Lewis County's Leading Newspaper Since 1867
	Wednesday June 11, 2008

WHAW 980 AM Celebrates 60^th Birthday by Expanding for the Future

by Rebecca J. Pickens

WHAW 980 AM, Weston’s local radio station, recently turned sixty and celebrated the landmark birthday with station upgrades and expansions. While looking to the future with these upgrades, owner Steve Peters appreciates the history of the station that has led to this point in the station’s story.

Lewis County residents Harold McWhorter, H.A. Raggle, and R.H. Pritchard, former owner of The Weston Democrat, came together to form the Lewis Service Corporation for the purpose of building a radio station in 1947. On April 30 of that year, the gentlemen made formal application to the FCC in Washington, DC for a license, the approval of which came on November 13.

WHAW originally went on the air February 14, 1948, located on the second floor of the old Murphy’s building at 170 Main Avenue. The station’s first call letters were WHWM, named for Harold and Willa McWhorter, and the frequency was 1450 AM. The station originally operated at 250 watts. Later that year in December, the station call letters changed to the widely-known WHAW of today.

For ten years, from 1948 to 1958, WHAW and Mutual Broadcasting operated in partnership to bring local radio to residents. During this time, in Elkins, W.Va., jewelry store owner Francis Andrews was broadcasting WDNE AM. He approached Richard Ralston, Sr., editor of the Buckhannon Record, with a proposition to do a five minute news broadcast daily on the station. Ralston agreed, and from this beginning the two became interested in building a radio station in central West Virginia.

Due to financial and internal problems during 1952-53, WHAW, under the Lewis Service Corporation, went off the air, reorganized, and in 1954, after forming Central West Virginia Service Corporation, Andrews and Ralston bought WHAW.

Five years later, Central West Virginia Service Corporation filed formal application with the FCC to increase the station’s power to 1000 watts and move from the 1450 frequency to today’s 980 frequency. WPDX AM filed an application against WHAW at first because it wanted the 980 frequency, at which time the matter fell into the hands of attorneys for approximately one year.

After in depth consultation, the FCC granted WHAW’s request, and the station moved to 980 AM and increased to 1000 watts of operating power. With the move, the station went from being an around the clock local station to a dawn till dusk regional station.

In 1959, WHAW and Mutual Broadcasting parted. Growth to the station continued in 1971 when WHAW Radio filed to the FCC to bring on a new station, WHAW FM 102.3, and locate the tower on the AM tower. In August 1972, a new location for the FM tower was purchased 1.5 miles north of Pricetown on Keith Fork Road. In 1973, 102.3 FM began operation at that site, which later became WSSN.

Changes in ownership continued when, in 1987, Central West Virginia Service Corporation sold WHAW 980 AM and WSSN 102.3 FM to Stonewall Broadcasting. Stonewall Broadcasting ceased operation on January 22, 1997, and WHAW went dark.

“Something I really always wanted to do was to work at or own a radio station. Working at one would have been good enough for me,” said Steve Peters. On December 18, 1997, Peters bought the buildings and land of WHAW from Citizens Bank of Weston. Since the FCC’s policy is to pull the license and dissolve a station if it is off the air for more than one year, Peters had very few days to get the station back on air before the January 22 deadline.

Citizens Bank did not know if it had the license for the station nor did they know the location of the license. Peters then contacted FCC attorney Lauren Cobey of Fredericks, Md. He determined that the license was most likely in the hands of bankruptcy court and that they could declare Peters general manager and get the station back on the air.

January 20, two days before deadline, WHAW went back on the air, with Peters appointed general manager for the license under bankruptcy court laws. On April 16, 1998, the license was awarded to Steve Peters for operation of WHAW.

After purchasing WHAW, Peters brought in Phil Phillips, part owner of WBUC FM, and his son Mike on a part time basis. Together they set up a computer center, partnering with ABC Networks to pick up news and programming. In April 1998, both Phillips and his son left and Ted Biser, owner of Biser Radio in Lorentz, W.Va. and Patrick Shay came on board to help further the mechanics of operating the station with a computer.

“WHAW may not have been here if not for Ted and Patrick,” Peters said.

Peters soon realized that businesses in a small town like Weston would be better served by a station that would reach a larger market than 1000 watts of operating power could, since coverage varied from 15 to 20 miles on a good day.

“There were a few supportive advertisers such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and Butcher-Layfield Lumber Company that stayed with us and helped us grow,” Peters commented.

After five years, Peters realized that advertising dollars were being spent at other stations and through other avenues that covered a broader audience. It was at this time he began looking for ways to either buy an FM station or increase the power on WHAW. Powering up was the solution to the coverage problem.

Peters contacted a consulting-engineering firm out of Atlanta, Ga., who referred him to Don Hildershine in Orlando, Fla., to do a feasibility study on the increase. Hildershine came to Lewis County in October 2006 to begin the extensive study. Over 2000 measurements were taken on four stations: WHAW 980 AM; WBBG 970 AM, Pittsburgh; WNTW 990 AM, Somerset, Pa.; and WTEN 980 AM , a sports station in Washington, DC that runs 50,000 watts during the day and 5,000 watts at night.

