The station signed on the air on May 25, 1948, and was founded by Tom Price, Frank Smith and Charles Ondurka, all from Pittsburgh. In 1955, the original partners reorganized and formed Beaver Valley Broadcasting.
Around 1970, Hall Communications bought WBVP along with an FM radio station, originally known as WBVP-FM at 106.7 MHz, that had been put on the air in 1968. In 1985, Ted and Marilee Ruscitti from Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania bought WBVP and the FM station, through their company, MT Communications. By this point, the call sign had been changed to WWKS.
In 1990, The stations were sold to the Baltimore Radio Show in Towson, Maryland with Harry Shriver serving as managing partner. Carnegie, Pennsylvania-native Frank Iorio, Jr., along with partners Aaron Daniels and Mike Swartz, formed Pittsburgh Radio Partners and bought the two stations in 1994. Just a year later, the trio sold the FM station, WWKS, to Secret Communications. At that time Iorio bought out his partners and continued to own and operate WBVP through his newly formed company, Iorio Broadcasting, Inc. Iorio then bought WMBA from Donn Communications in 2000. Long time station employee, Mark Peterson along with his wife, Cyndi, Formed Sound Ideas Media, LLC, and purchased WBVP and WMBA in 2014.
In 2019, an FM translator station for WBVP, W257EA at 99.3 MHz, was put on the air and added as a third station carrying the simulcast feed already heard on WBVP and WMBA. The following year, the stations debuted full time on-line audio streaming via the station's website.
Merger between WBVP and WMBA
In May 2000, WMBA owner Donn Wuycik, president of Donn Communications, entered into an agreement to sell WMBA to Iorio Broadcasting, for an undisclosed amount.
Since 2000, though, they have been under single ownership and WMBA's operations were moved from 761 Merchant Street in Ambridge into WBVP's existing facilities at 1316 Seventh Avenue in Beaver Falls. WBVP and WMBA, which aired separate talk formats with nostalgia and adult contemporary music, respectively, began to duplicate more of each other's programming as time evolved, and today the stations are nearly 100 percent simulcast. The exceptions are usually confined to high school sports, where each station will air live play-by-play of a game significant to its community.
Frank Iorio wanted to concentrate on his new Pittsburgh acquisition, WJAS, a transaction which he would successfully complete in the summer of 2014. Longtime WBVP and WMBA general manager Mark Peterson had aspired to acquire a station of his own, and Iorio arranged to sell the station to Peterson and his wife. Both WBVP and WMBA were sold to Peterson's newly formed company, Sound Ideas Media, LLC for $750,000 in a transaction that was consummated on February 28, 2014.
Previous logo
On September 7, 2021, the stations were acquired by St. Barnabas Broadcasting, a division of the Saint Barnabas Health System, making them sister stations to WJAS.[1]
Past personalities
WBVP has served as a springboard for on-air personnel who have moved on to bigger stations. Among the WBVP alumni are Bob Alexander, Alan Boal, Jim Reynolds, Chris Shovlin (Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame), Bill Kelly, Sam Nicotero (known as Tony Scott on WBVP), Earl Lewis, Justin McKim, Ken Mueller, Randy Buckwalter, Carl Anderson, Mark Razz (Radziewicz), Gert Trobe, Mike Romigh, George Allen, Owen Simon, Sam Siple, Chuck Wilson (Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame), Don Kennedy (Big Band Jump), Ernie Kline, who later became Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, Bob Barrickman (Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame) and Tom Hays (Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame).
