WHYL

WHYL (960 AM) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to serve Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by WHYL, Inc., and broadcasts an oldies music format.

WHYL
CityCarlisle, Pennsylvania
Broadcast areaHarrisburg, Pennsylvania
Frequency960 kHz
BrandingGood Time Oldies 102.9 WHYL
Programming
FormatOldies
Ownership
OwnerHarold Z. Swidler
(WHYL, Inc.)
WCAT-FM, WEEO, WIOO
History
First air date
1949
Former call signs
WLXW
Call sign meaning
Initials
Technical information
Facility ID74556
ClassD
Power5,000 watts (day)
22 watts (night)
Transmitter coordinates
40°11′34″N 77°10′28″W (NAD27)
Translator(s)See § Translator
Links
Website1029whyl.com

WHYL programming is simulcast on FM translator W275CJ licensed to serve Carlisle. The translator is located on Blue Mountain northeast of Carlisle.[1][2]

Signal coverage and power levels

The current AM antenna is a single element located on the tower with WCAT-FM "Red 102.3". It is a temporary antenna. The station is operating on an FCC Special Temporary Authorization (STA) requested on December 19, 2014 and granted on March 10, 2015. The STA was extended on April 13, 2016, and will expire on October 13, 2016.[3] This allows operation at the station's daytime nondirectional (omnidirectional antenna) power of 1.3 kilowatts and a nighttime power of 22 watts - the request was for 27 watts and reduced by the FCC to 22.[4]

As a Class D station, WHYL is required to lower its power at sunset and even lower during the nighttime because of skywave interference to co-channel stations. Between sunrise and sunset,[5] the station is permitted to operate at full power. This was reduced to 1.3 kW by the STA mentioned above. During months where sunrise happens later than 6:00AM local time, pre-sunrise authorization allows the station the raise its power to 500 watts beginning at 6:00AM. Post-sunset authorization allows the station to broadcast beyond sunset at a reduced power level in steps starting around 100 watts and ending up at night time power of 22.3 watts.

History
Promotional publication, dated August 19, 1967 (page 1)
Promotional publication, dated August 19, 1967 (page 2)

The station's was first license was granted on February 25, 1949, according to the FCC.

By the 1950s, Richard Field Lewis Jr. (1907–1957) had added WLXW (AM) to the Richard Field Lewis Jr. Stations (later Mid Atlantic Network Inc.).[6][7][8]

Note that the newspaper article Dated December 6, 1948 refutes the information from Fabulous Fifty web site dated 1967 which is the basis for most of the other information here. See the clips attached. According to them the station went on the air as WLXW on December 4, 1948 and one of its first broadcasts was Santa coming to Carlisle. The station operated out of the building just south of town along Rt 34. The directional array tower system that was used formed a dual lobe pattern extending East-West from around Morgantown to around Everett.[9] The owner was Col. Phillip Matthews, State Democratic (sic) chairman, and was placed in operation Saturday Morning. The 1000-watt station is operating daily from sunrise to sunset on a frequency of 1380 kHz. Jerry McDevitt, formerly of Altoona, was the manager of the station. The Rev. Harry Lee, Carlisle and Vincent Shafmeister, Camp Hill, a student at Dickinson College, were full-time announcers. Dave Taylor, also a Dickinson student was a part-time announcer. The station was located on the Mt. Holly Pike, one-fourth mile south of town. It was contained in a one-story structure, which has two studios, control room, newsroom with teletype, a record library and five offices. The 187-foot tower is at the same location.

The station's original frequency and call sign was WLXW/1380 which was moved to WHYL/960 in the early fifties, approximately 1952 or 53.

