVSC, which had been a daytime-only station for many years, successfully petitioned the FCC for limited nighttime power. WVSC began operating at 75 watts at night by the end of the decade.
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