A collection of local musicians will be honoring a Butler Radio station anniversary Saturday night at the Penn Theater.
WLER’s 45th Anniversary Concert is happening Saturday night at the Penn Theater. A number of local musicians will rotate with a house band throughout the evening playing the best rock n’ roll hits from the last 45 years.
The concert begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are available by clicking here.
WLER was Butler County’s first FM radio station—initially known as WBUT-FM, 97.7 got its own call letters in 1979. But, it’s history begins much earlier.
Originally, the 97.7 frequency was assigned to WISR in 1949. WBUT, which was the only other competing radio station in Butler, had an unusable frequency that was too close to the television range that it could not be used. So, after WISR decided to not use 97.7, it traded FM assignments with WBUT in 1959. According to local historians, WISR opted to trade the 97.7 FM frequency because they thought FM would never take off.
The station then operated as a simulcast though with WBUT until 2006, when it switched to “All Hitz.”
WLER became known as The Rock Station in 2012 and has stayed with the format ever since.
