WCOH-FM

WCOH-FM is an American radio station, licensed to DuBois, Pennsylvania; Clearfield County. The station broadcasts at a frequency of 107.3 MHz with an effective radiated power of 50,000 watts. It first began broadcasting in 1975 under the call sign WDBA, a call sign that remained in place until April, 2009. The station is currently owned by Family Life Ministries.

History

The groundwork for WCOH-FM actually was laid in the early 1970s, when it signed on the air as WDBA (for DuBois Area). A group of ten committed Christians explored the idea of starting up a Christian-formatted radio station in West Central Pennsylvania, as there was no such radio station at the time locally that offered full-time Christian programming. This board was the initial group of investors that successfully applied for a license to operate at 107.3 mHz.

The station first signed on the air November 12, 1975 with the longtime WDBA call sign, and for a period of about three years, it operated for 18 hours a day, signing on at 6am and leaving the air at midnight. It was the mission of the station to serve as many Christians as possible, and one of WDBA's challenges as the station grew in popularity was that it could not be heard everywhere within its targeted signal reach. This changed in 1978 when the group, known by this time as DuBois Area Broadcasting Company, Inc., successfully applied for a translator station which allowed WDBA to extend its signal to the more populous city of Altoona at 102.3 mHz. The translator was necessary because of the mountainous terrain that separated Altoona from eastern Clearfield County, which substantially weakened WDBA's reach. WDBA also extended its broadcast hours to a 24-hour day with the addition of the translator.