The Story as I remember it…
WEEX, which was owned by The Easton Express newspaper, first came on the air in 1948 on 98.7 fm. (I’m not sure how long it lasted on that fm frequency or when it picked up the am license) WEEX then moved to 1230am and 99.9fm, and continued that way till the early 70s. Then WEEX split from the years of simulcasting the top 40 format from the FM, And the FM became wqqq easy listening(note the way the small Q’s look kind of like nines) The formats were Top 40 on the am WEEX, and beautiful music on the fm WQQQ. This continued till around 1982 when the Easton Express wanted to expand by buying the Globe Times, a newspaper in Bethlehem PA. So Easton Express sold the radio stations to Wilkes-Schwartz based in Springfield, Mass. They originally and ran stations WAQY 102 and WIXY-1600. WAQY was Top 40 for a number of years but went to AOR & Classic Rock. WIXY was one of many call letters for this station that had been a daytimer and managed to put up a bunch of sticks to get night time operation. Unfortunately the signal really sucked at night. When they acquired rights to the Springfield Kings so many fans complained they couldn't hear the station then they went into a simulcast with WMAS-1450. After awhile they bought WKRZ in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The company had a reputation for buying a station that wasn’t doing very well and turning it into a money making powerhouse. (To this day WKRZ is still ranked in the top of the ratings) Wilkes-Swartz sold WKRZ and bought WEEX/WQQQ from Easton Publishing (Easton Express) the Express then bought the Globe Times (who also owned an AM/FM combo at one time WGPAam and WEZVfm, now WZZOfm. But that’s another story) The Easton Express then Became the Express Times. WEEX was flipped from top 40 to easy listening and then country music, WQQQ was flipped from Easy Listing to top 40 music. And Q100 was born. Around this time (1983, 1984) AM radio was steadily dying out and FM was taking over big time. Q100 eventually became the number one station in the market. WEEX flipped again in 1987 to talk, becoming the first talk station in the Lehigh Valley. In 1988 WEEX again flipped this time to Oldies. While WQQQ stayed top 40 into mid 1987. WAEBfm flipped from Lite 104 to Top 40 becoming Laser 104.1.
Q100 and Laser 104 where now going head to head for the number 1 spot in the ratings. In April of 1989 WEEX and WQQQ were sold to Roth Broadcasting. They continued with the formats, however started to remove personnel one by one. Eventually there were only a few of the Q100/WEEX staff left. Then they flipped the format of WQQQ to Hot 99.9 changing the call letters to WHXT. They then flipped the format of WEEX to sports simulcasting WIP from Philadelphia under their new calls WWIP. This lasted about year and a half. When the station was sold again to (I believe to) Sinclair Broadcasting, who then flipped the format of WHXT to Oldies under the new calls of WODE. WWIP again flipped back to WEEX becoming talk once again. The stations continued along for a few years then were sold again, this time to Clear Channel. After a few more years Clear Channel continued to buy stations all over and eventually ran into the issue of owning too many stations in the Allentown market. Clear Channel had to divest some of its properties. Sooooo Once again WEEX/WODE were sold this time to Nassau Broadcasting. Nassau Kept things the same for about a year then the formats were changed. WODE became the “River” for about a week then flipping to 999 The Hawk and went Classic Hits, and WEEX was flipped from talk to ESPN sports. And that’s where the two remain today. If any one has anything to add to the story or corrections please get in touch with me.
Thank You,
Mick