WBUT (1050 AM) is a commercial radio station, licensed to Butler, Pennsylvania, in the northern suburbs of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. It is owned by St. Barnabas Broadcasting, a division of the Saint Barnabas Health System, along with its sister stations WJAS, WBVP, WMBA, WISR and WLER-FM. WBUT carries a Classic Country radio format, along with local news, sports and weather. WBUT is a MRN and PRN affiliate carrying NASCAR, a Penn State Football Network affiliate, and also carries Butler Area Senior High School football and basketball games. The studios and offices are at 252 Pillow Street. By day, WBUT is powered at 500 watts. But because 1050 AM is a clear channel frequency, the station must reduce power at night to only 62 watts to avoid interference. Programming is also heard on 250 watt FM translator W247DF at 97.3 MHz. WBUT also streams via the TuneIn app. History WBUT first applied for a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission in March 1946, and had considered the frequencies of 1230, 1600, and 1430 kHz before finally settling on 1580 kHz, which was granted by the FCC in August 1948. The station first signed on the air in 1949 and was first owned by the Wise family, which also published The Butler Eagle, Butler's daily newspaper, doing business as Eagle Printing Company. J. Leonard Taylor served as the station's first general manager. The station first operated from the Nixon Hotel in downtown Butler, where Morgan Center stands today. WRYO, a radio station that debuted at 1050 kHz in 1948 in Rochester, Pennsylvania, in adjacent Beaver County, Pennsylvania, failed by 1952, leaving its frequency available for WBUT to switch to. Like WRYO, WBUT was powered at 250 watts as a daytimer until its current tower in Center Township was built in 1979. WBUT began broadcasting from this new tower in 1980, and was subsequently allowed to double its power to the current value of 500 watts, but still retained its daytime-only operational status. With the frequency swap, came its first change in ownership. The new WBUT, along with co-owned WBUT-FM 103.9 mHz, were sold to Beacom Broadcasting Enterprises in 1953, headed by J. Patrick Beacom. WBUT-FM was sold and the station relocated to Mercer County, Pennsylvania. A few years later, WBUT successfully applied for another FM broadcasting license at 97.7 MHz, which coincidentally, once belonged to its competitor, WISR-AM, before it