In the early 1980s, when FM emerged as the leading technology for music, WEDO gradually dropped its music for the program-oriented format that it originally had in its formative years. As McKeesport's downtown economy continued to deteriorate, so did tenant business in Midtown Plaza Mall, as many of the stores went out of business or relocated into the suburbs. With few tenants left in the building, the property's managers turned off heat to several areas of the mall in an effort to reduce operating costs. A heating problem one day in 2000 resulted in a frozen pipe bursting in the mall and leaving the radio station in about two inches of standing water. According to a former employee, it was the second time that such an incident occurred.