The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the derived unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI) and is defined as one cycle per second. It is named after Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, the first person to provide conclusive proof of the existence of electromagnetic waves. Hertz are commonly expressed in multiples: kilohertz (103 Hz, kHz), megahertz (106 Hz, MHz), gigahertz (109 Hz, GHz), terahertz (1012 Hz, THz), petahertz (1015 Hz, PHz), exahertz (1018 Hz, EHz), and zettahertz (1021 Hz, ZHz).
AM broadcasting is a radio broadcasting technology, which employs amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave transmissions, but also on the longwave and shortwave radio bands.
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live conversations between the host and listeners who "call in" to the show. Listener contributions are usually screened by a show's producers in order to maximize audience interest and, in the case of commercial talk radio, to attract advertisers. Generally, the shows are organized into segments, each separated by a pause for advertisements; however, in public or non-commercial radio, music is sometimes played in place of commercials to separate the program segments. Variations of talk radio include conservative talk, hot talk, liberal talk and sports talk.
Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Entercom and iHeartMedia, Inc. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 87 media markets. It also owns and operates Westwood One. Its headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Its subsidiaries include Cumulus Broadcasting LLC, Cumulus Licensing LLC and Broadcast Software International Inc.
In the broadcasting industry, a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or all of the lineup of television programs or radio programs of a television or radio network. This distinguishes such a television or radio station from an owned-and-operated station (O&O), which is owned by the parent network.
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company that is owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company, parent, or holding company. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a government or state-owned enterprise. In some cases, particularly in the music and book publishing industries, subsidiaries are referred to as imprints.
Programming
Weekday mornings on WMAL-FM-AM starts with "Mornings on the Mall" with Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter.[3][4] At 9 a.m., Chris Plante hosts a nationally syndicated show, based at WMAL-AM-FM. And Larry O'Connor hosts late afternoons. The rest of the day, syndicated shows air from Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and John Batchelor. Red Eye Radio is heard overnight. Weekends feature shows on money, health, real estate and gardening, many of which are paid brokered programming. Most weekday hours feature local news at the beginning of each hour. Westwood One News airs at the beginning of most hours during nights and weekends.
Chris Plante is a syndicated radio talk show host, based at WMAL Radio in Washington D.C., and heard on the Westwood One Network. He is also a frequent guest on both Fox News and Fox Business.
Larry O'Connor is an American talk radio host on the Cumulus-owned heritage radio station WMAL AM/FM in Washington, D.C. and frequent television guest on the Fox News early morning show Fox & Friends as well as Fox News Channel's Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld. In 2015 he married Meredith Dake.
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host and conservative political commentator. He resides in Palm Beach, Florida, where he broadcasts The Rush Limbaugh Show. According to December 2015 estimates by Talkers Magazine, Limbaugh has a cume of around 13.25 million unique listeners, making his show the most listened-to talk-radio program in the US.
History
Early Years
WMAL first went on the air on October 12, 1925, using call letters incorporating the initials of Martin A. Leese, a local optician who began selling radio sets at 720 11th Street NW in Washington, D.C.[5] He started WMAL as a low-power station. The shut down of station WCAP left Washington with WRC (now WTEM) as its only high-power station, so local business leaders affiliated with the City Club of Washington banded together to create a second high-powered station. Their original plan was to buy WCAP and convert it to a municipal station, but instead they worked with Leese to boost WMAL's signal and make it the city's second large station.[6] The new high-power WMAL went on the air from studios at 710-712 11th Street NW on October 2, 1926, with former WCAP announcer William T. Pierson as director and with a policy of encouraging young broadcasting talent in hopes of creating "a people's forum".[7]
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitter station. In the United States of America, they are used for all FCC-licensed transmitters. A call sign can be formally assigned by a government agency, informally adopted by individuals or organizations, or even cryptographically encoded to disguise a station's identity.
An optician, or dispensing optician, is a technical practitioner who designs, fits and dispenses corrective lenses for the correction of a person's vision. Opticians determine the specifications of various ophthalmic appliances that will give the necessary correction to a person's eyesight. Some registered or licensed opticians also design and fit special appliances to correct cosmetic, traumatic or anatomical defects. These devices are called shells or artificial eyes. Other registered or licensed opticians manufacture lenses to their own specifications and design and manufacture spectacle frames and other devices.
