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Broadcast area | New York City and North–Central Jersey |
Frequency | 99.1 MHz (HD Radio) |
Branding | Star 99-1 |
Programming | |
Format | Contemporary Christian; gospel |
Subchannels |
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Ownership | |
Owner | Pillar of Fire International |
History | |
First air date | August 22, 1954 |
Former call signs | WAWZ-FM (1953–1984) |
Call sign meaning | Alma White (founder of owner); Zarephath (community of license) |
Technical information [1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Facility ID | 52601 |
Class | B |
ERP | 28,000 watts |
HAAT | 200 meters (660 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 40°36′40″N74°34′12″W / 40.611°N 74.570°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Webcast | Listen live |
Website | www |
WAWZ (99.1 FM) is a Christian radio station licensed to Zarephath, New Jersey. The station is owned by non-profit Pillar Media, a division of the Pillar of Fire International.
The station maintains a studio in Warren, while its transmitter is located in Bridgewater. [2]
WAWZ's signal can be heard through portions of Central and Northern New Jersey and New York City and as far south as Ocean and Burlington counties, as well as Eastern Pennsylvania. [3]
WAWZ was founded in 1931 by Pillar of Fire, a small Christian denomination started in Colorado. [4] It became the second station owned by the Pillar of Fire Church. KPOF in Denver, Colorado, was the first. The call letters for WAWZ were chosen to honor Bishop Alma White, the founder of the Pillar of Fire Church, and Zarephath, its community of license. [5]
The station was first assigned a frequency of 1350 AM, sharing time equally with three other stations, WCDA, WBNX, and WMSG. In later years, [6] at 1380 AM, it shared time with WBNX in New York City.
In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the organization was vocal in its support of the Ku Klux Klan, to an extent which was unique for a religious denomination. White prolifically spoke and wrote of both her and the Pillar of Fire Church's support of the Klan and many of the Klan's principles including anti-Catholicism, white supremacy, antisemitism, nativism, and temperance. [7] [8] [9] [10]
In 1954, the station bought its spot on the FM dial for roughly $5,000. The modern value of that frequency is estimated to be more than $60 million. [4]
On September 1, 1984, WAWZ sold its part-time AM operation to New York station WBNX. On WAWZ's final day, they produced a special program recalling the station's 53 years of religious broadcasting and, via electrical transcriptions, once again featured the voice of Alma White. [11] [12]
WAWZ began airing its current format of contemporary Christian music and gospel as "Star 99.1" in 2003. [4] Previously, the station played traditional and classical music and church services.
On August 1, 2014, Pillar of Fire began a lease of WLIR-FM (107.1) in Hampton Bays, New York, which brought WAWZ's programming to the East End of Long Island; appropriately, WLIR-FM was rebranded as "Star 107.1". The lease ended in April 2015, and WLIR-FM reverted to the Christian-formatted "Hope Radio" until early 2015, when the station was sold.
The National Religious Broadcasters honored WAWZ with "Station of the Year" awards in 2007 [13] and 2008, [14] and the National Association of Broadcasters honored them with the 2008 "Crystal Radio Award" for community service. [15]
WAWZ broadcasts in HD Radio with both its HD1, HD2, and HD3 channels, providing Artist Experience data, including song titles, artists, and albums on compatible radios. Over the years, 99.1 FM has hosted a variety of formats on its HD sub-channels. The current HD sub-channel formats are:
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Zarephath is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) and located in Franklin Township, in Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, about 15 mi (24 km) north of Princeton. As of the 2020 United States census, the CDP's population was 69, an increase of 32 (+86.5%) from the 37 enumerated at the 2010 census.
Alma Bridwell White was the founder and a bishop of the Pillar of Fire Church. In 1918, she became the first woman bishop of Pillar of Fire in the United States. She was a proponent of feminism. She also associated herself with the Ku Klux Klan and was involved in anti-Catholicism, antisemitism, anti-Pentecostalism, racism, and hostility to immigrants. By the time of her death at age 84, she had expanded the sect to "4,000 followers, 61 churches, seven schools, ten periodicals and two broadcasting stations."
