WCJW

WCJW is the only AM station licensed in Wyoming County and the only broadcast station in the county with a local studio (WLKK is licensed to Wethersfield in Wyoming County, but has its main studios in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst). In addition to the county seat of Warsaw, targeted communities include Perry, Silver Springs, Castile, Gainesville, Arcade, and Attica, along with the Livingston County villages of Geneseo, Mount Morris, Nunda, Avon and Caledonia, and the Genesee County municipalities of Batavia and Le Roy. Although WCJW's 2 mV/m primary service contour extends to downtown Rochester and its 0.5 mV/m secondary contour encompasses all of Rochester and Buffalo,[3] the station focuses on the rural communities of the Genesee Valley region.

In June 2008, WCJW began simulcasting its programming on FM translator W279BO in Warsaw (a 250-watt facility collocated with the studio and AM transmitter) and in November 2008, W288BZ began operating on 105.5 MHz from the Genesee County public safety tower in Batavia. In January 2009, W265BX began serving southern Wyoming County and Livingston County from the hilltop east of Nunda, and in November 2011, WCJW's fourth translator W282BQ commenced service to Le Roy, northern Livingston County, and southwestern Monroe County, including the Interstate 390 corridor from Mount Morris to Henrietta. In April 2015, W285EZ began operation at the WLKK tower site in Wethersfield, employing a directional pattern that serves Arcade, Yorkshire, Delevan and Bliss. All five translators transmit in stereo and employ the Radio Data System.

WCJW began broadcasting on May 16, 1973 as a 1 kW daytime facility under the ownership of broadcast engineer John Weeks, who had spent much of his career on the engineering staff of WJR in Detroit. Weeks envisioned a family-oriented operation, with his wife Catherine and daughters Carolyn and Jill filling early staff positions at the station. WCJW's original music format took an easy listening / MOR approach, later dubbed "The Heart of Western New York".

Upon Weeks' retirement in September 1984, the station was purchased by Warsaw resident Lloyd Lane and a group of local investors. A format change to country music in 1986 brought increased support from listeners in this rural region of upstate New York with a local economy based primarily on dairy farming. In 1996, The station was awarded a New York State Broadcasters Association award for the best Small Market play by play. Seth Fenton and Tom LaDelfa were recognized for their work covering local High School Football. At the time, due to its daytime only status, WCJW taped Friday night games for play back on Saturday morning, and broadcast live games in the afternoon. In 1999, the station's nominal power was raised to 2,500 watts, and in 2014 the power was increased again to 8,000 watts.

Prior to adding the FM translators in 2008, WCJW was a daytime-only station. The AM station remains on the air only during the daytime, as it occupies a clear channel and must vacate the channel at night to allow WRVA in Richmond, Virginia to use the frequency.

As part of a longstanding legal fiction, WCJW officially "shared" its studios with WLKK in Wethersfield; in reality, WLKK never used WCJW's studios, which were leased by Buffalo-based broadcasters to comply with the FCC's main studio rule, which has since been rescinded.[4]

In an interesting unrelated historical footnote, the call letters WCJW had previously been assigned to an FM station in Cleveland, OH on the frequency of 104.1 from 1968 to 1971. That station had also switched to a country music format during the use of these call letters. In 1971 the station was sold and became WQAL.

In 2007, WCJW was recognized by New Music Weekly magazine as the Country Radio Station of the Year at the New Music Awards.[5]

• Jimi Jamm
• Steve Weber
• Kelli Carson
• Greg Ireland
• Chris Taylor
• Lloyd Lane
• Aaron Jackson

• WCJW Website

• WCJW in the FCC's AM station database
• WCJW on Radio-Locator
• WCJW in Nielsen Audio's AM station database