WTEM is a radio station in Washington, D.C. Owned by Urban One, it broadcasts a sports talk format. WTEM's studios are located in Silver Spring, Maryland, while the station's transmitter is located in Hyattsville, Maryland, operating at 50,000 watts during the day, powering down to 5,000 watts at night.
In 1927, Leese left his optical business to focus full-time on running the station, and the following year the Federal Radio Commission's national frequency allocation plan assigned WMAL the AM 630 frequency, which it still uses today. WMAL was a CBS RadioNetwork affiliate from 1928 until October 19, 1932, and then was briefly unaffiliated until joining the NBC Blue Network in January 1933. The Blue Network later became ABC, with which WMAL was affiliated for many years, and which owned WMAL for several decades.
The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by the Radio Act of 1927, which replaced the Radio Act of 1912, after the earlier law was found to lack sufficient oversight provisions, especially for regulating broadcasting stations. In addition to increased regulatory powers, the FRC introduced the standard that, in order to receive a license, a radio station had to be shown to be "in the public interest, convenience, or necessity".
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation, and consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s and Infinity Broadcasting since the 1970s. The broadcasting company was sold to Entercom on November 17, 2017.
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of Walt Disney Television, a subsidiary of the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, California on Riverside Drive, directly across the street from Walt Disney Studios and adjacent to the Roy E. Disney Animation Building, But the network's second corporate headquarters and News headquarters remains in New York City, New York at their broadcast center on 77 West 66th Street in Lincoln Square in Upper West Side Manhattan.
By mid-1932, M.R. Baker had been appointed manager of the station, and Kenneth H. Berkeley was appointed station director of WMAL in 1933. While still owned by the Leese family, WMAL was eventually leased to the National Broadcasting Company in 1934, joining it with owned-and-operated station WRC.
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial terrestrial television network that is a flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, with additional major offices near Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. The network is one of the Big Three television networks. NBC is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network", in reference to its stylized peacock logo, introduced in 1956 to promote the company's innovations in early color broadcasting. It became the network's official emblem in 1979.
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate, which is independently owned and carries network programming by contract.
NBC's Washington vice president Frank M. Russell supervised the operation of both WMAL and WRC by 1935 when studios were moved from the National Press Building to the Trans-Lux Theatre Building, 724 14th Street NW. Transmitting facilities continued to be located at 712 Eleventh Street NW.
In the late months of 1937, the lease to NBC was terminated, with station operation reverting to the Leese Family interests. NBC, however, continued to operate it under a managerial agreement executed in the fall of 1937. Norman Leese was President of WMAL's licensee at this time. On May 1, 1938, the M.A. Leese Radio Corporation was acquired by publishers of the now-defunct Washington Evening Starnewspaper, a family-owned concern headed by Board Chairman and President Samuel H. Kauffman. Norman Leese remained President and K.H. Berkeley continued as General Manager of WMAL.
The operating arrangement between NBC and the M.A. Leese Radio Corporation ended in February 1942. The station then reverted to the direct control of the Evening Star Broadcasting Company, of which K. H. Berkeley was executive vice president. Mr. Berkeley was also WMAL's general manager. In October 1947, WMAL-TV signed on as the first high-band VHFtelevision station in the United States. It became an ABC Network affiliate a year later.
By 1946, S.H. Kauffman, president and part owner of the Evening Star, was given additional duties as president of its broadcasting subsidiary, the Evening Star Broadcasting Company, until his resignation in August 1954. His replacement as general manager was Frederick S. Houwink.
Also in 1954, John W. Thompson, Jr. replaced S.H. Kauffman as president of Evening Star Broadcasting Co.
Andrew Martin Ockershausen was appointed station manager of WMAL in 1960. One of Ockershausen's his first moves was to team up Frank Harden with Jackson Weaver for WMAL's morning drive show after the duo had a successful tryout hosting an evening comedy show patterned after Bob and Ray; Harden and Weaver took off in popularity and quickly became the top-rated morning show in the Washington market, featuring a blend of news, interviews, light music and comedy.[8][9][10]
In 1962, Fred Houwink became a company vice-president while continuing as WMAL's general manager. In 1965 Houwink was named Vice President of Evening Star Broadcasting and Ockershausen was elevated to general manager of WMAL.
