WPIE
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| City | Trumansburg, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Ithaca, New York |
| Branding | ESPN Ithaca 1160/107.1 |
| Slogan | "Ithaca's Sports Radio" |
| Frequency | 1160 (kHz) |
| Translator(s) | 107.1 W297BI (Ithaca) |
| First air date | 1989 |
| Format | Sports |
| Power | 5,000 watts (daytime) 310 watts (nighttime) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 52124 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°32′42″N 76°42′39″W / 42.54500°N 76.71083°W |
| Callsign meaning | W PIE co-founder's wife was a baker |
| Owner | Taughannock Media LLC |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www.ESPNIthaca.com |
WPIE signed on in 1989 as Tompkins County's third AM radio station and the Ithaca, New York market's 12th station on both radio bands. It broadcasts on 1160 kHz and 107.1 mHz. Since November 2010, it has been locally owned and operated by Taughannock Media and has been an ESPN Radio affiliate with national sports coverage, local coverage of the Cornell Big Red, Ithaca Bombers, Cortland Red Dragons, and Section IV high school sports, and regional coverage of the Syracuse Orange and New York Yankees.
The Federal Communications Commission licensed the station on April 16, 1986 as WJCU to Elmira, New York-area radio personality Joel Clawson and local engineer William Sitzman. Two Trumansburg businessmen also were silent partners in the venture.
About three months later, the FCC approved a call-letter change to WPIE, which was chosen in honor of Clawson's wife, a baker.
The station signed on in 1989, airing an easy listening format that featured music from abroad obtained by Sitzman's programming company. Some of the music was not available commercially in the United States, and gave an alternative to common pop music heard in the US. Some of the music was also from custom recording sessions.
The studio was in a former gasoline station in the hamlet of Jacksonville, New York, about midway between Trumansburg and Ithaca on Route 96. One of the gas station's tanks had leaked several years earlier, rendering the water at the studio unpotable.
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