WANO signed on March 15th, 1957 with the mission of serving the
Pineville community with local news and information. South Bevins was
the original licensee of WANO, and owned the station until approximately
1995, when the station was purchased by Warren Pursifull's Cumberland
Media Group. Warren had begun working at WANO as a teenager, leaving
after his acquisition of Countrywide Broadcasters, Inc's
WFXY/Middlesboro in November of 1993. In late 2005, both WANO and WFXY
were acquired by Joshua Wilkey, a North Carolina businessman who moved
to Bell County to run the stations. Mr. Wilkey continues to own the
stations, and WANO's studios are co-located with WFXY at 2118 Cumberland
Avenue in Middlesboro. WANO's transmission facilities are located on
Four Mile Road just outside the corporate limits of Pineville. WANO
serves the Bell County community with a fulltime signal of 1,000 watts
on 1230AM, and the signal is also rebroadcast on New Wave Communications
Cable
Channel 7 throughout Pineville and many areas of Bell, Harlan and Lee
Counties.
Just after celebrating 50 years on the air, arsonists set fire to WANO's
broadcasting facilities on the night of March 18th, 2007. The result was
a complete loss of the station's broadcasting equipment, leaving WANO
off the air. Immediately, rebuilding efforts began, as the community
rallied around the station. In record time, the station was back on the
air, signing back on little more than a month later on April 20th. While
the fire was a tragedy, it was in many ways a bittersweet blessing in
disguise. The resulting rebuild made WANO state-of-the-art in every way,
for the first time since 1957. A brand new solid state transmitter, new
audio processing, and improved antenna system make WANO the
best-sounding radio station in the Tri-State area. Everyone at WANO and
Countrywide Broadcasters looks forward to serving the community for
another 50 years! If you'd like to learn more about our fire recovery
efforts, visit our fire recovery page by clicking