In 1970 Houwink retired and Ockershausen was named Vice President, Operations. Also in 1970 Richard S. Stakes was named general manager and Harold L. Green was named station manager. In 1974 Charles A. Macatee became WMAL's general manager.
ABC Years
In early January 1976, the Evening Star Broadcasting Company's WMAL, WMAL-FM and WMAL-TV and majority control of the ailing newspaper were acquired from the Kauffman, Noyes and Adams families by publisher Joseph L. Albritton’s Perpetual Corporation and Albritton became board chairman and chief owner of WMAL's license. On January 21, 1976, WMAL's licensee name was changed to Washington Star Communications of Delaware, Inc. Richard S. Stakes became station president, but resigned in December 1976. Mr. Albritton then assumed the presidency, with Robert Nelson becoming president of the broadcasting division. General Manager Charles Macatee resigned in January 1977.
A requirement of the purchase of the Evening Star properties included the sale of the radio or television properties. In March 1977, WMAL and WMAL-FM were spun off to ABC Radio, while the TV station was retained and became WJLA-TV, named after Albritton's initials. ABC paid $16 million for WMAL and WMAL-FM, a record price for radio properties at that time. Andrew Ockershausen was appointed executive vice president.
WMAL logo used until 2009.
On January 3, 1986, Capital Cities and ABC, Inc. merged in a $3.52 billion deal. Thomas S. Murphy was chairman and CEO of the new firm. Frederick Weinhaus became president and general manager following the resignation of Andrew Ockershausen in March 1986. Weinhaus was transferred to ABC Radio New York in January 1988. His replacement in May 1988 was Thomas Bresnahan, who continued in that role until his retirement in 2002.
WMAL morning co-host Jackson Weaver died on October 20, 1992, with Harden and Weaver still at or near the top of the local ratings; Weaver also garnered fame nationally as the first voice of Smokey Bear.[11] Frank Harden continued the morning show with co-hosts Tim Brant and Andy Parks until his retirement in 1998.[9] Brant and Parks continued until Brant's departure in May 2002[12], his replacement would be former congressman Fred Grandy.
By the late 1990s, WMAL transitioned its' talk lineup into one similar to sister station WABC in New York City, with an emphasis on conservative talk.
WMAL logo, 2009-2011
Chris Berry was named president and general manager November 19, 2002. Prior to joining WMAL, Berry was vice president, radio for ABC News, based in New York. In August 2005, host Michael Graham was fired after refusing to apologize for calling the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a "terrorist organization."
Longtime Washington broadcaster Chris Core was dismissed from WMAL in 2008 as part of a broad cost-cutting move; his replacement, Austin Hill, was dropped in February 2009 due to Levin's show expanding and Sliwa's show moving up an hour. Plante, a popular talk host who hosted evenings and later middays, was yanked in favor of Joe Scarborough's Morning Joe in April 2009, only to return to middays six months later after Scarborough's show was cancelled.
By late 2009, WMAL's morning-drive through midnight weekday format was uninterrupted conservative talk, with a lineup of Fred Grandy and Andy Parks, Chris Plante, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Joe Scarborough, and Curtis Sliwa. Weekends include gardening host Jos Roozen, investing adviser Ric Edelman and lawyer Michael Collins. John Batchelor replaced Sliwa in November 2009. In April 2010, Parks was laid off from the station, resulting in Plante's and Grandy's shows being merged. At the same time, Scarborough's show was put on extended hiatus. Austin Hill began filling in the middays for the time being, while Mark Simone handled Scarborough's shift. Grandy left WMAL in March 2011.
On September 19, 2011, WMAL began simulcasting its AM signal on 105.9 FM, now WMAL-FM. The former WMAL-FM, renamed WRQX in 1977, has since become WLVW; it remained co-owned with WMAL until 2019. Today, WMAL remains Washington's oldest station to be operating under its original call letters.
In 2017, WMAL started broadcasting Washington Redskins games as an affiliate station for the first time since the team's Super Bowl XXVI win in 1992. WMAL previously carried the team's games from 1942 to 1956, and again from 1963 to 1991. WTEM (570 AM), a new sports station at the time, acquired the radio broadcast rights from WMAL for the 1992 NFL season.[14]
As of January 3, 2017, WMAL's weekday lineup consists of local talent Brian Wilson and Mary Walter in the morning, then Chris Plante, followed by the syndicated Rush Limbaugh, then Larry O'Connor hosts a local afternoon drive show, followed by the syndicated shows of Mark Levin, John Batchelor, and overnight the syndicated show Red Eye Radio, hosted by Eric Harley and Gary McNamara. Brian Wilson was released in May 2017.
