The Susquehanna Radio Corporation was a
media corporation which operated from 1941 to 2006 that was headquartered in
York, Pennsylvania
York ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populati ...
. The company was a unit of
Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff The Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff Company was a conglomerate of companies that started in the 19th century with Johann George Pfaltzgraff's emigration from Germany to York, Pennsylvania (in the Susquehanna Valley).
Johann Pfaltzgraff was a potter and, ...
, a
conglomerate more widely known for the
Pfaltzgraff kitchenware line than its broadcasting pursuits.
Some of the early Susquehanna radio properties included
top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...
music stations
WSBA (910 AM) in York,
WARM (590 AM) in
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...
, WICE (1290 AM, now
WPVD
WPVD (1290 AM) is a public radio station in Providence, Rhode Island. It is owned by Rhode Island Public Radio. The station simulcasts WNPN 89.3 FM.
WPVD transmits with 400 watts by day, 16 watts by night, using a one-tower omnidirectional ...
) in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
, and
WHLO
WHLO (640 AM) is a commercial talk radio station licensed to Akron, Ohio, carrying a talk radio format. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station serves both the Akron and Canton metro areas as the local affiliate for ABC News Radio, ''The Clay Travis ...
(640 AM) in
Akron, Ohio
Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County, Ohio, Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 C ...
.
WQBA
WQBA (1140 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish talk format. Licensed to Miami, Florida, United States, the station is currently owned by Uforia Audio Network with programming from TUDN Radio. Previous call letters were WMIE, owned b ...
(1140 AM), a
Spanish-language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
station in
Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, was also part of the group, along with news/talk/music station WKIS (740AM) in Orlando, FL. Susquehanna's best-known acquisition was the 1989 purchase of
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
's
KNBR KNBR may refer to:
* KNBR (AM), a radio station (680 AM) licensed to serve San Francisco, California, United States
* KNBR-FM
KNBR-FM (104.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, serving the greater San ...
(680 AM) from
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
(the last radio station owned by the network) and its shepherding of that station into one of the nation's more well known
sports talk
Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...
stations.
Over time, Susquehanna repositioned itself from a company based largely in the Northeast to one based largely in the Southern and Midwestern markets (nevertheless keeping its original stations in York). The company was absorbed into
Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 87 ...
in 2006 when
Louis Appell's children broke up Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff.
Today, the company is still active as a holding subsidiary named "Radio License Holding SRC, LLC".
See also
*
Susquehanna Communications
Defunct radio broadcasting companies of the United States
Defunct companies based in Pennsylvania
Mass media companies established in 1941
Companies disestablished in 2006
York, Pennsylvania
American companies established in 1941
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