A change is in the air for News Radio 1020 KDKA.

Starting Nov. 2, as part of the commemoration of the station’s centennial anniversary, KDKA-AM will simulcast on FM for the first time ever and be heard on 100.1 FM. The spot had previously been occupied by WAMO, a station with a hip-hop format that can now be heard on 107.3 FM.

From its beginning in 1920 with a broadcast of the Harding/Cox presidential election returns to Ed and Wendy King’s “Party Line” to “Bogut in the Morning” to many years of Pirates baseball broadcasts and the transition from a top 40 music format to all news and talk, all of KDKA radio’s past century of programming has been exclusively on the AM dial.

“The opportunity to add an FM signal was just too good to pass up,” said Michael Spacciapolli, senior vice president and market manager of Entercom Pittsburgh, which owns KDKA radio. “There is a significant group of younger listeners that has never visited the AM band. This gives us an opportunity to expose a younger demographic group to KDKA.”

Spacciapolli said the timing couldn’t be better for 1020 KDKA-AM to be heard for the first time on the FM dial.

“We also needed to look ahead and ask, ‘What are we going to do for the next century?’ We are thrilled to expand the reach of historic KDKA on FM.”

KDKA’s history dates back to Nov. 2, 1920, when Frank Conrad, an engineer at Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, started 8ZZ and broadcast the results of the presidential election returns between Warren G. Harding and James Cox.

“It’s an honor to be part of the team carrying the torch from those before us into the next 100 years,” said Spacciapolli.

As for looking ahead, after officially parting ways with controversial afternoon host Wendy Bell last week, Spacciapolli said he is welcoming a series of guest hosts in that slot before a permanent replacement for Bell is named.

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