Flip to sports talk
On June 13, 2019, it was announced that WMAL would break away from the simulcast and flip to ESPN Radio on July 1, 2019 as ESPN 630. In addition, it will also become the new flagship station of the Redskins in the 2019 NFL season.[15][16]
WMAL broadcast from various facilities in Washington, D.C., and suburban Maryland until July 25, 1973, when it settled in at its current studio facility at 4400 Jenifer Street NW in Washington, two blocks from the city's border with Maryland.
WMAL's former transmitting facility, located in the Bradley Hills section of suburban Bethesda, Maryland, once housed studios for WMAL-AM and WMAL-FM. Cumulus put the 75-acre site for sale in February 2015; in the summer of 2016, it was sold to the Toll Brothers company, who has plans to turn the site into a housing development.[17][18][19][20][21]
On May 12, 2016, WMAL was granted a Federal Communications Commissionconstruction permit to move from their 91-year-old site in Bethesda to the WWRC transmitter site in Germantown and decrease night power to 2,700 watts.[22] Transmissions from the Bethesda transmitter site ceased on the afternoon of May 1, 2018.
Among the WMAL broadcasters over the years have been Frank Harden and Jackson Weaver, who co-hosted WMAL's morning show for more than four decades until Weaver's death in the early 1990s; Tom Gauger, who also spent several decades at WMAL; Arthur Godfrey, a national radio and early-TV personality who briefly broadcast on WMAL in 1933 as "Red" Godfrey; Bill Mayhugh, a mellow-voiced overnight broadcaster; and Ken Beatrice, a sports talk radio pioneer who hosted a call-in show from 1977 to 1995.
Support of the local community has been a tradition for WMAL, which founded such innovative fund-raisers as the Leukemia Radiothon and the Gross National Parade, which supported the D.C. Police Boys & Girls Club.
News
In addition to providing talk programming, WMAL provides local news coverage. With morning anchor Bill Thompson,[23] afternoon anchor Mark Weaver[24] and the team covers news stories affecting the Washington DC area.
The station aired a radio talk show on November 26, 2006 to gauge his audience's reaction to saying that "force should be applied to ensure that all Muslims in America wear identifying markers...."[25][26] The hoax was revealed at the end of the program.
KABC is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California. It is owned by Cumulus Media and airs a talk radio format, one of the earliest stations in the U.S. to program talk shows 24 hours a day.
KROC is an American news/talk radio station located in Rochester, Minnesota. The station was organized in 1934 by Gregory Gentling as the Southern Minnesota Broadcasting Company. The station went on the air on September 30, 1935. Gentling's other accomplishments included co-founding the Wm McCoy American Legion Post in 1919, originated Soldier's Field Park in 1926, co-owned The Rochester Daily Bulletin, helped arrange the 1934 visit to Rochester by President Franklin D Roosevelt, and managed several political campaigns during the 1920s, including Allen Furlow for Congress, and Arthur E. Nelson for Senate. KROC broadcasts many nationally syndicated talk shows as well as several shows with local personalities.
WPLJ is a non-commercial Contemporary Christian music radio station licensed to New York City. The station is owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF) and serves the New York metropolitan area as the New York City network affiliate for K-Love. WPLJ's transmitter is located at the Empire State Building, and broadcasts two HD Radio channels in addition to its analog transmission.
WLVW – branded K-Love – is a non-commercial Christian Contemporary radio station in Washington, D.C.. Owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF) in a duopoly with WLZV in Buckland, Virginia, WLVW serves the Washington Metropolitan Area as the Washington-Baltimore affiliate for K-Love, a national radio service.
WMAL-FM – branded 105.9 FM & AM 630 WMAL – is an FM radio station licensed to Woodbridge, Virginia, serving the Washington, D.C. Metro area. WMAL-FM airs a talk radio format and is owned and operated by Cumulus Media. The station's studios are located at 4400 Jenifer Street NW in Washington, two blocks from the city's border with Maryland, and the transmitter site is in Falls Church, Virginia, off Lee Highway. Since September 19, 2011, all of WMAL-FM's programming is simulcast from co-owned WMAL (AM) at 630 kHz.
