branding fortress 1230 am frequency 1230 khz first air date 1925 format christian contemporary power 480 watts nd class c facility id 15323 transmitter coordinates 40 15 52.5 n 76 52 3.9 w 40.264583 n 76.867750 w 40.264583 ; 76.867750 callsign meaning w keystone boadcasting organisation owner in 1933 former callsigns wprc 1925 1929 wcod 1929 1933 former frequencies 1200 khz prior to narba of 1941 owner one heart ministries inc. website official site wkbo 1230 khz fortress1230am is the callsign of an am radio station licensed to serve harrisburg pennsylvania . the station is owned by one heart ministries inc. and broadcasts a christian contemporary format . studios are located at warm hearts cafe in mechanicsburg pennsylvania and the station s tower is located at the harrisburg water plant . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 1970s 1.2 1980s 1.3 1990s 2000s 1.4 2000s 2 references 3 external links history edit wkbo began as wprc in october 1925 . it was owned by the wilson printing and radio company of harrisburg pa . 2 wprc became wcod in 1929 when it was purchased by local businessman norman r. hoffman . 3 wcod was later purchased by the keystone broadcasting corporation in 1930 . 4 the station eventually changed call signs to wkbo in the early 1930s to reflect the change of ownership . 5 wkbo was part of a chain of stations owned by the mason dixon radio group of lancaster pa from the 1930s to the 1970s . it was co owned with wgal of lancaster pa and work of york pa . the mason dixon organization was owned by the steinman family of lancaster pa publisher of several local newspapers . wprc was harrisburg s fourth licensed broadcasting station . it was preceded by wbak in 1922 6 wabb in 1923 7 and whbg in early 1925 . 8 during its mason dixon years wkbo broadcast from the penn harris hotel at walnut and north 3rd street in downtown harrisburg 40 15 40.1472 n 76 52 50.844 w 40.261152000 n 76.88079000 w 40.261152000 ; 76.88079000 . the antenna tower was located on the roof of the hotel building with a shortened counterpoise radial system that only extended to the edge of the building s roof . 9 some earlier attempts to document wkbo s history erroneously stated that wkbo began as wabb . federal records do not support this . however records do show a clear lineage between wkbo and wprc . further complicating the wkbo wabb theory is that wabb and wprc were licensed concurrently during 1925 and 1926 eliminating any chance that wabb and wprc shared a common history . in all likelihood wabb simply ceased broadcasting which was a common occurrence in the early days of radio . the unusual lack of press in the local newspapers about wabb compared to the other three harrisburg stations wbak whbg and wprc tends to suggest that wabb had very little programming and was simply unable to continue operating . wabb changed ownership several times during the mid 1920s and made its final appearance in federal publications in december 1926 a full fourteen months after wprc first appeared . 10 during the 1920s up to the 1940s radio stations such as wkbo often sponsored live broadcasts from local ballrooms . wkbo s location in the penn harris hotel was ideal for this . local ensembles frequently performed in wkbo s studios as well . when tastes shifted and recorded music became more popular in the 1950s wkbo broadcast a full service middle of the road format featuring adult standards . 1970s edit in 1971 it was purchased by harrea broadcasting and it began its period of market dominance as a rock and roll then a top 40 station . in 1973 it moved its transmitter to city island 40 15 13.06 n 76 53 9.981 w 40.2536278 n 76.88610583 w 40.2536278 ; 76.88610583 and greatly improved its coverage . the station continued with the top 40 format until the late 1970s by which time am radio had already begun its long steady decline . on march 28 1979 traffic reporter dave edwards noticed something unusual at the three mile island nuclear power plant . the plant appeared to be non operational because there was no steam coming from the cooling towers . there was also a large contingent of emergency vehicles in and around the plant . upon learning this the wkbo news director mike pintek called the plant he was told i can t talk right now we ve got a problem . 11 this prompted pintek to make several follow up calls to the plant s owner metropolitan edison developing the breaking news story . wkbo was the first media outlet to report the story at 8 25am almost four and a half hours after the partial meltdown began . by 9am the ap picked up the story and it was broadcast nationally . 12 1980s edit in early 1985 wkbo was replaced by wink 104 in the ratings . during the rest of the 1980s the station had an ac format . becoming a cnn radio affiliate it then changed to news radio by 1989 . 1990s 2000s edit in 1996 wkbo switched to adult standards broadcasting the satellite syndicated music of your life format from jones radio . that format lasted until 2000 when clear channel leased its entire broadcast day to one heart ministries which turned it into a contemporary christian station . in 1998 the city of harrisburg decided to end the transmitter site lease at city island in order to develop the site as a recreational use planning a restaurant complex called kahunaville . the transmitter was moved to the harrisburg water plant . this installation is one of the few where a wireless mobile transmitting tower is successfully combined with an am broadcasting tower . kahunaville remains un built 13 the original city island transmitter site is now a parking lot . 2000s edit in 2010 clear channel sold wkbo outright to one heart ministries inc. which moved its studios to warm hearts cafe in mechanicsburg pa . references edit wkbo facility record . united states federal communications commission audio division . template u.s. department of commerce radio service bulletin october 1 1925 page 3 template federal radio commission radio service bulletin may 31 1929 page 12 template federal radio commission radio service bulletin december 31 1930 page 9 template harrisburg telegraph harrisburg pa november 8 1933 page 6 template u.s. department of commerce radio service bulletin may 1 1922 page 3 template u.s. department of commerce radio service bulletin may 1 1923 page 3 template u.s. department of commerce radio service bulletin march 2 1925 page 3 wkbo history . roteman jeff 2004 wkbo history . template us department of commerce radio service bulletin december 31 1926 page 13 gray mike ; rosen ira the warning w. w. norton & company new york 2003 isbn 0 393 32469 9 gray mike ; rosen ira the warning w. w. norton & company new york 2003 isbn 0 393 32469 9 the patriot news project failure can t be blamed on wormleysburg march 23 1999 p. a11 external links edit official website wkbo tribute site query the fcc s am station database for wkbo radio locator information on wkbo query nielsen audio s am station database for wkbo v t e radio stations in the harrisburg lebanon carlisle pennsylvania market by am frequency 580 720 960 1000 1230 1270 1400 1460 1600 1640 by fm frequency 88.1 88.7 89.5 90.1 90.7 91.3 91.7 92.1 92.7 93.5 94.9 95.3 96.5 97.3 98.9 99.3 100.1 101.3 101.7 102.3 104.1 105.7 106.7 noaa weather radio frequency 162.55 by callsign kfx305 w211aa w237de w243br w269as wcat fm wgty whkf whgb whp whyf whyl wioo witf fm wjaz wkbo wnnk wonn fm wpdc wpfg wqic wqlv wqxa wrbt wroz wrvv wtkt wtpa wxl40 wwkl wxph wzcy fm wzxm defunct wisl 1480 am pennsylvania radio markets allentown bethlehem altoona bradford coudersport chambersburg waynesboro erie harrisburg lebanon carlisle lancaster montrose new castle philadelphia pittsburgh reading sayre towanda mansfield wellsboro wilkes barre scranton williamsport york other pennsylvania radio regions bedford indiana johnstown lewistown mifflintown meadville franklin punxsutawney dubois st. marys emporium kane state college stroudsburg sunbury selinsgrove lewisburg warren see also list of radio stations in pennsylvania retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wkbo & oldid 670488703 categories christian radio stations in the united statesradio stations in pennsylvaniaradio stations established in 1925 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 8 july 2015 at 08 24 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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