Outlet profile

1053 RNB

U.S. center-left, Black-audience focus

Owned byUrban One, Inc. (formerly Radio One), a publicly traded African American-owned media conglomerate founded by Cathy Hughes; traded on NASDAQ as UONE

FundingAdvertising revenue; Urban One is a publicly traded company that sells local and national advertising across its radio, digital, and cable television properties

On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

The station's origins trace to 1959, when it signed on as WAGY-FM in Forest City, North Carolina, as the FM companion to AM station WAGY. In 1971, it was sold to Gaffney Broadcasting (Raymond and Bright Parker), relocated to Gaffney, South Carolina, and rebranded as WAGI-FM, adopting a country and Southern gospel format under the slogan 'The Upstate Power Station.' Davidson Media Group acquired the station in 2007, and it eventually became WNOW-FM. Radio One — now Urban One — acquired it via a local marketing agreement on August 27, 2012, immediately flipping the format to Urban Oldies under the brand 'Old School 105.3.' The station's call letters changed to WOSF (standing for 'Old School Flava') on November 8, 2012. It later transitioned to an Urban Adult Contemporary format and rebranded as '105.3 RnB,' carrying the Rickey Smiley Morning Show as its flagship morning program. Urban One, founded in 1980 by Cathy Hughes — the first Black woman to chair a publicly traded U.S. corporation — has built its identity around serving Black American audiences; across its TV One cable network and iOne Digital properties, the company's editorial output has been consistently critical of policies seen as harmful to Black communities, including voting restrictions, policing practices, and rollbacks of civil rights protections associated with Republican administrations.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-09-23; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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