WWRL

WWRL
City	New York City
Broadcast area	New York metropolitan area
Branding	Radio Zindagi
Frequency	1600 kHz
First air date	August 26, 1926
Format	Indian talk/music
Power	25,000 watts (daytime) 5,000 watts (nighttime)
Class	B
Facility ID	68906
Callsign meaning	W Woodside Radio Laboratory
Owner	Nimisha Shukla and Jeetendra Shukla (NJ Broadcasting, LLC)
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	radiozindagi.com

WWRL (1600 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in New York City. WWRL airs an Indian/South Asian radio format in the Hindi language from a transmitter site in Secaucus, NJ, and owned by Nimisha and Jeetendra Shukla, through licensee NJ Broadcasting, LLC.

For many years, WWRL catered to New York's African American community first as an R&B station, then later a Gospel music station and even later a Talk radio format. In 2006, WWRL replaced WLIB as the flagship station for the Air America Radio network and retained a Progressive talk radio format for the next eight years.^[1]

History

Founded by radio enthusiast William Reuman, WWRL began broadcasting at 12:00 a.m., Thursday, August 26, 1926 from a studio and transmitter in his home at 41-30 58th Street in Woodside, Queens, New York on a frequency of 1120 kHz. (WWRL stood for Woodside Radio Laboratory.) In 1927 the nascent Federal Radio Commission ordered the station to move to 1500 kHz. In its early days, the station served many ethnic communities, broadcasting programs in Italian, German, French, Polish, Hungarian, Slovak, and Czech, as well as English. Following implementation of the 1941 North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement the station again changed its frequency, this time to 1490 kHz, followed shortly thereafter by a move to the current 1600 kHz. In 1951 the station's official licensed location was changed from Woodside, NY to New York, NY. In 1964 Reuman retired and sold the station to a group headed by Egmont Sonderling.

In 2005, after 79 years, the station moved to former studios of 1050 WEVD (now WEPN) at 333 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan.

Prior to its affiliation with Air America, WWRL was a diversified radio station primarily serving the African American community. The station also aired some progressive talk shows weekdays, with Caribbean music on Saturdays and overnights. On Sundays they aired Gospel music and religious programming. WWRL also carries live play-by-play of the New York Liberty of the WNBA. On August 2, 2006, WWRL announced its affiliation with Air America.

Former WWRL Logo

Transmitter building in Secaucus, New Jersey

WWRL in the 1960s was an R & B radio station focusing on popular music aimed at the young black community. It played a blend of Motown, Stax and Memphis soul, and early James Brown-styled funk. In that era, disc jockeys, Carlton King Coleman, Douglas Jocko Henderson, Frankie Crocker, Herb Hamlett, Gary Byrd and Hank Spann were featured on the station. In the 1970s WWRL stressed Philadelphia soul and other 1970s soul artists. The station was owned during this period by Sonderling Broadcasting. In 1979 Sonderling merged with Viacom.

Viacom bought 106.7 WRVR (now WLTW) in 1980 and in 1981 donated WWRL to the United Negro College Fund. The Fund then sold the station to Unity Broadcasting later in 1981. The station planned to affiliate with a new sports talk radio network in 1982 but the network never got on the air. Also that year WWRL began playing Gospel music in the evenings as well as airing religious features, and expanded Gospel programming on Sundays. In Fall 1982 WWRL shifted to a full-time Gospel music format along with sermons from local black churches. WWRL stayed with this format until 1997.

The 1983 New Order song "Confusion" begins with a voice saying "W, W, W-R-L," which is widely thought to be a reference to WWRL. The track was co-produced by Arthur Baker, who lived in New York City at the time and was likely familiar with the station.

In April 1997, WWRL dropped Gospel programming except for Sunday. It flipped to playing R & B oldies from the 1960s to the 1980s. The format change was not successful. WWRL added some talk shows by 1999. By 2001 it had evolved towards its current format. The station was given permission by the Federal Communications Commission to increase daytime power to 25,000 watts (it is still 5,000 watts at night) -- after purchasing the frequencies of 1600 WLNG in Sag Harbor, New York, 1590 WQQW in Waterbury, Connecticut, and 1590 WERA in Plainfield, New Jersey and taking all three stations off the air, to improve its range in the New York market. During its musical hey day, WWRL broadcast in AM Stereo. The WWRL directional antenna system consists of 4 towers in a square arrangement.

By 1999, WWRL began mixing in paid programming during the week. By 2001, the station evolved into a diversified station selling blocks of time to various interests. Programming included gospel music and preaching on Sundays, some Caribbean music, talk shows, infomercials, and other programs. In September 2006, WWRL became an affiliate of Air America, a liberal talk radio network.

For many years, WWRL was owned by Access.1 Communications Corporation, an African-American owned and operated radio broadcasting company. Access.1 Communications Corp. also owned radio stations in Shreveport, Louisiana, in Tyler-Longview-Marshall, Texas; in Atlantic City, New Jersey and previously owned then-NBC TV affiliate WMGM-TV 40 in Atlantic City. While being African American owned, the stations program a wide variety of formats, many of which are not targeted to the black community.

