WANO signed on March 15th, 1957 with the mission of serving the Pineville community with local news and information. South Bevins was the original licensee of WANO, and owned the station until approximately 1995, when the station was purchased by Warren Pursifull's Cumberland Media Group. Warren had begun working at WANO as a teenager, leaving after his acquisition of Countrywide Broadcasters, Inc's WFXY/Middlesboro in November of 1993. In late 2005, both WANO and WFXY were acquired by Joshua Wilkey, a North Carolina businessman who moved to Bell County to run the stations. Mr. Wilkey recently sold WANO to local businessman Frank Smith, Chairman of Penelope Inc. WANO's studios will be located at 2117 Cumberland Avenue in Middlesboro. WANO's transmission facilities are located on Four Mile Road just outside the corporate limits of Pineville. WANO serves the Bell County community with a fulltime signal of 1,000 watts on 1230AM, reaching Bell, Knox, Harlan, Clay counties in KY and Claiborne County in TN and Lee County, VA  the signal is also rebroadcast on New Wave Communications Cable Channel 22 in Middlesboro reaching 6,000 plus subscribers. A brand new solid state transmitter, new audio processing, and improved antenna system make WANO the best-sounding radio station in the Tri-State area. Everyone at WANO and Penelope, Inc. looks forward to serving the community for another 50 years!