WKST (AM)

WKST
Simulcasting WXMJ, WYLE
History
First air date	October 23, 1938 (85 years ago) (at 1280 kHz)
Call sign meaning	sounds like "Castle" (city of license)
Technical information
Facility ID	71246
Class	B
Power	5,000 watts day; 1,000 watts night
Translator(s)	97.9 W250CW (New Castle)
Links
Webcast	Listen live
Website	wuzzradio.com

WKST (1200

radio station in New Castle, Pennsylvania, serving Lawrence County. It has a classic hits format and is owned by Seven Mountains Media of State College, Pennsylvania, through licensee Southern Belle Media Family, LLC, which also owns 34 other radio stations in Pennsylvania including WUZZ (AM) in New Castle and WYLE (FM) in Grove City

.

WKST is powered by day at 5,000

North Beaver Township.^[1]

Programming

The station currently has one local weekday talk show, the morning

America in the Morning

with John Trout."

Weekends feature shows on money, health, gardening, home repair and technology, as well as Saturday and Sunday morning

polka music programs with Val Palowski. Weekend syndicated talk hosts include "The Tech Guy with Leo Laporte," "The Weekend with Joe Pags," "At Home with Gary Sullivan," "In The Garden with Ron Wilson" and "Somewhere in Time with Art Bell" as well as repeats of weekday shows. World and national news is provided by Fox News Radio

.

WKST carries

football

.

History

WKST

signed on the air on October 23, 1938 (85 years ago), but prior to November 5, 1999, it was at 1280 kHz. The original owner was Sam Townsend who operated the station until retiring to Florida in 1963. The call sign of the station was named after his wife and children (Wanda - Kim - Sam - Townsend). In the 1940s it was a Mutual Broadcasting System network affiliate. It carried Mutual's dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows, children's shows and big band broadcasts, during the "Golden Age of Radio

."

In 1942,

Cleveland — the station where Freed is credited with popularizing the term "rock and roll" to describe the music genre. By the 1970s, WKST was owned by Faye and Herb Scott, formerly based in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and held in the name of Great Scott Broadcasting. Great Scott purchased FM station WFEM in Ellwood City, and it became WKST-FM on January 1, 1988. In the late 1990s, after the death of the Scotts, Great Scott decided to concentrate on its radio holdings in Delaware. It sold WKST and WKST-FM to Jacor

Communications for $2.5 million in December 1998.

Prior to November 5, 1999, the 1200 kHz frequency was occupied by WBZY. WBZY began broadcasting in 1968. In December 1986, WBZY was sold by Lawrence County Broadcasting Corp. to a partnership called WBZY Radio Sam (the "Sam" representing the surname initials of partners Samuel M. Shirey, William G. Andrews and Robert L. McCracken). Andrews sold his share to the other two partners in 1991. WBZY was then sold to Jacor in April 1999 for $800,000.

iHeartMedia, Inc.

)

Clear Channel, which also owned WKST, switched the

WKPL

(FM).

It was announced on October 12, 2022 that Forever Media was selling 34 stations, including WKST, to State College-based Seven Mountains Media for $17.375 million.^[4] The deal closed on January 1, 2023.^[5]

On October 16, 2023 WKST changed their format from talk to a simulcast of classic hits-formatted WHMJ 99.3 FM Franklin, branded as "WUZZ Radio".^[6] That same day, the WKST callsign moved to 1280 kHz, while WUZZ moved to 1200 kHz. ^[7]