WQWK (AM)
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WQWK (1450 kHz) is a sports AM
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 ...
broadcasting in
State College, Pennsylvania State College is a home rule municipality in Centre County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is a college town, dominated economically, culturally and demographically by the presence of the University Park campus of the Pennsylvania Sta ...
, United States. It is owned by Forever Broadcasting and is an affiliate of ESPN Radio. Programs are also heard over FM translator W279DK (103.7 FM), offering a signal on the FM band in the immediate State College area.


History

Centre Broadcasters, Inc., applied for a construction permit from the
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 jurisdicti ...
(FCC) to build a new 250-watt radio station in State College on April 18, 1944. The application was approved on July 10, 1945. Broadcasting of
Centre County Centre County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 158,172. Its county seat is Bellefonte. Centre County comprises the State College, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The lands ...
's first radio station began on October 29 of that year from studios in State College's Glennland Building and a transmitter site north of town in Ferguson Township. The WMAJ call sign was submitted out of desperation; after various call signs to allude to Centre County and State College were rejected, Centre Broadcasters submitted scrambled versions of the initials of its various employees, including Alethea J. Mattern, the first program director, and the other founding owner, Richard J. Kennard (the FCC originally assigned WKRJ). The station was approved to upgrade from 250 to 1,000 watts in 1962 after having filed in late 1958 for the change. In the 1960s, WMAJ programmed a
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 "cont ...
format aimed at the large student audience at Penn State University. The main owner of WMAJ was William K. Ulerich, who had previously transformed the weekly newspaper in State College into a daily publication, the ''
Centre Daily Times The ''Centre Daily Times'' is a daily newspaper located in State College, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is the hometown newspaper for State College and the Pennsylvania State University, one of the best-known and largest universities in ...
''; in the 1970s, he also served as a trustee of Penn State University. Ulerich owned WMAJ and its FM spinoff, WMAJ-FM/WXLR 103.1, until 1988, when he opted to retire and sold the pair to Burbach Broadcasting of
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
. The new ownership converted WMAJ to primarily automated programming focusing on adult standards music. This was changed to a full news/talk format in 1990. Forever Broadcasting acquired the Burbach stations in 1998; by that time, WMAJ's talk format included such offerings as ''
The Rush Limbaugh Show ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'' is an American conservative talk radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh. Since its nationally syndicated premiere in 1988, ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'' became the highest-rated talk radio show in the United States. At its ...
'' and the talk programs of Joy Brown and G. Gordon Liddy. In 2002, Forever installed the current sports format on the frequency. The call letters were changed to the present WQWK in 2009 after the previous WQWK, 103.1 FM, was flipped to conservative talk. It was announced on October 12, 2022 that Forever Media is selling 34 stations, including WQWK and five of its sister stations, to State College-based Seven Mountains Media for $17.3 million, pending FCC approval.


Programming

The station is one of four Forever stations in State College that are local flagships of the
Penn State Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The interc ...
radio network. It also is part of the Pittsburgh Pirates radio network.


References


External links


Official Website
* * {{ESPN Pennsylvania QWK (AM) Sports radio stations in the United States 1945 establishments in Pennsylvania Radio stations established in 1945