Apr 23, 2017 By Pat Cloonan pcloonan@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read

Uniontown officially has its newest FM radio station, simulcasting the city’s heritage WMBS-AM 590.

After tests of its modulation and audio levels over the past three weeks announcers were ready to tout “AM 590 and FM 101.1” on local programming. The station updated its Facebook page on April 10 showing both frequencies in its profile picture.

“We were finally able to get our antenna mounted on Sunday, April 2,” WMBS General Manager Brian Mroziak said.

FM 101.1, legally known as W266DB, is a 250-watt translator with a directional signal that easily covers most of Fayette County as well as some nearby areas.

“We got a lot of calls,” Mroziak said, “from people happy to get our FM in stereo. Everything is in stereo on the FM side.”

And, unlike the wmbs590.com webstream where some programming such as Pirate baseball cannot be carried due to Major League Baseball, or other, contractual obligations, everything the AM has can be heard on FM 101.1.

While contract engineer Brian P. McGlynn of Genesee Media Corp. in Fairport, New York, did much of the work to get FM 101.1 for Uniontown, station engineer Rich Lawrence has been doing much of the work to get FM 101.1 on the air.

“He has done a lot of the work behind the scenes,” Mroziak said.

WMBS licensee Fayette Broadcasting Corporation bought the construction permit for W277CN in Victor, N.Y., from RSK Communications Inc. for $65,000.

It moved it to the WMBS tower site near Fairchance and the 101.1 megahertz frequency as part of a Federal Communications Commission window allowing AMs seeking to revitalize themselves to move low-power FMs or translators from locations within a 250-mile radius.

W277CN originally was planned for FM 103.3 to boost WYLF-850 in Penn Yan, N.Y., but was never built.

During its tests W266DB could be picked up at the Irwin-North Huntingdon Township interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and on Turnpike 43 and Interstate 70 in parts of northeastern Washington County.

It is part of an ever-growing crowded FM dial. For instance, McGlynn found “appropriate protection” for WZST-100.9, a Laurel Highland Total Communications station in Westover, W.Va., despite its being 38.4 miles from WMBS, well within an otherwise-required 47-mile separation as determined by the FCC.

It also was shoehorned between Cumulus Broadcasting’s full-power WHOT-101.1 in Youngstown, Ohio; Santimyre Broadcasting’s WWPN-101.1 in Westernport, Md.; and at least two other area low-power stations planned or on the air at FM 101.1.

For instance, near the Turnpike 66 interchange with Route 30 in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County, it is possible to hear W266DB at one elevation, while up in a nearby supermarket parking lot another FM 101.1 came in rebroadcasting Renda’s WCCS-1160 in Homer City.

And Pittsburgh Public Media, operators of jazz outlet WZUM-1550 in Braddock, are raising money for an FM 101.1 that would rebroadcast AM 1550 as well as a sister jazz station at FM 88.1 from Bethany, W.Va., also known these days as WZUM.

The new FM continues the tradition of family-run Fayette Broadcasting, which signed on AM 590 on July 15, 1937.

Though it long has been a CBS Radio Network affiliate, WMBS started out as an affiliate of the old Mutual Broadcasting System. It is the second-oldest station in counties surrounding Pittsburgh, after WKHB-620 in Irwin.

In 2000 Fayette Broadcasting was outbid in an auction for the former WPQR-99.3 in Uniontown by Keymarket Licenses LLC, now Forever Media. WPQR now is known as “Pickle” classic hits WPKL-99.3.

Forever also operates “Froggy” country WOGG-94.9, licensed to Oliver in North Union Township. Educational Media Foundation also is heard locally, with WDKL-106.9 in Masontown and its booster FM 92.5 in the Connellsville-Uniontown area.

Additionally, California University of Pennsylvania has educational WCAL-91.9 just across the Monongahela River from Fayette County, and WLSW-103.9 offers an oldies format in the Fay-West area. Pending FCC approval, WLSW is being sold from Sharon Wall to Westmoreland County broadcaster Robert Stevens.