WWJZ
| City of license | Mount Holly, New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Delaware Valley Atlantic County/South Jersey |
| Branding | Relevant Radio Philadelphia |
| Frequency | 640 kHz |
| Format | Christian Talk |
| Power | 50,000 watts (day) 950 watts (night) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 43904 |
| Transmitter coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Callsign meaning | WJZ (the original call letters of WABC in New York City) |
| Affiliations | Relevant Radio |
| Owner | Starboard Media Foundation, Inc. |
| Website | www.relevantradio.com |
WWJZ (640 AM) is a Christian Talk broadcast radio station licensed to Mount Holly, New Jersey, serving the Delaware Valley. The station is owned and operated by Relevant Radio.[1] The transmitter is located near the intersection of US-206 and CR-530 in Pemberton Township, New Jersey, and station offices in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.[2]
Contents
History
Prior to Radio Disney, WWJZ was owned by John Farina, the originator of the sound adopted by Al Ham's Music of your Life format. Farina's dream was to re-establish the signal he had on 1460 kHz in Mount Holly in the 1960s as WJJZ. With the help of his long-time friend and engineer, Ted Schober, he got New Jersey its first 50 kilowatt AM radio station in many years and was able to put his beloved sound on the air again.
The sounds of Brook Benton, Tommy Dorsey, Margaret Whiting, Doris Day, Frankie Laine and many others covered the east coast from Cape Cod to Cape Hattaras from October 1992 into 1993, emanating from an ancient General Electric transmitter of the type used by the venerable WJZ in its days as flagship of the NBC Blue Network. Then a bitter dispute between Farina and his financier-landlord, Edgar Cramer, put WWJZ off the air in August 1993.
Not to be defeated, Farina reestablished the station on a 1700 watt temporary transmitter in Florence, New Jersey, with the help of Nick Grand and Schober. The sound was well received with thousands of letters and some modest Philadelphia ratings, but the weaker signal did not compare to the big transmitter. Heartbroken, Farina had a stroke and died. Nick Grand continued the temporary operation as executor through the end of 1999, unable to make peace with Cramer until Disney made its offer for the station. Farina was a brilliant idea man and extremely good at salesmanship but sadly he was less successful as a businessman. Management difficulties, hostile takeovers and persistent controversy led to his loss of virtually all of the stations he expertly planned and put on the air including WJJZ/Mt. Holly, N.J., WWLE/Cornwall, N.Y., WMVI/Mechanicville, N.Y, WDJZ/Bridgeport, Ct. and lastly WWJZ/Mt. Holly, N.J.
From the 1950s through the inception of WWJZ operation in 1992, there were no broadcast stations on 640 on the East Coast. This allowed the frequency to be used by a number of "carrier current" college radio stations including La Salle University's student radio station, which would later become known as WEXP, Rutgers University's WRSU-FM, Drew University's WERD, Stevens Institute of Technology's WCPR, and others.
On August 13, 2014, Disney put WWJZ and twenty-two other Radio Disney stations up for sale, in order to focus more on digital distribution of the Radio Disney network.[3][4] Disney originally planned to temporarily shut down the station on September 26, 2014.[5] However, will remain on the air and continue carrying Radio Disney programming until it is sold.[6] On August 11, 2015, Starboard Media Foundation agreed to purchase WWJZ for $3.5 million, pending FCC approval.[7] The station became the Relevant Radio affiliate in the area when the acquisition was consummated on September 23, 2015.[8]
Coverage
WWJZ 640 can be heard at the Jersey Shore and in Philadelphia, As well as the coast of Delaware and Maryland. The signal is very powerful from Cape May, New Jersey to Sandy Hook Light (also in New Jersey). On the Outer Banks of North Carolina You may be able to slightly hear the station in Cape Hatteras. WWJZ has an 80 mile coverage area on land, and an even further coverage area over the Atlantic Ocean. This is because water is a good conductor, and carries radio waves much further than on land. During the evening hours, WWJZ can be heard in Bermuda.
WWJZ's daytime local signal reaches from the New Jersey shore to Allentown, Pennsylvania and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware to northern New Jersey. The daytime fringe signal reaches into the New York metropolitan area on the north and the Baltimore-Washington D.C. metropolitan area on the south.[9] The station fills a void left on the Delmarva Peninsula when the former Radio Disney station in Salisbury, Maryland (WJDY) went dark in 2003.[citation needed]
References
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (subscription required)
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- ↑ Relevant Radio station coming to Philadelphia - Relevant Radio
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