City Elizabeth, New Jersey Frequency 1530 kHz Language(s) Spanish | Branding Radio Cantico Nuevo Format Spanish religious | |
First air date March 11, 1970 (1970-03-11) (as WELA) | ||
WJDM (AM 1530 kHz) is a radio station licensed to Elizabeth, New Jersey (the seat of Union County) and the surrounding municipalities and broadcasts a Spanish Christian format. The station's transmitter is located in nearby Union Township, Union County, New Jersey. The original calls of WELA were changed in January 1971 to avoid any confusion with now defunct WERA Plainfield, New Jersey (1590 kHz) which left the air in 1997 after being acquired by WWRL 1600 kHz New York, New York and shut down to extend that station's coverage area to the west.
History
WELA signed on the air on March 11, 1970 with the following jingle: (Drumroll) - Announcer: "You've listened to the rest, now listen to the best!" (Chorus - "W-E-L-A, You never heard it so good!") The original format consisted of music, mainly middle-of-the-road (MOR), adult contemporary and rock 'n roll oldies selections, with local news and information. The station made a name for itself with its coverage of an explosion at the Linden, NJ Bayway Refinery just after 11 PM Saturday December 5, 1970, which had area residents fearing for their lives much of the next day.
In January 1971, the station changed its call letters to WJDM, with the letters J, D and M standing for the first names of the original owners (see infobox above for detailed information on this topic).
Later the station adopted an ethnic format to better serve the city's changing demographics, expanding from Sundays to full-time by the 1990s. On December 8, 1995, the station became first in the United States to acquire a license to operate in the expanded AM radio broadcast band at 1660 kHz, carrying AAHS World Radio network children's format until 1997. Initially, the station carried the same WJDM call letters as its parent station, but later adopted WWRU and changed its city of license to Jersey City, New Jersey.