WNWR

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]

WNWR
CityPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Broadcast areaDelaware Valley
Frequency1540 kHz
Programming
FormatSilent Was Regional Mexican
Ownership
OwnerAztec Capital Partners
History
First air dateJuly 11, 1947 (as WJMJ)
Former call signsWJMJ (1948-1967)
WRCP (1967-1985)
WSNI (1985-1987)
WPGR (1987-1995)
Call sign meaningW New World Radio
Technical information
Facility ID1027
ClassB
Power50,000 watts days
250 watts nights
Transmitter coordinates40°02′46.00″N 75°14′15.00″W

The station is currently silent since April 2018.[2]

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.[8] Several years later, WNWR got authorization from the Federal Communications Commission to stay on the air around the clock with low power at night. WNWR has gone off the air and is listed as silent since June 14, 2018. As of Saturday November 17, 2018 WNWR returned on the air broadcasting a Spanish language format. On December 8, 2019, however, it was on the FCC's Silent AM Stations List.[9]

former logo of WNWR

References
  1. Radio-Locator.com/WNWR
  2. "History of Philadelphia radio station 1540 WNWR (Aztec Capital Partners)".
  3. Broadcasting Yearbook 1949 page 226
  4. Broadcasting Yearbook 1960 page A-219
  5. Broadcasting Yearbook 1967 page B-138
  6. Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2010 page D-471
  7. http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html
  8. "FCC, Justice Department investigate covert Chinese radio network". Reuters. 2015-11-02. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  9. https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/silent-am-list
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