The station, the first to be built on Aquidneck Island, signed on the air in 1948 and has used the callsign WADK since November 23, 1953.[4] Its broadcast tower has been located off Garfield Street in Newport since 1967.[4]
History
On December 2, 1947, John E. and Irene "Reeny" A. Malloy, doing business as Voice of Little Rhody, filed for a construction permit to build a new radio station on 1540kHz at Newport, which was granted by the Federal Communications Commission on August 4, 1948.[4] The station began broadcasting on November 6, 1948, as WRJM,[1] for "Reeny and John Malloy".[2] The Malloys would not own their new radio station for long, citing a lack of financial resources.[5] In April 1949, they reached a deal to sell WRJM to the Aquidneck Broadcasting Corporation, a subsidiary of the locally based National Recording Corporation, which developed tape recording equipment.[6] That deal never came to fruition, and a deal was instead struck to sell WRJM to the Aquidneck Broadcasting Corporation, headed by Columbus O'Donnell.[5] The original studios at 204 Thames Street in Newport[4] became the key element in a multi-year libel case against WRJM. In February 1950, the station put a display up in its window about a controversial seawall project, charging that the developers did not comply with their original proposal. The developers sued the station for libel and lost two years later.[7] The O'Donnell group also relocated WADK from its original transmitter location near a charity farm to a new site on Reservoir Road that housed the studios and transmitter.[4][2]
In late 1953, Milton E. Mitler acquired the Aquidneck Broadcasting Corporation; the callsign was immediately changed to WADK, representing Aquidneck Island.[8] During Mitler's ownership, the station broadcast its first talk program, hosted by pub owner 'Sully' Sullivan, after Sullivan noted to the owner that "the great pastime of Rhode Island ... is talking politics".[9] Mitler owned WADK until 1960, a year after he started another station near West Warwick. At that time, the Newport outlet was sold to two men from Washington, D.C., Arnold S. Lerner and Myer Feldman, doing business as Key Stations.[10]
140 Thames Street housed WADK's studio facility beginning in 1973
The Reservoir Road transmitter site was shut down in 1967 and a new facility built on Garfield Avenue, though the studios remained.[4] This would come to an end after the Middletown water department refused to grant a long-term lease to WADK in 1971, a lease that the station thought necessary if it wanted to make a major investment in the 20-year-old facility.[11] A new site on Thames Street, a block from the original studios, was completed in 1973.[4]
A daytime-only station its entire history, WADK filed in 1976 to increase its power to 2,500 watts and go full-time.[4] It was the opening salvo in what would turn out to be a recurring fight amidst major changes in the Aquidneck broadcasting landscape. By the time that Key Stations had filed the petition to become a full-time station, Bay Broadcasters was years into the fight to put WOTB (107.1 FM) on the air. With 24-hour FM competition on the horizon, Key Stations owner Arnold Lerner opted to sell the AM station.[12] The new owner, Newport Communications, was headed by Paramount Pictures vice president Peter Kuyper.[13]
The full-service station continued with its format, which also included a live radio variety show hosted by Saucy Sylvia.[14] Spectrum Communications of Boulder, Colorado, purchased WADK in 1983, largely acting as an absentee owner;[2] two years later, after one of Spectrum's shareholders decided to sell, it was acquired by Connecticut-based Perry Communications, which hoped to be more aggressive in the station's attempts to go full-time.[15] A year later, Perry purchased WOTB—giving it control of both of the commercial stations on Aquidneck Island—and announced plans to expand its coverage area.[16] During this time period, WADK dropped its afternoon music programming and, with it, much of its high school sports coverage.[17]
Urso Broadcasting of Westerly purchased WADK and WOTB in 1996, and an immediate format change was made on the FM, which dropped jazz programming after more than a decade and flipped to alternative rock; at the same time, weekend jazz programming was added to WADK's schedule.[18] The FM station was sold off a year later to Citadel Communications, but Urso retained WADK[19] until Astro Tele-Communications purchased it and WERI-FM 99.3 for $1.8 million in 1999.[20]
WADK and the FM station, known at the time as WJZS, were sold to 3G Broadcasting, owner of two Florida stations, in 2013.[21] Kurt Jackson's Island Broadcasting of RI agreed to purchase WADK and the FM station, now WMNP, in 2024.[22]
KFXN is a radio station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving the Twin Cities area. The station is owned by Kongsue Xiong, through licensee Asian American Broadcasting, LLC.
