History
The station signed on the air on May 7, 1990. [4] It was founded by Barbara Marmet, who had the intention of having a community radio station for Frederick and surrounding towns. The "Key" branding references Frederick native Francis Scott Key, whose poem led to the composition of "The Star Spangled Banner."
Among several applicants for the allocation, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave preference to her because of her local residency and, under an affirmative action program designed to increase minority-owned broadcasters, a woman. This led to a lawsuit by Jerome Lamprecht, one of the competing applicants. In 1992's Lamprecht v. FCC, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held in an opinion written by newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that in the absence of a demonstrable reason, such as encouraging programming diversity, such preference was unconstitutional. [5] Litigation continued until an eventual settlement between Lamprecht and Marmet in 1999. [6]
Marmet sold WAFY to Nassau Broadcasting Partners in 2005. [7] After Nassau went into chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the station, along with WARK and WWEG in Hagerstown, were purchased by Manning Broadcasting, Inc. in May 2012. [8] The sale was completed on November 1, at a price of $6.4 million. [9]
For much of the early 2000s, WAFY played soft adult contemporary music. On September 16, 2010, at 9 am, Key 103 dropped the slogan "Frederick's Continuous Soft Rock" and began a 20th anniversary retrospective show looking back at the history of the station's personalities, music, and activities. This retrospective ended at noon with a launch into its current hot adult contemporary format.
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