WPKV (98.3 FM, "98.3 K-LOVE") is a

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...

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 radio ...

licensed to serve

Duquesne, Pennsylvania Duquesne ( ) is a city along the Monongahela River in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, within the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 5,254 at the 2020 census. History The city of Duquesne was settled in 1789 and incor ...

in the

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

media market. The station is owned and operated by

Educational Media Foundation Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's largest ...

and is an affiliate of K-LOVE, EMF's

contemporary Christian Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

music network.

History

As WESA-FM

WPKV was originally Adult Top 40 WESA-FM, the sister station of WESA, and was licensed to

Charleroi, Pennsylvania Charleroi ( ) is a borough in Washington County, Pennsylvania, along the Monongahela River, 21 miles south of Pittsburgh. Charleroi was settled by Walloons in 1890 and incorporated in 1891. The 2020 census recorded a population of 4,210. There has ...

; first going on the air in 1967 and under the ownership of Laubach Radio Properties. Created out of necessity to serve the Mon-Yough area because its AM sister was only licensed to operate during sunrise to sunset hours, WESA-FM offered some separate programming during the day, but at night, picked up where WESA was forced to leave off. Both stations became a full-time simulcast once new FCC regulations were passed eliminating the rule mandating that combination AM/FM license holders originate separate programming for half of the broadcast day.

As WZKT "Z98"

In 1998 WESA-FM abandoned its call letters and adult contemporary full-service format, and flipped to

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 ...

as WZKT (Z98), but that format would go away in January 2000 after it was sold to Keymarket Communications. Keymarket, which had owned and operated "Froggy" branded country music stations throughout Pennsylvania already for ten years, had been looking to gain a foothold in the Pittsburgh market. The opportunity presented itself for Keymarket to acquire WESA and WZKT, and both stations were sold for $1.3 million. Keymarket, in March 2002, petitioned the FCC for permission to change the station's city of license to Duquesne, allowing them to realize the intended goal of targeting Pittsburgh proper. By the end of the decade, Keymarket had acquired other signals surrounding Pittsburgh enough to target the city from a multitude of different frequencies, and could focus the station on possibly another format.

WPKV today

On August 28, 2009 Keymarket announced that it sold WOGI to

, which announced plans to bring the K-LOVE Christian Contemporary music format to Pittsburgh as early as September 1, 2009. This format is on the air today and the call letters were subsequently changed to WPKV. In late 2018, WPKV Added

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

to air Sister channels

Air1 Air1 is an American Christian radio network. Owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), it primarily broadcasts contemporary worship music, and is a sister to the EMF's K-Love network. History In 1986, KLRD began broadcasting Christia ...

and the new

K-Love Classics K-Love Classics was a Christian classic hits radio network owned by Educational Media Foundation (EMF) and was carried over FM stations, translators, and HD subchannels in the United States. Such stations include WAIW 88.1 in Wheaton, Illino ...

Translators

WPKV programming is broadcast on the following

translators Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

References

External links

* {{K-LOVE PKV K-Love radio stations Radio stations established in 1967 1967 establishments in Pennsylvania Educational Media Foundation radio stations PKV