WARH

WARH (106.5 MHz FM) is a radio station in Granite City, Illinois. WARH serves the St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area.

WARH plays an Adult Hits format as "106.5 The Arch - It's all about the variety"(Formerly "70s, 80s, and whatever we want"). The format is quite similar to the Jack FM stations in the U.S. & Canada. It programs slightly differently from the Jack FM-branded stations, including more news and traffic and having voice-overs performed by John O'Hurley, who currently is seen on television as the host of the syndicated TV game-show Family Feud.

WARH is currently owned by Bonneville International (owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and broadcasts with 90 kW of effective radiated power from Resurrection Cemetery in Shrewsbury, Missouri. Because of the high concentration of radio and television transmitters in this area, it is sometimes referred to as the St. Louis Master Antenna site.^{[citation needed]}

History

Originally, the station took to the air in 1965 as WGNU-FM under the ownership of the late Chuck Norman. The station was programmed with a country music format and was simulcast on WGNU 920 AM. Norman sold the station to Doubleday Broadcasting in 1976. Doubleday changed the station's call letters to WWWK (later KWK-FM) and the format to Top 40. Eventually, KWK became WKBQ-FM, retaining the Top 40 format.

When the station was purchased by Zimmer Radio Group of Cape Girardeau, Missouri in the mid 1990s, the station flip-flopped dial positions with sister station WKKX (currently WHHL) on 104.1, which had a country format known as "Kix 104." The station became "New Country Kix 106.5", where it would remain until 2000 when it was purchased by Bonneville, when it adopted a Smooth Jazz/NAC format as "Smooth 106.5 WSSM" (later "106.5 Smooth Jazz"). In April of 2005, the station adopted its current format and call letters.

On-air personalities

WARH has a roster of on-air personalities that include morning drive-time hosts Van Lorenz (formerly with WVRV) and Rick Wallace. Midday host is Michelle Steele, afternoons with Al Hofer (formerly with KSHE), Christy Swyers in the evenings and Andrew Eads overnights. The voice of the station, Simon Archer, is the voice of John O'Hurley (Seinfeld, Dancing With the Stars, Family Feud) produced by Brendan Shanahan. The Program Director is Kevin Robinson.

External links

• WARH official website
• MissouriRadio.net
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WARH
• Radio Locator information on WARH
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WARH
• Aerial photo of WARH transmitter from Google Maps
• KWK FM 106 AM 13.8 A tribute site for KWK "The Rockin' Best!"