Broadcast area North America & Europe Power 50,000 Watts City of license Monticello Owner Allan Weiner Branding WBCQ The Planet | First air date September 8, 1998 Website wbcq.com Format Variety Area North America, Europe Slogan Free Speech Radio | |
 | ||
Callsign meaning Weiner Broadcasting Company Q Frequency 15420 kHz, 9330 kHz, 7490 kHz, 5110 kHz | ||
WBCQ is a shortwave radio station operating at Monticello, Maine, United States. The station is owned and operated by Allan Weiner, who also owns and operates WXME (AM) 780 kHz and WBCQ-FM 94.7 MHz at the shortwave site. WBCQ began operation in 1998 with just the WBCQ-1 transmitter on 7415 kHz. WBCQ's shortwave antennas are all beamed directionally: primarily at 245 degrees, and secondarily at 65 degrees.
Contents
Since its inception, Weiner has held fast to a philosophy that the First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, and has run the station on this basis as a trustee of the public airwaves. Accordingly, WBCQ often subsidizes shows by varying groups of religious and political entities, as well as by individuals playing various forms of music, novelty records, audiobooks and self-recorded material.
Otherwise, the station also transmits numerous talk shows and other programs produced by commercial networks as well as former pirate radio broadcasters, such as Weiner himself and his erstwhile collaborators.
Unlike Weiner's former pirate radio stations, now relegated to well-documented history, WBCQ and its AM and FM sister stations are licensed by the FCC under his own name.