WRTA AM 1240

A news and talk formatted AM radio station broadcasting at 1240 kHz, WRTA serves the Altoona, Pennsylvania market and Blair County. The station is owned and operated by Matt Lightner through licensee Lightner Communications LLC, which also holds licenses for WKMC, WYUP, WBRX, WBXQ, and WTRN. An FM translator at 98.5 MHz (W253CJ) provides additional city-grade FM coverage of Altoona and extends the signal across Blair County and into parts of Cambria County. WRTA began broadcasting on June 18, 1947, at 1240 kHz with 250 watts of power, initially operating as an ABC affiliate owned by Roy Thompson. The station passed through several ownership groups over its history. Roy Thompson sold WRTA to the Altoona Trans Audio Corporation in March 1956, a group composed of Martin J. Malarkey Jr., John L. Miller, Horace Richards, and Louis Murray. Rod Wolf joined the station in January 1957 and served in various capacities over the following decades, eventually becoming President and Chief Operating Officer of Altoona Trans Audio in September 1982. In November 2003, the station was sold to David A. Barger of Handsome Brothers Inc., marking the first change in ownership in more than 45 years. Rebecca Barger subsequently sold the station to Lightner Communications LLC in July 2019, with the transaction closing on October 1, 2019, at a price of $675,000.