The music you grew up on is back!

Radio Sales Advertisement from Broadcasting Magazine - 1941

WARM Radio first saw the light of day on January 25, 1940, when the Federal Communications Commission granted permission for us to begin broadcasting from downtown Scranton with 250 watts on 1370 kHz. It was the Mutual affiliate for our area, bringing us such programs as "The Shadow" and "Gangbusters". In 1941, a treaty was signed with Canada, Mexico, and several other countries in the North American region. This caused many AM stations to change frequency and WARM moved to 1400 kHz, still at 250 watts. After World War II, the opportunity to increase power and broadcast on a better frequency allowed WARM to move to 590 kHz, broadcasting at 5,000 watts from a transmitter site between Scranton and Tunkhannock. By that time, the network affiliation was changed to ABC. The signal reached from Binghamton, New York to Newark, New Jersey and WARM was often heard as far south as Atlantic City. Regularly licensed operation on 590 began in 1952. Our programming was typical of what radio stations ran in the 1950s, with music, news, and local features dominating the airwaves.

On January 2, 1954, WARM expanded into television as WARM-TV lit up Channel 16 for the first time. Transmitting from West Mountain, WARM-TV featured network shows from ABC and DuMont, as well as late night movies. Since there was another ABC/DuMont affiliate in the area (WILK-TV, Channel 34, on North Franklin Street in Wilkes-Barre), the TV operation lost money and WARM-TV merged with WILK-TV in 1957. Channel 34 went off the air and the combined television operation was sold. As WNEP-TV, Channel 16 prospers as Northeast Pennsylvania's ABC affiliate. WARM also tried FM in the 1950s, simulcasting its regular AM lineup in static-free, high fidelity FM on 93.7 MHz. Few people owned FM radios in those days and WARM-FM eventually went off the air. 93.7 remained silent for over twenty years. Our sister station, JR 93.7 (WSJR) now provides continuous country music to Northeast Pennsylvania.

WARM Radio Survey - June 6, 1959 (photo courtesy of Chris Huff)

In the sixties, Top-40 AM radio was king and WARM ruled the airwaves over Northeast Pennsylvania. WARM moved out of downtown Scranton and into a new studio/office complex in Avoca. If a new record was released, you heard it first on WARM, The Mighty 590. Over the years, Harry West woke us up, George Gilbert ("Double G") entertained us in the middle of the day, Terry McNulty took us to Goose Island, and Rob Neyhardt was a part of our lives here in WARMland. As program director, "Double G" built WARM into a powerhouse, making it the most listened to station in this area.

WARM Jocks from 1961 (photo courtesy of Chris Huff)

By the time the nineties arrived, AM radio was declining and WARM wandered through a number of formats in the intervening years. On November 1, 2005, Northeast Pennsylvania lost its only oldies station and you complained loudly that nobody played your music anymore. We listened to you and introduced the True Oldies Channel in April, 2006, featuring all the songs you grew up with from the late fifties through the seventies. Local news returned on weekday mornings starting in February, 2007. Scranton native Brian Hughes gives you your local news at :20 past each hour and national news from the ABC Radio Network airs at :50 past each hour. ABC news at :50 and local weather at :20 and :50 continue throughout the day. We added the WARM Community Calendar in March, 2007. Nonprofit organizations can have their events publicized on WARM free of charge. We carried a Beatles special, "1967: The Beatles' Greatest Year, as well as a Memorial Day weekend special celebrating the 50th. anniversary of the Motown record label. More special programming is planned and we want to be YOUR radio station. Keep it on 590 and relive the best days of your life!

As for me...I'm your program director and I want to know what you want to hear on True Oldies 590 WARM. E-mail me here at the station!

Phil G, Program Director



Click on the envelope to email me.