WRKY (1490

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...

, "Rocky 98.5") is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

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 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 ...

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...

. The station is owned by Forever Media and

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

s the

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

programming of

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

98.5

WYCR WYCR (98.5 FM, "Rocky 98.5") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to serve York-Hanover, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Forever Media, through licensee FM Radio Licenses, LLC, and broadcasts a classic rock format. Its broadcast tower ...

. WRKY is one of Pennsylvania's oldest radio stations. WRKY is powered at 600

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s, using a

non-directional antenna In radio communication, an omnidirectional antenna is a class of antenna (electronics), antenna which radiates equal radio power in all directions perpendicular to an axis (mathematics), axis (azimuthal directions), with power varying with angle ...

. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

is off Fruitville Pike in Lancaster. Programming is also heard on

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

W223CH at 92.5

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

History

The station first

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

the air in June 1922. It is one of Pennsylvania's earliest stations. The original

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 assigne ...

was WGAL. The station was once housed in the historic

Jasper Yeates House Jasper Yeates House, also known as the home of WRKY Radio, is a historic home located at Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1765–1766, and is a four-story, four bay brick townhouse, in the Georgian style. In 1882, it ...

. ''Note:'' This includes WGAL was owned by the Steinman family, which also owned two local newspapers, the ''

Intelligencer Journal The ''Intelligencer Journal'', known locally as the ''Intell'', was the daily, morning newspaper published by Lancaster Newspapers, Inc in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is the 7th oldest newspaper in the United States and was one of the oldest newsp ...

'' and the ''

Lancaster New Era LNP Media Group owns and publishes '' LNP'', a daily newspaper based in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and ''LancasterOnline'', its online affiliate with monthly readership of over one million. ''LNP'' traces its roots to ''The Lancaster Journal ...

''. In 1947 an FM sister station went on the air, WGAL-FM, now

WROZ WROZ (101.3 MHz) is a non-commercial FM radio station licensed to Lancaster and serving South Central Pennsylvania. The station is owned and operated by the Educational Media Foundation and carries its Air1 Christian worship music radio format ...

. In 1949, the family added Pennsylvania's first television station outside

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. The TV station is now owned by

The Hearst Corporation Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televis ...

and still has the

WGAL WGAL (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of NBC. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on Columbia Avenue ( PA 462) in ...

. For most of its history, WGAL/WLPA was a full service radio station, airing

middle of the road music Middle of the road (also known by its acronym MOR) is a commercial radio format and popular music genre. Music associated with this term is strongly melodic and uses techniques of vocal harmony and light orchestral arrangements. The format was even ...

, news, talk and sports. It was a long-time affiliate of the

NBC Radio Network The NBC, National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the Blue Network, NBC Blue Network it was ...

. In the early 1990s, WLPA simulcast the audio of

CNN Headline News HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the network primarily carries true crime programming. The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982 by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News ...

and WGAL's local newscasts, before switching to One-on-One Sports, then Sporting News Radio (both forerunners of

SportsMap SportsMap is a sports radio network that is distributed by Gow Media. The SportsMap Radio Network supplies its network affiliates with a 24-hour schedule of sports programming, including call-in shows and sports updates. Over its history, through ...

). It also broadcast

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

games. In July 2005, WLPA changed to a

sports radio 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 ...

format, first affiliating with

Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an American sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports division and iHeartMedia, parent company ...

. On August 1, 2013, WLPA became an affiliate of

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...

. The station had attempted to affiliate with ESPN Radio for some years beforehand, but was unable to do so due to its geographic proximity to another ESPN affiliate,

WGLD WGLD (1440 Hertz, kHz, "Mega 107.1") is a commercial radio, commercial AM broadcasting, AM radio station city of license, licensed to serve Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania, Manchester Township, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by ...

in Manchester Township. However, that station joined

CBS Sports Radio CBS Sports Radio is a sports radio network that debuted with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013. CBS Sports Radio is owned by Paramount Global and distributed by Westwood One. Programmin ...

in early 2013, making the ESPN affiliation available to WLPA. On April 1, 2015, WLPA changed format from ESPN sports to adult standards, supplied by

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and ...

's ''

America's Best Music America's Best Music is the on-air branding of a soft oldies and adult standards 24-hour radio network, formerly known as AM Only. The service is syndicated by Westwood One, a subsidiary of Cumulus Media. It was one of the original Transtar Ra ...

'' service, returning the station to the music it once played decades ago. WLPA ESPN92

On April 4, 2016, WLPA reverted back to a sports radio format, with a simulcast of the ESPN Radio programming of sister station WONN-FM, now WNUU. WLPA adopted that station's ''ESPN Radio 92.7'' branding at that time. On July 23, 2021, it was announced that Forever Media would purchase WLPA and its translator along with WONN-FM for a total of $400,000. This signals Hall Communications' withdrawal from the market, as the sale of 101.3 WROZ to religious broadcaster

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 ...

was announced earlier that month. The sale consummated on October 15, 2021. WLPA and its translator subsequently switched to a simulcast of the classic rock programming of sister station WYCR. The station’s call sign was changed to WRKY effective November 1, 2021.

Translator

WRKY programming is broadcast on the following

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

References

External links

* * * {{Classic Rock Radio Stations in Pennsylvania RKY (AM) Radio stations established in 1922 1922 establishments in Pennsylvania Classic rock radio stations in the United States Radio stations licensed before 1923 and still broadcasting