WWRU
WWRU (1660 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Jersey City, New Jersey, broadcasting to the New York metropolitan area. It airs Korean language talk and music shows, with the studios in Manhattan.
| City | Jersey City, New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | New York metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 1660 kHz |
| Branding | AM 1660 K-Radio |
| Programming | |
| Format | Korean language |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Multicultural Broadcasting (Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Licensee, LLC) |
| Operator | New York Radio Korea |
| WKDM, WPAT, WZRC | |
| History | |
First air date | December 8, 1995 |
Former call signs | WJDM (1995–1998) WBAH (1998–1999) |
Call sign meaning | WW Radio Unica (former format) |
| Technical information | |
| Facility ID | 87123 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 10,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 40°49′13″N 74°4′4″W |
| Links | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | www |
WWRU broadcasts at 10,000 watts around the clock, using a directional antenna. With so few stations broadcasting on 1660 in the AM expanded band, at night, WWRU's signal can reportedly be heard as far south as the Washington metropolitan area and as far north as Southern Ontario. The transmitter is off Paterson Plank Road in Carlstadt, New Jersey.[1]
History
AM 1660 launched on December 8, 1995 as WJDM, shortly after the Federal Communications Commission in the United States expanded the AM band to include new stations in the range of 1610 to 1700 kHz. It was the first such expanded band AM station in the U.S. and within two months of sign-on became the New York Radio AAHS children's network owned & operated affiliate on February 2, 1996. Until other stations were licensed on the frequency and adjacent channels in other parts of the country in subsequent years, WJDM could be heard at night throughout the eastern U.S. and Canada.
When AAHS' parent company, Children's Broadcasting Corporation, discontinued the format in January 1998, the ten CBC-owned stations, including WJDM, began airing Beat Radio, a club dance music format, every night between 7pm and 7am while a random mix of music was broadcast during the day. On May 11, 1998 the station changed call letters to WBAH. In June 1998, the young Radio Unica network entered into a Limited Marketing Agreement (LMA) with CBC and began airing its own Spanish talk programming, including World Cup Soccer and many New York Yankees games. Radio Unica announced an agreement to purchase the station in October 1998 and the transaction was completed on January 14, 1999. The call sign changed to WWRU on February 15, 1999.
Multicultural Broadcasting purchased WWRU in December 2003. The station then leased the time to Radio Seoul, which had just left WNSW/1430 in an effort to gain a stronger signal in the market. Sister station WZRC, which had broadcast in Korean, switched to Chinese language at the same time.
Later, the brand changed from Radio Seoul to K-Radio, which it's called to this day.
References
External links
- WWRU in the FCC's AM station database
- WWRU on Radio-Locator
- WWRU in Nielsen Audio's AM station database