KPOF is a non-profit AM radio station in Denver, Colorado. It is owned by Pillar of Fire and airs a Christian talk and teaching radio format. The studio and transmitter are in Westminster, located on the campus of Belleview Christian Schools in the historic Westminster Castle, just northwest of Denver. KPOF uses the moniker "AM91: The Point of Faith", and is a member of the National Religious Broadcasters, noted for non-profit religious and educational programs and music. KPOF considers itself the "granddaddy" of religious broadcasters, owned by a Christian organization since 1928.
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The Pillar of Fire International, also known as the Pillar of Fire Church, is a Methodist Christian denomination with headquarters in Zarephath, New Jersey. The Pillar of Fire Church affirms the Methodist Articles of Religion and as of 1988, had 76 congregations around the world, including the United States, as well as "Great Britain, India, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, the Philippines, Spain, and former Yugoslavia".
Alma White College was a Bible college in Zarephath, New Jersey from 1921 to 1978. It was an institution of the Pillar of Fire Church. The academic institution is now succeeded by Pillar College.
Arlene Hart White Lawrence was a bishop and the third president and general superintendent of the Pillar of Fire Church, a Protestant denomination which in 1966 operated church congregations, missionary homes, radio stations, publishing operations, farms, schools and colleges from 54 properties around the world. The denomination was founded in Denver, Colorado, by her grandmother, Alma Bridwell White, the first woman to become a bishop in the US. She believed that "activities such as gambling and dancing take time from the really important activities of life". She was the president of all three church radio stations, KPOF in Westminster, Colorado; WAWZ in the Zarephath section of Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey ; and WAKW in Cincinnati, Ohio.
WAKW is a contemporary Christian music radio station located in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is a listener-supported radio station owned by Pillar of Fire International. The Class B, 50,000-watt signal reaches the greater Cincinnati area, including Northern Kentucky and Eastern Indiana. The station plays a Christian adult contemporary format. It broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 50,000 watts.
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KLJY is a commercial-free, listener-supported FM radio station licensed to Clayton, Missouri, and serving Greater St. Louis. It is owned by Gateway Creative Broadcasting, and broadcasts a Christian Contemporary radio format known as 99.1 Joy FM. The radio studios and offices are on Founders Lane in Des Peres, with a St. Louis address. In addition to broadcasting music, the station also sponsors community events and activities around St. Louis.
The Good Citizen was a sixteen-page monthly political periodical edited by Bishop Alma White and illustrated by Reverend Branford Clarke. The Good Citizen was published from 1913 until 1933 by the Pillar of Fire Church at their headquarters in Zarephath, New Jersey in the United States. White used the publication to expose "political Romanism in its efforts to gain the ascendancy in the U.S."
The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy is a 144-page book written by Bishop Alma Bridwell White in 1925 and illustrated by Reverend Branford Clarke. In the book she uses scripture to rationalize that the Ku Klux Klan is sanctioned by God "through divine illumination and prophetic vision". She also believed that the Apostles and the Good Samaritan were members of the Klan. The book was published by the Pillar of Fire Church, which she founded, at their press in Zarephath, New Jersey. The book sold over 45,000 copies.
Guardians of Liberty is a three volume set of books published in 1943 by Bishop Alma Bridwell White, author of over 35 books and founder of the Pillar of Fire Church. Guardians of Liberty is primarily devoted to summarizing White's vehement anti-Catholicism under the guise of patriotism. White also defends her historical support of and association with the Ku Klux Klan while significantly but not completely distancing herself from the Klan. Each of the three volumes corresponds to one of the three books White published in the 1920s promoting the Ku Klux Klan and her political views which in addition to anti-Catholicism also included nativism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy. In Guardians of Liberty, White removed most, but not all of the direct references to the Klan that had existed in her three 1920s books, both in the text and in the illustrations. In Volumes I and II, she removed most of the nativist, anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideology that had appeared in her predecessor books. However, in Guardians Volume III, she did retain edited versions of chapters promoting nativism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy.
White's words and Clarke's imagery were combined in various ways as a means to spread a message of religious intolerance which was both persuasive and powerful.
Alma White and the Pillar of Fire were unique, however, because of their public alliance with the Ku Klux Klan. In fact, the Pillar of Fire was the only religious group which publicly associated itself with the Klan.
Bishop White's transformation from minister to Klan propagandist is detailed in voluminous autobiographical and political writings. [Bishop] White's anti-Catholic, anti-semitic, and racist message fit well into the Klan's efforts to convince white Protestant women that their collective interests as women. ... were best served by joining the Klan.
I believe in white supremacy.