WHAW’s signal ended around Mill Creek, W.Va. at one point; Elizabeth, Wirt County, W.Va.; and toward the north, the signal ended in Taylor County. During these measurements, Peters and Hildershine discussed the potential size of the station and what could be gained by 5,000 or 10,000 watts.

“We never did discuss 20,000 or 25,000 watts because I didn’t realize we could go to a higher power by pulling a few more measurements,” Peters said.

Once the study was completed, Peters realized he could increase much more than planned, and made an application to the FCC on December 8, 2006 to build a 25,000 watt AM station in Weston, which was accepted the latter part of March 2007.

Peters’ next project involved purchasing a transmitter. During this time, an ad appeared in Radio World for a 25,000 watt, four ton transmitter manufactured by the Harris Corporation. Peters enquired about the transmitter and learned it was the standby transmitter made in 2001 for WSN 650 AM out of Nashville, TN, for the Grand Ol’ Opry. Peters purchased the transmitter and

Gary Burton, 1965 Troy High School graduate and part time employee for Clear Channel Radio, moved to Weston from Parkersburg to work with Peters in building the new station.

Deciding that the current location of the WHAW tower would not work for the more powerful transmitter due to safety reasons, Peters contacted Bromo Communications, chief engineers on the project, to find out what would be the easiest route to find a new location. They advised him that, as long as he stayed within two miles of his current station, no additional study would be needed. Peters rode his four wheeler around the two mile area until he found a location on Route 33 east behind Schlumberger that housed three phase power, which is required for the 25,000 watt transmitter.

Approximately five months later, through Dan Minney and Lang Brothers, Peters purchased 7.11 acres behind Johnnie’s Used Cars on Route 33 east as the new tower location.

“I wanted to do this with as many West Virginia people as I could do it with simply because I know West Virginia people can get it done,” Peters said. “I had to assemble the right people to do the right things.”

Lloyld’s Electronics in Jane Lew built the tower. Biser Radio found the tower itself in Ohio, while the required ceramic base was designed and built in Canada. After receiving the parts, Peters hired Richard Taylor of Berlin, W.Va., to run the 49,000 lineal feet of copper required to complete the radio tower underground. Taylor and Doc Blake modified the bulldozer to handle the weight of the copper line and proceeded to lay the copper field i and nto the ground. Others involved in the work were Larry Blake, his son Josh, and Eddie Byrd, all local residents.

Another issue was finding a building to house the transmitter, so Peters contacted Mountain State Log Homes in Ireland, W.Va. to purchase a log cabin to house the four ton transmitter. In the end, Peters purchased two cabins from Mountain State Log Homes for radio purposes.

During the construction, Peters’ traffic manager and head of sales for ten years at WHAW, Janie Woofter, bid on a new FM station on the FCC website. With radio stations nationwide bidding on the frequency, the playing field was large. After thirty days, Woofter’s bid was accepted and the license was granted for 107.7 in Glenville.

“When I bought WHAW, I didn’t know much about radio, but I’ve got good work sense about me,” Peters stated. “When Janie bought the FM, she had been working for me; now it was time for me to work for her.”

Peters helped Woofter locate a site on Old River Road in Glenville for the tower, with cooperation from Lloyd’s Electronics who owned a tower on the location and offered Woofter the use of the tower in exchange for Peters granting him the rights to build a tower on WHAW’s Keith Fork location. Woofter’s FM transmitter is housed in the second log cabin crafted by Mountain State Log Homes.

Due to complications in mapping with the tower Glenville being located 700 feet off the 1952 mapped location, Lloyd’s had to correct the mapping with the FCC and FAA. After final corrections were made, the FCC granted Janie Woofter final license to operate 107.7, WVRW FM in Glenville on February 13, 2008.

Officially, both stations powered up at 6 a.m. on February 14, 2008, marking 60 years since WHAW originally came on at 250 watts in Lewis County.

With the increase in power, WHAW now broadcasts to 37 counties in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

WHAW’s format is bluegrass in the morning, oldies beginning at noon, and bluegrass at 4 p.m. until powering down at 6 p.m. to 50 watts, while WVRW broadcasts 24 hours a day at 6,000 watts, bringing listeners “True Oldies Rock n’ Roll.” WHAW’s website, www.whawradio.com, links visitors to the local community of Weston while WVRW’s website, www.wvrwfm.com brings visitors information on both Glenville and Weston.

“I appreciate all the advertisers that have supported WHAW over the years and that they will continue to support both stations,” Peters stated.

A 25,000 watt stand alone AM station with one tower is very rare, according to Peters. There may be approximately ten across the nation.

“There are 25,000 watt stations, but most have multi-towers. This is an omni-tower station,” Peters said.

“At night, WHAW is 50 watts to cover Weston, but in the daytime, WHAW covers parts of four states. What makes it even more special in my eyes is that Janie Woofter and I are not a corporation, but individuals. There is not a large staff, but we can give personalized coverage,” Peters continued.

“I am proud of WHAW and proud of Janie’s WVRW, and I hope you will give us a listen.”