WNSW
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WNSW, on 1430 kHz, is a radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey serving Northeastern New Jersey and parts of New York City. The station runs an ethnic and brokered format. They are owned by Multicultural Media.
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[edit] Early years
The station signed on in 1947. Initially the station was diversified running Jazz blocks, R & B music, talk shows, and Latin music. Newark News owned WNJR until 1953 when Rollins Broadcasting bought them. The station evolved into an R & B Music format full time. Some of the jocks included Hal Wade, Danny Stiles, Bobby Jay, Hal Jackson, and others. In 1967 Rollins Broadcasting after a dispute with its airstaff resturctured into Continental Broadcasting.
[edit] City of Newark/urban era
In 1968 The FCC refused to renew Continental Broadcasting's license but pending an appeal they still continued to run WNJR which was profitable. The Soul format continued as well. In July of 1971 Continental Broadcasting's license was officially revoked and the station was forced off the air on the 21st. The FCC though allowed the city of Newark to run the station and it signed back on a week later.
[edit] Financial problems
WNJR continued with an Urban Contemporary format. They evolved into more of an Urban AC format by 1978. Also they played Gospel music and sermons on Sunday mornings and evenings. In 1982 Sound Radio received the WNJR license. The format stayed much the same. Initially the station was profitable but by 1988 they began to lose money. In 1989 Sound Radio filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.
[edit] Brokered days
In 1991 American radio Associates bought the station and attempted to keep the Urban AC format. But they too had financial problems and sold the station to Douglas Broadcasting in 1992. At that point the station dropped its Urban AC format in favor of Gospel music mornings and late afternoons, ethnic brokered shows mid-days and nights, and Gospel music and teaching on Sundays.
In 1995 Multicultural Media bought 1430 WNJR and shifted the station to include more Asian shows. They kept some Gospel music programming on Sundays. The station was then profitable.
[edit] Sunny 1430 era
After Christmas in 1998 1560 WQEW which had a Standards format for 6 years was shut down and Radio Disney moved to that dial position. In March of 1999 Multicultural decided to fill the hole and put a Standards format on 1430. The call letters became WNSW. The station became known as "Sunny 1430". They originally planned to switch to this format full time except for Sunday mornings. But initially would run this format from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to Midnight Saturdays and not at all on Sundays. The rest of the time they ran ethnic programming that was brokered. On Sundays they played Gospel Music and preaching.
During the week though they played a Standards format with artists like Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Patula Clark, Tony Bennet, Tommy Dorsey, Peggy Lee, Elvis Presley, nat King Cole, pat Boone, Carpenters, Jack Jones, Tom Jones, Andrews Sisters, Bobby Darin, James Taylor, Four Aces, Johnny Mathis, Artie Shaw, Righteous Brothers, etc. The format was similar to 1560 WQEW's old format. They mixed in baby boomer pop in moderation. Still they focused on the standards. Some of the airpeople included Johnny Knox (who was program director and operations manager the first year of operation), John Von Soosten, Chuck Leonard, Danny Stiles, Juluis LaRosa, among others.
[edit] Standards demise
It was decided that once advertising grew enough to support Standards that they would drop the weekend brokered shows that were still the main source of revenue for WNSW. Sadly this never happened. They were unable to sell even a moderate amount of commercial time but held on to the format during daytime in the week and Saturdays. Brokered shows were the only source of substantial income for WNSW but it was not enough to keep the station profitable after a while. In 2000 the station moved toward a Big Band lean and dropped the Neil Diamond and Elvis stuff.
Finally in March of 2001 WNSW would drop the format altogether except for a few evening hours with Danny Stiles (in which he would buy the time) and revert to brokered programming full time again.
| AM radio stations in the New York City/Long Island markets (Arbitron #1 and 18) | |
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