KCMO is an AM radio station licensed to Kansas City, Missouri. Owned by Cumulus Media, the station's studios are located in Mission, Kansas, and the transmitter is in Kansas City's Northeast side. The station airs a Conservative Talk format. The station broadcasts with 10,000 watts by day and 5,000 watts at night, covering the Kansas City metropolitan area. With a good radio, the station can be heard not just in sections of Missouri and Kansas but also parts of Iowa and Nebraska.
WPDH is an album-oriented rock (AOR) radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York, and serving from extreme Northern New Jersey to New York's Hudson Valley and Catskills. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and broadcasts on 101.5 MHz at 4.4 kilowatts ERP from a tower site on Illinois Mountain in Highland, New York. Its studios are in Poughkeepsie. Since 1976, the station has had a rock-and-roll format which has been changed several times.
WNFN is a Top 40 (CHR) formatted radio station in the Nashville, Tennessee market, broadcasting a Top 40 format. Its transmitter site is in Whites Creek, Tennessee and its studios are in Berry Hill, Tennessee.
KTCK-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to serve the community of Flower Mound, Texas. KTCK-FM, established in 1967 as KDSQ, is managed locally at 2221 East Lamar Blvd., Suite 300 in Arlington, and is currently owned by Cumulus Media. As of October 21, 2013, the station broadcasts a sports/talk radio format to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex area as a simulcast of sister station KTCK "The Ticket".
WVNN-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to Trinity, Alabama. Owned by Cumulus Media, it airs a news/talk radio format. WVNN-FM simulcasts WVNN 770 AM, which is licensed to Athens, Alabama. The stations are branded as "NewsTalk 770 AM/92.5 FM WVNN". The studios and offices are in Athens.
WHHY-FM is a radio station licensed to serve Montgomery, Alabama, United States. The station is owned by Cumulus Media.
WJCW is a commercial AM radio station, licensed to Johnson City and serving the Tri-Cities, Tennessee radio market. It is owned by Cumulus Broadcasting and airs a talk radio format.
KBOI is a commercial AM radio station in the western United States, located in Boise, Idaho, broadcasting on 670 kHz under ownership of Cumulus Media. KBOI airs news/talk programming. Studios are located on Bannock Street in downtown Boise, while it transmits from a six-tower facility southeast of Nampa.
WTMA is an AM radio station licensed to Charleston, South Carolina with a Talk radio format. This station operates on 1250 kHz and is under the ownership of Cumulus Media. WTMA airs a local news and interview morning show hosted by Charlie James. The rest of the weekday schedule is made up of nationally syndicated talk shows from Cumulus subsidiary Westwood One Networks. They include Chris Plante, Clark Howard, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, John Batchelor, Red Eye Radio and First Light. Weekends feature shows on money, health, real estate and gardening, with syndicated shows from Larry Kudlow, Bob Brinker and repeats of weekday shows. Each hour begins with Westwood One News.
WAAL is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Binghamton, New York. It airs a classic rock radio format and is owned by Townsquare Media. WAAL is the oldest FM radio station in the Binghamton metropolitan area. It is an affiliate of the New York Giants Radio Network.
KFRU is a radio station located in Columbia, Missouri, broadcasting with 1 kW of power. Its programming format consists primarily of news, talk and sports. The station is licensed to Cumulus Media.
KVOR is a commercial AM radio station in Colorado Springs, Colorado, serving Colorado Springs and Pueblo. It is owned by Cumulus Media and airs a news/talk radio format.
Francis Guinn "Frank" Harden was an American radio announcer whose career spanned more than 50 years. Harden was best known as the genial co-host of The Harden and Weaver Show, which aired on WMAL, in Washington, D.C., from 1960 to 1998.
1 2 Frank Harden Signs Off At WMAL; After 50 Years, Radio Voice Leaves With Little Fanfare by Marc Fisher The Washington Post January 7, 1998 Highbeam.com
↑ '60s Radio Days: A Sillier, Simpler Time. Marc Fisher, The Washington Post, Sept. 13, 1999; Page A1.
↑ Debusmann, Bernd (December 2, 2006). "Fear and distrust of Muslims run deep in US". Dawn. Pakistan: Dawn Group of Newspapers. Retrieved 2009-03-12. When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.
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