WNWR

WNWR
City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Broadcast area Delaware Valley
Frequency 1540 kHz
First air date July 11, 1947 (as WJMJ)
Format News/Talk (simulcast of China Radio International)
Power 50,000 watts days
250 watts nights
Class B
Facility ID 1027
Transmitter coordinates 40°02′46.00″N 75°14′15.00″W / 40.0461111°N 75.2375000°W / 40.0461111; -75.2375000
Callsign meaning W New World Radio
Former callsigns WJMJ (1948-1967)
WRCP (1967-1985)
WSNI (1985-1987)
WPGR (1987-1995)
Owner Aztec Capital Partners

WNWR (1540 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania owned by Aztec Capital Partners. Its studio is located at 200 Monument Road, Suite 6, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania and its transmitter is located in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia, off Ridge Avenue.[1]

The station carries English-language programming from China Radio International for its entire broadcast day. It had been branded as "New World Radio" prior to June 2011 when it carried paid brokered programming in various languages.

WNWR broadcasts by day at 50,000 watts, the maximum power permitted for AM stations by the Federal Communications Commission.[2] But because AM 1540 is a clear channel frequency, WNWR must reduce power to 250 watts at night, to protect Class A stations KXEL in Waterloo, Iowa, and ZNS-1 in Nassau, Bahamas.


History

The station first signed on the air on July 11, 1947.[3] Its call sign was WJMJ which stood for "Jesus, Mary, Joseph." The station broadcast middle-of-the-road music and religious programming. It was owned by Patrick Joseph Stanton and had its offices and studios in the St. James Hotel. It was a daytimer, powered at 1,000 watts and forced to sign-off at sunset to avoid interfering with other stations on 1540 kHz. In the late 1950s, the station got a boost to 50,000 watts, but it still had to stay off the air at night.[4]

In 1965 it was acquired by Rust Craft Greeting Cards, which changed the call letters to WRCP, which stood for Rust Craft Philadelphia.[5] In 1967, Rust Craft changed the format to country music, a format not found on the Philadelphia radio dial. In 1981, after 560 WFIL adopted a country format, WRCP switched to oldies. Later in 1985, the call sign was changed to WSNI to match sister station 104.5 WSNI-FM (now WRFF). For a time, the AM broadcast an all-Beatles-and-Motown format. After two years, a more conventional oldies mix returned and the station became WPGR ("Philly Gold Radio").

In 1995, the station was sold to new owners operating as Global Radio LLC, becoming WNWR.[6] The call letters stand for New World Radio. It switched to mostly ethnic brokered programming, where show hosts bought time on the station and sold advertising in their communities to pay for their broadcasts. On June 13, 2011, WNWR's entire brokered program schedule moved to AM 860 WWDB.[7] The station was then leased to broadcast China Radio International. Several years later, WNWR got authorization from the Federal Communications Commission to stay on the air around the clock with low power at night.

former logo of WNWR

References


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.