WEHH

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WEHH
Broadcast area	Elmira, NY
Branding	"Solid Gold WEHH"
First air date	1956
Frequency	1600 (kHz)
Format	Adult standards
ERP	5,000 watts
Class	B
Callsign meaning	W Elmira Heights-Horseheads
Owner	Pembrook Pines Media Group
Website	None

WEHH signed on the air in 1956, the third AM radio station to sign on in Chemung County and the fifth to sign on in the Elmira-Corning market in New York state.

It originally broadcast at 500 watts, with a nondirectional pattern, on 1590 KHz during daylight hours from studios at Hanover Square in Horseheads, NY. Later a new studio facility was constructed near Latta Brook Road in the town of Horseheads. When New York State route 17 was constructed the new studio was in its path and had to go. The last facility was built just east of the Route 17 overpass (Latta Brook Road has no interchange with the highway). For years the studio location was identified on-air as Latta Brook Park and during weather reports the forecast was always ended with "the current temperature is ... in beautiful Latta Brook Park." The single tower non directional antenna was fed by a trusty Collins 550A transmitter and was located in a field across the highway from the station.

The station, founded by Frank P. Saia was owned by the Elmira Heights-Horseheads Broadcasting Company (family owned) for many years and was the first rock'n'roll station in the market. In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s area teenagers held their transistor radios close listening to RadioActive WEHH, Superhit Radio WEHH, and finally RainBow Radio WEHH. After school they rushed to the nearest drugstore for their free copy of the WEHH Fabulous 50 which detailed the 50 top hit songs of the day. Those drugstores were pretty smart because after the kids checked out the first 5 or 10 songs they were buying them on 45 rpm vinyl from the same stores. Many radio and television personalities known throughout the country got their first break in broadcasting by working for Frank in beautiful Latta Brook Park.

By the early 1970s the format had changed to easy listening with Frank at the helm and in the 1980s Ray Ross bought the station and switched the format to oldies. The station also was noted for broadcasting Elmira Pioneers' minor league and local Little League baseball games, as well as high school football and Elmira College hockey games. Under Ross' ownership, the station's broadcast day expanded to midnight, then to 24 hours a day, at very low power.

Seeking to fill a niche in the market in the early 1990s, Ross switched the format to adult standards. By the end of the decade, the station was being operated at the WELM and WLVY studios by the Pembrook Pines Media Group under a limited marketing agreement.

While WEHH was a standalone AM station for much of its existence it decided to place an FM station on the air in the mid 1960s. Frank Saia was a visionary individual who believed in the future of FM broadcasting and was responsible for WEHH-FM which signed on at 94.3 MHz in 1964 with Elmira, NY as its city of license. Its studios were colocated with WEHH-AM in Latta Brook Park. Its transmitter was located at a private site on East Hill in Elmira, NY. The station broadcast mainly beautiful and classical music along with a bit of country in the mornings, "The Ralph Emery Show". Frank Saia, before the founding of WENY-TV also had the first crack at UHF TV channel 36 and at one time considered a WEHH Television on channel 36. If that had happened, the WEHH callsign would have been prominent as an AM-FM-TV entity.

The FM station later was sold to crosstown rival WELM and changed to the current call letters, WLVY. In 1990, Ross also was instrumental in getting a new station on the air on 96.9 MHz. That station -- then known as WMKB -- was never owned by Ross, but later was signed on as contemporary Christian station WREQ. Ross formally sold WEHH to Pembrook Pines in 1999, after which it went dark for several months. It returned to the air in 2000 at five kilowatts, directional on 1600 KHz, with a satellite-delivered adult standards format. It now uses the three towers off Lake Street in the City of Elmira instead of the tower in Horseheads, which was taken down to make room for an industrial park.

Throughout its existence, the station's city of license has been Elmira Heights, but it always has included Horseheads in its legal ID.