WSAN (1470 AM, "Real Oldies 1470") is a commercial radio station licensed to Allentown, Pennsylvania. It is owned by iHeartMedia and serves the Lehigh Valley radio market. It broadcasts an oldies radio format, with its studios and offices in the iHeart Broadcasting Center in Whitehall Township. It is the oldest station in the Lehigh Valley.

WSAN operates with 5,000 watts, non-directional by day but using a directional antenna at night. The transmitter site is near the Whitehall Plaza.

Programming

WSAN is the radio outlet for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms AHL hockey team, whose home arena is PPL Center in downtown Allentown.

History

20th century

thumb|Until early 1941, operations were conducted jointly under the dual WCBA-WSAN call letters.

thumb|In 1941, the station began operating fulltime as just WSAN, and the approved upgrade to 5,000 watts was completed six years later, in 1947.

This station traces its history to the 1923 merging of WCBA and WSAN in Allentown. WCBA's first license was issued on May 24, 1923, and is cited as the date of the station's founding.

WCBA was first licensed to Charles W. Heimbach at his home at 1015 Allen Street in Allentown, which was also the location of Heimbach's Camegraph Repair Shop. The station was assigned to 1070 kHz, with a power of 5 watts, and the call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call signs. In late 1924, WCBA was reassigned to 1180 kHz.

WSAN received its first license on June 30, 1923, issued to the Allentown Radio Club for 10 watts on 1310 kHz. Its call sign was also randomly assigned from the roster of available call letters. On November 27, 1923, the club began broadcasting using facilities constructed on the third floor of the former Morning Call building at Sixth and Linden streets. WSAN was deleted on August 7, 1924, but then relicensed, on December 10, 1924, to the Allentown Call Publishing Company, again with 10 watts on 1310 kHz.

On June 15, 1927, both WCBA and WSAN were assigned to 1350 kHz, on a time-sharing basis. On February 15, 1928, WCBA was sold to Reverend B. Bryan Musselman, pastor of Bethel Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church. which was soon changed to 1440 kHz. On January 15, 1931, the jointly operated stations opened new studios at 39-41 North 10th Street.

In early 1937, an application was filed to formally consolidate the two stations under the WSAN call sign, to be owned by a new corporation, WSAN, Inc., with the Allentown Call Publishing Company holding 60 percent of the stock, and B. Bryan Musselman holding the remaining 40 percent. This would result in common ownership of Allentown's only radio station and daily newspaper. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was increasingly concerned about media concentration, and initially scheduled hearings to review the proposal, which were later canceled, with the commission instead launching in March 1941 a general policy review of common newspaper and radio station ownership in a single community.

Also in March 1941, with the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) going into effect, stations on 1440 kHz, including WCBA and WSAN, moved to 1470 kHz.

On April 2, 1941, an application to increase power from 500 to 5,000 watts at a shared transmitter site was granted. Construction was delayed due to equipment shortages during World War II, so the power increase, which included a nighttime three-tower directional antenna, did not go into service until late 1947.

At the same time the power increase application was approved, the FCC directed that instead of the dual call letters, the station should identify itself as just WSAN. However, WCBA remained a licensed station, with the Allentown Call Publishing Company owning 65%, and manager B. Bryan Musselman holding the other 35%, of the two stations.

The ownership structure became an additional issue, after the FCC adopted its duopoly rule in August 1941, which restricted licensees from owning more than one radio station in a given market. On February 29, 1944, both the newspaper ownership and the duopoly issues were resolved when the FCC approved the transfer of 495 shares (76.98 percent) of Lehigh Valley Broadcasting Company, licensee of both WSAN and WCBA, from the Allentown Call Publishing Company to a local group. At the same time, WSAN was assigned unlimited hours of operation, and the WCBA call letters deleted.

In 1947, WSAN-FM was added, originally on 95.9 MHz. It later moved to 99.9 MHz, and was deleted in 1956, which allowed The Easton Express newspaper to move WEEX-FM, powered at 1,000 watts on 98.3 MHz, to 99.9 MHz, where it could increase its power to 16,000 watts.

Assabe and Sabina, a popular Pennsylvania Dutch dialect radio program, was broadcast on WSAN from 1944 to 1955. Through the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, WSAN was an NBC Red Network affiliate, airing its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio".

On March 13, 2019, the station dropped ESPN Deportes Radio and rebranded as iHeartPodcast AM 1470. Its programming was sourced primarily from podcast programs distributed by iHeartRadio (including HowStuffWorks podcasts such as Stuff You Should Know). WSAN continued to retain the local sports play-by-play rights it held before, including Philadelphia Phillies baseball.

On December 3, 2021, WSAN flipped back to Oldies, branded as "Real Oldies 1470".

See also

  • Media in the Lehigh Valley

References

  • FCC History Cards for WSAN (covering 1923-1981)
  • "The Peculiar Story of WCBA and WSAN" by John Schneider, September 9, 2015 (radioworld.com)