WSNE-FM is a commercial radio station, licensed to Taunton, Massachusetts, serving Southeastern Massachusetts and the Providence metropolitan area. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and broadcasts a hot adult contemporary radio format branded Now 93.3. Its studios and offices are on Oxford Street in Providence. The station carries the syndicated On Air with Ryan Seacrest in afternoons. Several of the other shifts are voicetracked by DJs working at other iHeart stations.
WPRO is a commercial AM radio station in Providence, Rhode Island. It is owned by Cumulus Media, broadcasting a news/talk radio format, which is simulcast in the Newport area on co-owned 99.7 WEAN-FM. The studios for WPRO and other Cumulus Providence stations are on Wampanoag Road in East Providence, at the Salty Brine Broadcast Center, named after WPRO's longtime morning host.
WWLI, branded Lite 105, is an American commercial radio station licensed to Providence, Rhode Island. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music for much of November and December, including the days between Christmas Day and New Years Eve. The radio studios are on Wampanoag Trail in East Providence.
WPRO-FM is a commercial contemporary hit radio station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, owned by Cumulus Media.
WHJJ is a commercial radio station in Providence, Rhode Island. It carries a talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. Its studios and offices are on Oxford Street in Providence.
WRJM may refer to:
WPPY is a commercial radio station licensed to Starview, Pennsylvania, and serving the York and Harrisburg radio markets. It airs an adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music for much of November and December. It is owned by Forever Media.
KYLA is a non-commercial FM radio station that is licensed to Fountain Valley and serves Orange County on the 92.7 MHz frequency.
WFXC and WFXK are a pair of simulcasting urban adult contemporary stations in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina market. WFXC is the main station, licensed to Durham, while WFXK is a full-power satellite licensed to Bunn.
WBAK is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Belfast, Maine. It is owned by Blueberry Broadcasting, and broadcasts a classic hits radio format. Its programming is also simulcast on WBKA in Bar Harbor, as well as WABK-FM in Gardiner.
Rhode Island PBS Foundation and The Public's Radio, doing business as The Public's Radio, is a non-commercial, listener-supported, public radio network for the state of Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. It carries news, talk and information programs on several FM frequencies and one AM station. It holds periodic on-air fundraisers and seeks donations on its website. The studios and offices are in the historic Union Station in Downtown Providence.
WVEI-FM is a radio station broadcasting a sports talk format, largely simulcasting Boston-based WEEI-FM. The station is licensed to Westerly, Rhode Island, United States, and is owned by Audacy, Inc. In addition to WEEI programming, WVEI-FM carries Providence Friars men's basketball, Boston Bruins hockey, and ESPN Radio. Its transmitter is in Exeter, Rhode Island; due to it being mostly a simulcast, its operations are run out of WEEI-FM's studios in Boston's Brighton neighborhood.
WHIM was a country music radio station in the Providence, Rhode Island, market.
WPVD is a public radio station in Providence, Rhode Island. It is owned by Rhode Island Public Radio. The station simulcasts WNPN 89.3 FM.
WKKB is a radio station in Middletown, Rhode Island, United States. The station airs a tropical format, which consists of such musical styles as salsa and merengue and some reggaeton. Its transmitter is located in Middletown. Its offices and studios are located in 75 Oxford Street in Providence, while its transmitter is located in Tiverton.? Prior to its switch to tropical, the station was a rock station.
WSIV is a radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. Licensed to East Syracuse, New York, United States, the station serves the Syracuse area. The station is owned by Cram Communications LLC, a company majority-owned by Craig Fox. WSIV also transmits programming via 106.3 FM translator W292EY.
WNPN is a radio station broadcasting an NPR news/talk format. It is the flagship broadcast outlet for The Public's Radio. Its official community of license is Newport, Rhode Island, but from a tall tower in Tiverton the signal covers most of Rhode Island and the South Coast of Massachusetts. It also has repeater stations WNPE in Narragansett Pier and WPVD in Providence. The network provides the sole local public radio outlet for Rhode Island.
WEIC was a radio station licensed to Charleston, Illinois, United States.
WNPE is a public radio station, providing programming from The Public's Radio to southern Rhode Island from its transmitter at Narragansett Pier. It was the first FM transmitter in the network. Prior to operating noncommercially, the 102.7 facility was a commercial radio station from its sign-on in 1990 to 2007.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