  • 1965 The Lewis family hired Jim Frank from Iowa, a.k.a. Jack O. Lantern, to "modernize" the station. WIOO was set to start broadcasting and it was obvious they planned on being a "rocker". WHYL was changed from to a "hot" Top 40 station and some of the personnel was changed. Jack O. Lantern became the morning man and the station became a hit maker in the area. Lantern was awarded a "gold" record by Matty "Humdinger" Singer from Universal records in Philadelphia for breaking and promoting a new record called "Oh Sweet Pea" to number one in the country. Lantern remained with the station until he formed a partnership with George Gardiner, the owner of Carlisle Cable Co. and together they built a brand new radio station called WEEO in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. New logos like "The Smile Guys" were created by Lantern to bolster its new popularity.
  • 1966: The current morning show host, Ben Barber, joined the station (pictured in The Channel 96 WHYL Smile Guys, last head shot at the bottom) as the afternoon drive personality.
  • 1980: Format flip to country.
  • December 10, 1984: Post-sunset authorization was granted and began.
  • 1989: Station is sold to Lincoln Zeve under Zeve Broadcasting, who flips format to adult standards.
  • 2002: Citadel Broadcasting purchases the station and flips format to satellite based "Music of Your Life" oldies.
  • 2004: Citadel sells the station to start-up company Route 81 Radio.
  • March 6, 2004: Route 81 drops oldies format for locally-originated adult standards.[10]
  • February 14, 2005: Flipped format to talk format in an effort to compete with long-time talker WHP 580.[11]
  • November 24, 2005: Began another format flip, stunting with an all-Christmas music format.[12]
  • January 2, 2006: The station assumed the Adult standards format, still on the air today.[13]
  • January 15, 2007: Royal Broadcasting, Inc. signs an asset purchase agreement to buy the station and begins to operate it under an LMA.[14]
  • January 14, 2008: Royal Broadcasting, Inc. does not renew its LMA because of the untimely processing of the request by the Federal Communications Commission[15] partly due to a petition to deny filed on the license renewal.[16] Ownership defaults back to Route 81 Radio. Petition to deny rejected by FCC and station is LMA'd to Trustworthy Radio LLC on July 15, 2008, with original Route 81 GM Bruce Collier returning as half-owner. Adult Standards format remains along with Ben in the morning.

As of January 1, 2014 the station was off the air and no carrier signal was being broadcast. The station had filed for bankruptcy in 2012. Longtime morning host Ben Barber left the station in late 2013, at which time other programs, including the John Tesh syndicated midday show, were also discontinued. The station broadcasts were fully automated after this, and there were some periods during which a carrier signal was broadcast without any programming. In June 2014, Harold Z. Swidler purchased the station, and will return it to the air as soon as possible.

  • March 7, 2015: WHYL returns to the air with an oldies format branded as "Good Time Oldies 960"[17]
  • Mid-2016: WHYL begins simulcasting on translator W275CJ and re-brands as "Good Time Oldies 102.9 WHYL".

Translator

WHYL programming is broadcast on the following translator:

Call signFrequency
(MHz)		City of licenseFacility
ID		ERP
(W)		Height
(m (ft))		ClassTransmitter coordinatesFCC info
W275CJ102.9Carlisle, Pennsylvania14166116091 m (299 ft)D40°17′23.3″N 77°8′8.9″WFCC

References
  1. "60 dBu Service Contour for W275CJ, Carlisle, PA, 102.9 MHz". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  2. "FM Query Results for W275CJ". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  3. "Application Search Details, WHYL". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. March 24, 2015. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  4. "FCC Letter of 3/10/2015 authorizing return to operation". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. March 10, 2015. Retrieved 2016-08-13.
  5. "Sunrise, Sunset times". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on 2002-01-15. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  6. "Lewis, Multiple AM Owner, dies" (PDF). Broadcasting. 28 October 1957. p. 74. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  7. "Obituary" (PDF). Television Digest. October 1957. p. 6. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  8. "Marion P. Lewis". Free Lance-Star. 14 April 2001. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  9. "WHYL Advertisers". whylradio.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  10. Fybush, Scott (2004-03-08). "Northeast Radio Watch 2002 Year in Review". fybush.com. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  11. Fybush, Scott (2005-02-15). "Northeast Radio Watch". Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  12. Fybush, Scott (2005-11-28). "Northeast Radio Watch". Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  13. Fybush, Scott (2005-12-05). "Northeast Radio Watch". Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  14. Fybush, Scott (2007-01-22). "Northeast Radio Watch". Retrieved 2007-05-01.
  15. "Federal Communications Commission". 2008-01-09. Archived from the original on 2012-12-11. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  16. Fybush, Scott (2008-01-07). "Northeast Radio Watch". Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  17. Gleiter, Sue (March 10, 2015). "WHYL 960 AM returns to airwaves with Kirk Wilson morning show". pennlive.com. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
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