Frequency 1420 kHz | ||
City Pawtucket, Rhode Island Broadcast area Providence-Warwick-Pawtucket market First air date April 1927 (temporary permit issued)
re-established 1941 Last air date May 1933 (first station, merged into WPRO)
October 1954 Format Network radio (Mutual Radio Network: June 1, 1942-) | ||
WFCI was one of four radio stations in the pre-World War II Providence market (the others being WPRO, WEAN and WJAR). WFCI was an affiliate of the NBC Blue network which in 1943 became simply the Blue Network & finally changed to the American Broadcasting Company, or ABC, in 1945. WFCI added FM service on 101.5 MHz in about 1950; on that frequency today is WWBB.
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A listing for WFCI Pawtucket dates from at least 1927, owned by Frank Crook. It is not known if he was a principal of the Pawtucket Broadcasting Company. If this WFCI is the same station, it was on 1330 kHz on or before June 30, 1927, with 50 watts then moving to 1240 kHz (not yet a Class IV frequency as it would become under NARBA) a year later. WFCI's first studio/office location was at 450 Main Street in Pawtucket. The original WFCI became WPAW which was merged into WPRO in May 1933. WFCI was then restarted in 1941. The station became a Mutual affiliate as of June 1, 1942 (prior to that it had served as WEAN's overflow station). WFCI moved to the Biltmore Hotel in Providence in 1949 and took WEAN's ABC affiliation. WFCI was relicensed to Providence in 1950.
WFCI was sold to the Providence Journal-Bulletin in 1952 which changed the callsign to WPJB, matching their radio station on 105.1 MHz (now WWLI). When the Journal-Bulletin bought WEAN in 1954, it surrendered WPJB's license back to the FCC.
1420 was not silent long as WBSM in New Bedford, Massachusetts was given permission to move to 1420 in 1956 where it remains to this day.