Some programming promotions are simply somebody getting a bigger title. This one carries considerably more history than that, because when Audacy hands Kiki B. Jones the Brand Manager reins at WAMO 107.3, it is putting one of Pittsburgh’s most important Black radio brands into the hands of somebody whose relationship with WAMO didn’t begin with a résumé, an interview or even her first airshift. It began with family.
Jones has been elevated from Assistant Brand Manager to Brand Manager of Audacy Hip-Hop/R&B WAMO 107.3, while continuing as an on-air personality with the station.
And if you’re looking for somebody who needs an orientation meeting explaining what WAMO means to Pittsburgh?
Kiki ain’t the one.
She already knows.
THIS ISN’T JUST A PROMOTION. THIS IS A HOMECOMING THAT NEVER REALLY ENDED.
Jones’ connection to WAMO stretches across multiple eras of the brand.
A Pittsburgh native, she grew up around the original WAMO while her father worked on the air, eventually beginning her own radio career there. Audacy noted when it elevated her into management in 2022 that she had quite literally grown up around the station before eventually becoming an air personality herself.
Her career would eventually take her beyond Pittsburgh, with stops that included WERQ/Baltimore, WKYS/Washington and Radio 103.9/New York, before the road brought her back home.
And not just once.
Jones returned to the relaunched WAMO during the 2010s and ultimately came back again as Audacy took over operation of the brand in 2022.
That makes this essentially WAMO Chapter Three for Kiki.
Except this time?
SHE’S GOT THE KEYS.
AUDACY HAS BEEN BUILDING TOWARD THIS
When Audacy took over WAMO operations in April 2022, Jones was already part of the company’s Pittsburgh operation through its public-affairs programming. She subsequently added a daily WAMO airshift, and by September of that year Audacy had promoted her to Assistant Brand Manager and Music Director.
Four years later, she’s moving into the big chair.
That’s significant because WAMO isn’t merely another music station sitting on an Audacy cluster spreadsheet.
The company itself has described the brand as Pittsburgh’s home for Hip-Hop and a station with decades of history serving the city’s African-American community. Audacy’s current Pittsburgh sales materials similarly position WAMO as the market’s only Urban station and emphasize the brand’s cultural relationship with Black Pittsburgh.
That means programming WAMO requires something considerably more complicated than deciding whether a record tests.
You have to understand Pittsburgh.
You have to understand Hip-Hop and R&B.
You have to understand heritage.
You have to understand that an Urban radio station can simultaneously be a music brand, entertainment outlet, community gathering place, cultural translator and local institution.
And perhaps most importantly in 2026, you have to understand how to make all of that matter on the radio and everywhere the audience goes when they’re not listening to the radio.
Kiki has spent years living inside that intersection.
THAT LOCAL CONNECTION MATTERS
There is another part of this promotion that shouldn’t get buried underneath the title change.
Kiki B. Jones is a personality.
That matters.
Radio has spent years debating consolidation, centralized programming, syndicated content, artificial intelligence and how much local personality is financially sustainable.
Meanwhile, some of the strongest radio brands in America continue demonstrating an incredibly complicated technological breakthrough:
Put interesting local people on the radio who actually know their city.
Amazing concept.
Jones isn’t somebody being flown into Pittsburgh with a research deck explaining the difference between McKeesport and Monroeville.
She’s Pittsburgh.
And listeners already know her.
WAMO’s current lineup has Jones occupying the 10 a.m.-4 p.m. weekday window, surrounded by DeDe in the Morning, Mike Dean and The Quiet Storm.
Her footprint also extends well beyond music. WAMO is currently promoting the return of her Charm School & Man Camp, an October community event bringing young people and parents together for workshops involving finance, health, mental health, entrepreneurship and other topics.
That’s what makes this promotion particularly interesting from a programming perspective.
She’s not merely associated with the station.
She’s embedded in the community the station is supposed to serve.
FROM HER FATHER’S WAMO TO HER WAMO
And that’s probably the coolest part of the whole thing.
There was a time when Kiki B. Jones was the daughter walking through the halls of WAMO because Dad worked there.
Then she became part of WAMO herself.
Then radio took her around the country.
Then Pittsburgh called her home.
Then she became management.
And now?
Brand Manager.
Radio careers almost never travel in straight lines. Formats disappear. Call letters move. Companies change. Stations get sold. Buildings close. People leave markets believing they’ll never return.
Yet somehow, across all those twists, Kiki and WAMO kept finding their way back to one another.
That’s not merely a promotion announcement.
That’s a Pittsburgh radio story.
Congratulations, Kiki.
Dad has to be smiling at this one.
The kid who grew up around WAMO is now helping lead WAMO into whatever comes next.
And somewhere inside one of America’s great heritage Black radio brands, the circle just got a little more complete.
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