Pittsburgh's WAMO Changes Formats From Urban R&B To Christian

Say it isn’t so. On Friday, May 15, I received a phone call that radio station WAMO was being sold. It wasn’t the type of news I wanted to hear on a Friday afternoon. I had an immediate flashback to Jan. 31, 1996, when the signal was sold for $14 million to Secret Communications. It was like the day the music died in Pittsburgh. Perhaps the station has been dead since that time and now the funeral will finally take place.

When the signal swap took place back in 1996, WAMO-FM moved up the dial to 106.7, a 47,000 watt signal and WXDX took the WAMO-FM spot at 105.9 with 72,000 watts of power, a lot of the Black listeners tuned out for good. Many could no longer get the signal in their homes or in their car. It was a scary and sad time. I know because I was there as a full-time WAMO employee.

In a written press release, Sheridan Chairman Ronald Davenport Sr. said the deal will enable his company to actively pursue the purchase of additional radio stations in high density Black communities. “With this economic opportunity, we intend to buy as many stations as we can and provide diverse quality programming to underserved African-American communities throughout the country.” Did that happen?