WWRL's weekday schedule began with The 'RL Morning Show, which was hosted by Mark Riley (who had hosted other shows on WWRL in the past). The show aired from 6 AM to 9 AM, followed by three hours of paid health and wellness programming. The Ed Schultz Show followed from noon until 3 PM. From 3 to 6 PM, The Thom Hartmann Program was heard, followed by The Randi Rhodes Show from 6 to 8 PM. Keepin' It Real with Al Sharpton followed Rhodes and aired until 10 PM, with The Bev Smith Show airing until midnight after that. The Leslie Marshall Show was heard for one hour beginning at midnight, followed by Alan Colmes at 1AM and Dr. Joy Browne from 4-6AM.

Sports journalist Jaime Harris created the station's first all-sports talk show which aired on Saturday afternoon. He hosted the Harris and Henry Show along with his co-host, Marcus Henry. In 2013 Bobby Childs joined Harris as a co-host and the show was renamed the Sports Brothers.

WWRL's programming became All-Spanish as "La Invasora" on January 1, 2014.^[2]

On February 1, 2016, WWRL changed its format to Hindi (Indian/South Asian) talk and music, branded as "Radio Zindagi".^[3] Effective July 15, 2016, Access.1 Communications sold WWRL to NJ Broadcasting, LLC for $7 million.

References

External links

Query the FCC's AM station database for WWRL

Radio-Locator Information on WWRL

Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WWRL

Radio stations in the New York City market

By AM frequency	570 660¹ 710¹ 770¹ 820 880¹ 1010 1050 1130¹ 1190 1280 1330 1380 1480 1560⁴ 1600 1620 New Jersey 620 930 970 1430 1500 1530 1660 Westchester County, N.Y. 1460

Apex / VHF FM	42.8

By FM frequency	87.7 88.9 89.1² 89.9 90.3 (New York) 90.3 (Brooklyn) 90.7 91.5 92.3 93.9 95.5 96.3 97.1 97.9 98.7 99.5 101.1 101.9 102.7 103.5 104.3 105.1 106.7 107.5 New Jersey 88.3 89.1² 89.5 90.3 91.1 93.13 94.7 99.1 100.3³ 105.5 105.9³ 106.3 Westchester County, N.Y. 88.1 88.9 90.3 93.5 96.7 103.9 106.3 107.1 Long Island, N.Y. 92.7 103.5³

Via FM subcarrier	67 kHz Chinese Radio New York Gatewave radio reading service Radio Maria Stati Uniti (Italian) 92 kHz Chung Wah Chinese Broadcasting Company ICN Radio Radio Maria Estados Unidos (Spanish) RBC Radio

Digital Radio	710 880 1010 1280 1560 88.3-1 88.3-2 89.5-1 89.5-2 89.9-1 89.9-1 89.9-2 89.9-3 90.7-1 90.7-2 90.7-3 92.3-1 92.3-2 93.1-1 93.1-2 93.5-1 93.5-2 93.5-3 93.5-4 93.9-1 93.9-2 93.9-3 94.7-1 94.7-4 95.5-1 95.5-2 95.5-3 97.1-1 97.1-2 97.9-1 98.7-1 100.3-1 100.3-2 101.1-1 101.1-2 101.1-3 102.7-1 102.7-2 102.7-3 103.5-1 103.5-2 103.5-3 103.9-1 104.3-1 104.3-2 105.1-1 105.1-2 105.9-1 105.9-2 106.7-1 106.7-2 107.5-1 107.5-2

NOAA Weather Radio frequency	162.550

By callsign	KWO35 WA2XMN WABC¹ WADO WARY WAWZ WAXQ WBAI WBBR¹ WBGO WBLS WBMP WCBS¹ WCBS-FM WEPN WEPN-FM WFAN¹ WFAN-FM WFDU² WFME¹ WFME-FM WFMU WFUV WGHT WHCR-FM WHTZ WICR WINS WJDM WKCR-FM WKDM WKLV-FM WKMK WKRB WKTU WLIB WLTW WMCA WMSC WNBM WNEW-FM WNSH WNSW WNYC WNYC-FM WNYE WNYM WNYU-FM² WNYZ-LP WOR¹ WPAT WPAT-FM WPLJ WQBU-FM WQHT (HD2) WQXR-FM WQXW WSIA WSKQ-FM WSNR WSOU WVIP WVOX WWES WWPR-FM (HD2) WWRL WWRU WWRV WWZY WXNY-FM WXPK WZRC

Defunct	WHN⁴ WNBC WNBC-FM⁴ WNEW WYNY⁴

New York radio markets Albany–Schenectady–Troy Binghamton Buffalo–Niagara Falls Elmira–Corning Hudson Valley Nassau–Suffolk (Long Island) New York City Olean Plattsburgh Poughkeepsie Rochester Syracuse Utica–Rome Watertown Other New York radio regions Ithaca Jamestown–Dunkirk North Country Saratoga NYC Metro Markets Long Island Hudson Valley [partial] Poughkeepsie Middlesex-Somerset-Union Monmouth-Ocean Morristown Bridgeport Danbury New Haven Stamford-Norwalk See also List of radio stations in New York ¹ = Clear-channel stations with extended nighttime coverage. ² = Stations share time on the frequency. ³ = Station is licensed to a community in their respective sub market (e.g. New Jersey), but transmits from atop the Empire State Building or Freedom Tower. ⁴ = Technically still active, but on a different frequency with new call letters and different intellectual property.

Coordinates: 40°47′44″N 74°03′18″W / 40.79556°N 74.05500°W / 40.79556; -74.05500

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