It broadcasts an urban contemporary radio format, is owned by the Martz Communications Group and is operated by Audacy, Inc., under a local marketing agreement (LMA).

To protect the nighttime signal of Class A station WFAN in New York City on the same frequency, WAMO is a daytimer, required to go off the air at night.

Though successful financially in its earlier years, the station and its FM sister, then known as WZGO, experienced a sharp decline during the mid 1980s, as did the local economy, in part due to the collapse of the region's steel-producing and coal-mining industries.

Martz planned to put an urban/urban AC format on the station, returning this programming to the Pittsburgh market for the first time since WAMO (860 AM) and WAMO-FM (106.7) were sold to Catholic broadcasters in 2009.

[8] On March 22, 2022, it was announced that Audacy would purchase the WAMO intellectual property, and begin operating the station on April 4 via a local marketing agreement.

Following the donation's completion, the urban contemporary format will only be heard on W297BU and on the HD2 channel of Audacy-owned WDSY-FM; the move followed the expiration of a four-year window requiring W297BU to operate as a WAMO translator.