WPAY (1400 AM) was an American

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to serve the community of

Portsmouth, Ohio Portsmouth is a city in and the county seat of Scioto County, Ohio, United States. Located in southern Ohio south of Chillicothe, it lies on the north bank of the Ohio River, across from Kentucky, just east of the mouth of the Scioto River. ...

. The station was last owned by Douglas L. Braden and the final

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary f ...

was held by Radio Stations WPAY/WPFB, Inc. Established in 1925 in the village of

Bellefontaine, Ohio Bellefontaine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Logan County, Ohio, Logan County, Ohio, United States, located 48 miles (77 km) northwest of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus. The population was 13,370 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 Cens ...

, the station ultimately moved to Portsmouth in 1935. WPAY fell silent in June 2011 following the divestiture of sister station WPAY-FM and its license was revoked in June 2012.

History

Prior to being known as WPAY, the station's call letters were WHBD, and was previously licensed to Bellefontaine, later moving to Mt. Orab, and ultimately to Portsmouth. The change to WPAY occurred in April 1935. After WPAY's owner sold its sister stations to WNKU licensee

Northern Kentucky University Northern Kentucky University is a public university in Highland Heights, Kentucky. It is primarily an undergraduate institution with over 14,000 students; over 12,000 are undergraduate students and nearly 2,000 are graduate students. Northern ...

in January 2011, owner Douglas L. Braden was unable to find a buyer for the lone small-market AM station and the decision was made to take the station off the air for financial reasons while seeking a new buyer. Before falling

dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lu ...

, WPAY broadcast a

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. N ...

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featu ...

format branded as "Talk 14" to the

Scioto County, Ohio Scioto County is a county located along the Ohio River in the south central region of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 74,008. Its county seat is Portsmouth. The county was founded March 24, 1804, from Adams C ...

, area. The station which began broadcasting in Portsmouth on April 15, 1935, ended over 75 years of service in the city, and 85 years overall, on June 3, 2011. Under the terms of the

Telecommunications Act of 1996 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of ...

, as a matter of law a radio station's

is subject to automatic forfeiture and cancellation if they fail to broadcast for one full year. The station was assigned the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...

"WPAY" by the

U.S. Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...

(FCC). After the station's broadcast license was revoked, the WPAY call sign was deleted from the FCC database on June 8, 2012.

References

{{Huntington WV Radio PAY Defunct radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1925 Radio stations disestablished in 2011 Portsmouth, Ohio 1925 establishments in Ohio 2011 disestablishments in Ohio PAY