WCED

This article is about the radio station. For other uses, see WCED (disambiguation).

WCED

City of license	DuBois, Pennsylvania
Branding	"News/Talk 1420 WCED"
Frequency	1420 (kHz)
First air date	February 1941
Format	News, talk, sports
Power	5,000 watts (day) 1,000 watts (night)
Callsign meaning	W Continental Eastern Divide
Owner	Priority Communications
Website	http://www.1420wced.com/

WCED (1420 AM, "News/Talk 1420") is a commercial radio station, licensed to the city of DuBois, Pennsylvania. WCED broadcasts with a power output of 5,000 watts non-directional day, and 500 watts using a three-tower directional antenna system at night. WCED, along with its FM sister station, WDSN, are owned and operated by Priority Communications of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

History

For much of its existence, WCED was the sister station of WOWQ-FM, also licensed to DuBois. The latter would, in the 90's, become a country music legend known best in Central Pennsylvania by the moniker Q-102. The stations were owned by Derrick Publishing, Inc., of Oil City, PA; (dba Tri-County Broadcasting) which also printed the Oil City Derrick newspaper.

WCED would also become known for its full-service approach to local programming for both DuBois and the Tri-County area, particularly Clearfield, Jefferson, and Elk. It also became the local radio outlet for ABC News, airing the likes of Paul Harvey and other full-service network program offerings. The station also offered various music formats such as CHR, oldies, and nostalgia in addition to some talk, but the station would go all news and talk after its sale to Priority Communications.

WCED and WOWQ also became one of the first stations in the country to use computer-based hard-disk audio storage technology in the early 1990s. The highly experimental DOS-based system was developed by Computer Concepts Corporation, and turned out to be a highly successful venture for both stations.

WCED and WOWQ would soon go their separate ways at the turn of the century, when both stations were sold to Vox Media in 1999. Vox Media sold WOWQ to First Media, as the stations were out of their market footprint, and then WCED in 2003 to Priority Communications, which had been operating competitor WDSN-FM since first putting it on the air February 14, 1990. First Media had been operating WCED under an LMA, but had no interest in owning it. WCED, left behind after Q-102 moved to a new building nearby, vacated the former DuBois Lumber Company office building after the sale to Priority. The purchase price for WCED was $150,000, according to FCC records.

WCED Today

WCED today functions as News/Talk 1420, with local and syndicated talk programming during the daytime hours, and Fox sports radio during the evening hours. The WCED Morning News was hosted by Gary Stormer until his death on June 11, 2011. Gary, the longest-tenured employee of WCED, worked for the station from 1973 until his death. In 2003, WCED moved from 80 North Park Place to 51 West Long Avenue in DuBois, where it shared space with WDSN temporarily until a new facility conducive to a news/talk formatted radio station could be found.

As it happened, Priority Communications negotiated a deal for an old bank building at 12 West Long Avenue, across and down the street from its original location. Both stations were moved into the new, state-of-the-art facility by the end of 2004.

Among the lineup of national talk hosts are Dr. Joy Browne, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity.

WCED is utilizing translators on 94.7 and 105.9 FM to extend their coverage.

WCED AM - operates a two tower array. The third tower fell down (approximately 2005 - when the tower legs rusted off) and they never put it back up. " It's laying in the swamp where it fell, between the other two towers. They changed the Phaser and lowered its transmit power, it now radiates a Cardioid pattern into the Dubois PA / local area only.

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for WCED
• Radio-Locator Information on WCED
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WCED