WOWO (AM)
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| City | Fort Wayne, Indiana |
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| Broadcast area | Fort Wayne, Indiana |
| Branding | News/Talk WOWO 1190 AM/107.5 FM |
| Slogan | Fort Wayne's News Talk - Depend on it. |
| Frequency | 1190 kHz (also on HD Radio) |
| Translator(s) | 107.5 W298BJ (Fort Wayne) |
| Repeater(s) | 97.3 HD2 (WMEE) |
| First air date | March 31, 1925 |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | 50,000 watts (daytime) 9,800 watts (nighttime) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 28205 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 40°59′46.3″N 85°21′6.1″W / 40.996194°N 85.351694°W |
| Callsign meaning | "(Fort) Wayne Offers Wonderful Opportunities" (unofficial, was randomly assigned) |
| Affiliations |
CBS Radio Network (1928-1995) Associated Press |
| Owner | Pathfinder Communications Corporation |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wowo.com |
WOWO (1190 kHz) is an independent news/talk radio station owned by Pathfinder Communications Corporation. Its studios are located along Maples Road in Fort Wayne, Indiana, while its transmitter and its three towers are located along U.S. Highway 24 in Roanoke, midway between Fort Wayne and Huntington. It transmits with 50,000 watts during daytime using a non-directional antenna, and with 9,800 watts during nighttime using a three-tower directional antenna.
WOWO, whose call letters are pronounced as a two-syllable word rhyming with go-go, has been broadcasting on various AM frequencies since March 31, 1925, and on 1190 kHz since March 29, 1941. WOWO was one of the first radio stations to broadcast in the Fort Wayne area. In 1930, WOWO was the first radio station in the world to broadcast a live basketball game. It is also considered to be the first station to broadcast live Indiana high school sports events and the first station to be wholly owned by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation subsidiary, Westinghouse Broadcasting, lasting from 1936 to 1982.
WOWO broadcasts a hybrid (analog plus digital) signal on 1190 AM.
Despite its sale by Westinghouse in 1982, WOWO still uses the distinctive Group W typeface for the call letters in its white on PF-152 red logo.
Established in 1925, WOWO began broadcasting with 500 watts of power on 1320 kHz on March 31, 1925 and was owned by Chester Keen of Main Auto Supply Company; the station was originally located upstairs of the Main Auto. The station's callsign was chosen to start with the letter "W" as required by the FCC for all stations in the United States at the time. During the 1920s, the FCC permitted either three- or four-letter callsigns, with three-letter call signs being preferred for brevity. By choosing WOWO for easy pronunciation as a two-syllable word, in some measure WOWO had a callsign that exhibited even more brevity than even the three-letter callsigns. Despite this, disk jockeys on WOWO were prohibited from calling the station "woe-woe" on the air until the late 1960s, when a contest was introduced to identify songs in which the "woe" sound appeared. The WOWO callsign was later backfilled as a tongue-in-cheek acronym: "Wayne Offers Wonderful Opportunities". In 1927, WOWO was made a pioneer station of CBS radio network and remained a CBS affiliate until 1956.
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