The station
signed on in 1947, at around the same time as another McKeesport-licensed radio station, WMCK (1360 AM, now
WGBN). WEDO has had only this
call sign, and only three owners in its history. Tri-City Broadcasting first put the station on the air and operated it until 1972, when it was purchased by 810, Inc., a wholly owned company headed by local entrepreneurs Ralph and Judith Baron. During the 1960s and 1970s, WEDO became known for its Top 40 music presentation and even received more notoriety when they relocated their studios and offices inside Midtown Plaza Mall on Fifth Avenue in downtown McKeesport during the 1970s. The mall, one of the first in suburban Pittsburgh, enabled shoppers to watch the DJs in real time as they did their on-air shifts. In the early 1980s, when FM emerged as the leading technology for music, WEDO gradually dropped its music for the program-oriented format that it originally had in its formative years. As McKeesport's downtown economy continued to deteriorate, so did tenant business in Midtown Plaza Mall, as many of the stores went out of business or relocated into the suburbs. With few tenants left in the building, the property's managers turned off heat to several areas of the mall in an effort to reduce operating costs. A heating problem one day in 2000 resulted in a frozen pipe bursting in the mall and leaving the radio station in about two inches of standing water. According to a former employee, it was the second time that such an incident occurred. Management then decided to relocate to a different building. WEDO cleared its equipment and furniture out of the mall weeks later and moved to a former bank location in White Oak at 1985 Lincoln Way, where it occupied the second floor. In the spring of 1999, WEDO was the victim of a not-so-innocent and dangerous prank committed by local high school students at its transmitter facility in Forest Hills, as explained in the April 13, and 29, 1999 issue archives of the Tribune-Review...
Change in Ownership On Tuesday, September 15, 2015, it was announced that 810 Inc. agreed to sell WEDO to Broadcast Communications, Inc. of
Irwin, Pennsylvania, licensee of
WKFB,
WKHB,
WANB,
WKVE and three FM translators in the Pittsburgh market, plus other broadcast properties in the
Cumberland, Maryland market. The sale was finalized on January 5, 2016, at a purchase price of $175,000.
WEDO people John James managed the station from June 1982 until retiring in 2014. James' predecessor, David Leiner took over for longtime manager John Longo in 1980. Longo went on to own and operate
WCNS, about east of Pittsburgh until his retirement in 2014. ==References==