WODE-FM

WODE-FM (99.9 MHz, "99.9 The Hawk") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to serve Easton, Pennsylvania. The station's service contour covers the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania, in the United States.^[2]

The station is owned by Connoisseur Media, through licensee Connoisseur Media Licenses, LLC, and broadcasts a classic rock format, playing rock hits from the 1960s into the early 1990s. WODE-FM's transmitter, studios and offices are on Paxinosa Road West in Easton. The station is frequently at or near the top of the ratings in the Allentown-Easton-Bethlehem media market.

WODE-FM uses HD Radio, and simulcasts the alternative rock programming of sister station WWYY on its HD2 subchannel.

History

WEEX began operations on 98.7 FM as a stand-alone FM in 1948. Its call letters stood for Easton Express, Easton's daily newspaper as well as the station's then-owner.

WEEX then moved to 99.9 FM as WEEX-FM in the 1950s while putting an AM station on the air at 1230 kHz under the WEEX call sign. WEEX eventually switched to a Top 40 radio format during that time and used the FM station to simulcast much of the programming to cover areas where the AM station's 1000 watt signal could not be heard.

In the early 1970s, WEEX-FM's simulcast with the AM was broken off under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) changes which forbid full-time AM/FM simulcasts. The station switched to beautiful music under the WQQQ call letters. The calls were chosen because the lower-case Q closely resembled the number 9, hence the station's frequency 99.9. The station offered an instrumental-based easy listening format, playing cover versions of pop songs. A few times per hour a soft vocalist was mixed in.

1983: Contemporary hit radio format

In late 1982, longtime station owner Easton Express acquired The Globe-Times, a newspaper in nearby Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. To satisfy media ownership rules, both WQQQ and WEEX were sold off to Wilkes-Schwartz Broadcasting.

On April 4, 1983, WQQQ swapped formats with its AM sister station, WEEX 1230. WEEX had evolved by 1981 from Top 40 into an adult contemporary format. WEEX's airstaff and intellectual unit was moved to 99.9 FM. WQQQ's easy listening format was moved to 1230 WEEX but would be more vocally-oriented than on FM.

The former WEEX format was modified on FM into Mainstream CHR/Top 40. The station kept the WQQQ call letters but became known as "Q 100". Initially, the station focused on current pop music, but also played a moderate amount of 60s and 70s oldies until about 1985. Still throughout the 80s, WQQQ played oldies on Saturday evenings from the mid 60s mostly. But by 1986, the regular rotation was mostly current and recent product.

Q100 was at the time the only Top 40/CHR in the Allentown/Easton/Bethlehem radio market, competing with then-dominate Album Rock station 95.1 WZZO for first place in the ratings. However, on January 26, 1987, former country music outlet WXKW switched to CHR as "Laser 104.1 WAEB-FM". While the change didn't have an immediate impact on Q100's ratings, a burnt-out transmission line in the summer of 1988 forced the station to broadcast on low-power for a period of 2 weeks. This caused Q100's ratings to slip, allowing WAEB-FM to beat them in the ratings.

In 1989, Roth Broadcasting acquired WQQQ, and sister station WEEX from Wilkes-Schwartz. That September, Q100 switched to a Dance-Leaning CHR format as "Hot 99.9" under the WHXT call letters. The format lasted about a year before returning to Mainstream CHR.

After an uphill ratings battle with its rival WAEB-FM that lasted over a period of almost 2 years, Hot 99.9 was unable to make any significant gains due to budget and signal issues. However, in its final ratings trend as a CHR, WHXT had beat WAEB-FM by two-tenths of a point.

1991-2001: Oldies format

On August 23, 1991, WHXT dropped its CHR format for oldies. The format played the hits of the 1950s, 1960s, and a few songs from the early 1970s. The call letters became WODE-FM (standing for OlDiEs) and the station became known as "Oldies 99" under programming consultant Pete Salant.

The station was sold to Patterson Broadcasting and became "Oldies 99.9" in the mid 1990s (adding the "point nine" in its handle as more radios employed digital tuners). In 1997, Capstar bought WODE-FM and WEEX but would spin the stations off to Clear Channel Communications. Capstar had to do this because the Lehigh Valley has only five FM stations, and under FCC rules, no one company can own more than half. As a result, a company can only have 2 FM stations in the market. Capstar was already buying 95.1 WZZO and 104.1 WAEB-FM. Under Clear Channel ownership, WODE-FM continued its oldies format.

2001-2013: Classic Hits

In 2000, Clear Channel announced a major merger with AM/FM Broadcasters (a company which was created as a result of a merger with Capstar and Chancellor). AM/FM already owned WZZO and WAEB-FM. Clear Channel would not be allowed to keep all three stations upon the merger, so they decided to sell WODE-FM and WEEX to Nassau Broadcasting Partners. Nassau was given cash plus WODE-FM and WEEX. Clear Channel though would obtain stations in New Jersey, including WNNJ, WNNJ-FM, WSUS, WHCY, and management agreements for WDLC and WTSX. Clear Channel also kept the former Capstar/AM-FM stations.

In September 2001, the station switched names and formats, debuting in the Fall 2001 Arbitrons as the #1 station in the Allentown market. The station was originally called "99-9 The River" but was forced to change its name because Clear Channel owned the rights to the name "The River." The station became known as "99-9 The Hawk," and plays classic rock hits. Its slogan was "The Valley's Classic Hits Station." The station's ratings generally led the market with the key 25-54 audience.

WODE-FM, along with nine other Nassau stations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, was purchased at bankruptcy auction by NB Broadcasting in May 2012. NB Broadcasting is controlled by Nassau's creditors — Goldman Sachs, Pluss Enterprises, and P.E. Capital. WODE-FM was included in the deal after Goldman Sachs rejected a bid from Cumulus Media for the station.^[3][4] In November, NB Broadcasting filed a motion to assign its rights to the stations to Connoisseur Media.^[5] The sale to Connoisseur Media, at a price of $38.7 million, was consummated on May 29, 2013.

2013: Classic Rock

With the sale complete in July 2013, Connoisseur Media tweaked the format, giving it more of a rock focus and changing the slogan to "Classic Rock of the 70s, 80s and More".

In late 2013, WODE-FM acquired translator W234AX 94.7 FM, licensed to serve Allentown, from Family Life Ministries.^[6] The translator broadcast WODE-FM analog/HD1 programming until April 15, 2016, when it began simulcasting the programming of sister station WWYY via WODE-FM-HD2.^[7]

Translators

WODE-FM-HD2 programming (WWYY simulcast) is broadcast on the following translator:

See also

• Media in the Lehigh Valley

References

External links

• 99.9 The Hawk Official Website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WODE
• Radio-Locator information on WODE
• Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WODE
• Query the FCC's FM station database for W234AX
• Radio-Locator information on W234AX
• History of 99.9 during the WEEX-FM and WQQQ era.

Coordinates: 40°42′30″N 75°13′0″W / 40.70833°N 75.21667°W / 40.70833; -75.21667