Wobo-fm Information

Located in Clermont County, just east of Cincinnati, Ohio, the station went on the air as WCNE in the early 1970's, and was operated by students of the Clermont Northeastern School District. The broadcast day began at 8 AM and ended at 4 PM with its signal relayed by a tiny transmitter to a 60-foot tower. In late 1979 the Clermont Northeastern Board of Education was faced with diminished student interest, and a new requirement from the Federal Communications Commission that all licensed stations must broadcast at least 12 hours per day, 365 days a year. At that time they appealed to the community for help in filling the broadcast day with volunteers. Scores of individuals from the community responded. They brought new ideas for programming, and a willingness to volunteer their time and effort to build a community radio station. After some initial training, the volunteers commenced broadcasting in January 1980. The school district and its students continued to broadcast during normal school hours, and the unpaid volunteers, now incorporated as WOBO-FM, provided programming on weekdays, and a 24-hour per day operation on weekends. The next step in the story of WOBO was the renovation of a small brick building located behind the Owensville Elementary School into a small broadcast studio, leased to the group of volunteers. When completed, the building provided a studio with room for only one person, and furnished with "hand me down" equipment contributed by several other radio stations. In 1986, the Clermont Northeastern Board of Education withdrew from the operation and Educational Community Radio, Inc. was incorporated to undertake complete operation of WOBO. The new corporation was able to obtain Federal Communications Commission approval to erect a 442 foot tower on land donated to the station by Louis and Stirling Moore, and to increase the effective radiated power to 15, 500 watts. WOBO now had access to over 1.5 million potential listeners in the Tri-State, including Southwestern Ohio, Northern Kentucky, ...