WISR

WISR is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Butler, Pennsylvania. The station was the first to go on the air in Butler County, doing so on September 26, 1941. The station was the very last to be granted a broadcast license before the FCC halted the licensing of any additional stations until after World War II. It has always broadcast on AM 680 with a maximum power output of 250 Watts, non-directional. The station had operated as a daytime-only station until it was granted limited nighttime power in the late 1980s.

History

First in Butler County: a family affair

WISR was the brainchild of local businessman David Rosenblum, who felt that the community could use a local radio station to promote its community and events. Naming the station after his father, Isaac Samuel Rosenblum, David Rosenblum managed the station and sold airtime, with his wife Georgia keeping the books. The couple continued to operate the radio station until their deaths in the early 1950s. It was at that time that the Rosenblums' son Joel, assumed the operations of WISR. Joel Rosenblum's brother Raymond later owned and managed a station of his own some 25 miles to the east, known as AM 1380 WACB (now WTYM) Kittanning.