City New Orleans, Louisiana Branding Christian Station Format Silent | Broadcast area New Orleans Frequency 1060 kHz | |
Power 50,000 watts day
5,000 watts night | ||
WLNO (1060 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. Licensed to New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, the station serves the New Orleans area. The station is currently owned by Donald Pugh, Sr., through licensee Eternity Media Group LLC. The station broadcasts at 1060 kHz with 50 kW-Daytime (directional mostly west, north and east)/5 kW-Nighttime power (highly directional to the northwest, in a narrow pattern from the transmitter site in Belle Chasse, across the Mississippi River Bridge, then through downtown New Orleans and the French Quarter, and into Metairie and Hammond, Louisiana).
History
AM 1060 was originally WNOE (Named after former Louisiana governor James A. Noe, its original owner) and was the market's first Top 40 outlet during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. When it launched its Top 40 format in early 1955, it stunted by playing the record "Shtiggy Boom" by The Nuggets nonstop for 58 hours and 45 minutes. Some of the most famous DJs on the 1960s WNOE included, but are not limited to, Gary Owens, Greg Mason, C. C. Courtney and Hollywood air personality- disc jockey Frank Jolley. WNOE, with its massive 50,000-watt daytime signal, was a favorite at the Gulf Coast beaches in Mississippi, Alabama, and even as far east as Pensacola Beach, Florida. With its big daytime signal, WNOE was even regularly receivable in areas like Tampa if you were near the Gulf Of Mexico. WNOE actually abandoned its top 40 format gradually in the early 1970s and evolved into one of the few AOR type rock stations on AM in the country. In a sense, rival WTIX had the market to itself during that time, though some FM stations flirted with formats musically close to Top 40. However, with the slogan Real Rock (a slam at WTIX, who without competition, had softened its top 40 sound considerably) WNOE returned to AOR leaning top 40 format with a vengeance in 1973, and competed vigorously with WTIX into the early 1980s. By 1977, WNOE was a pop leaning AOR station somewhat softer than its FM sister station. On January 27, 1981 WNOE flipped to an AC leaning Country format. FM sister station had gone to a pure country format, also from AOR the previous August. WNOE would move away from an AC lean by 1985 but remained country. The station began to lean classic country and also play some southern sounding pop hits mixed in by 1990. They stayed with this Country oldies format until March 1, 1995, when it was sold to Communicom Co. of Louisiana, L.P., who flipped it to its current format. Communicom Company of Louisiana, L.P. is a subsidiary of Denver-based Communicom Company, which also owns KXEG and KXXT in Phoenix, Arizona, and WDRJ in Detroit, Michigan.
As of June 2, 2014, the station is silent. Effective January 9, 2015, WLNO's license was assigned to the WLNO Trust, due to the bankruptcy of Communicom. Effective December 16, 2015, WLNO was sold to Donald Pugh, Sr.'s Eternity Media Group LLC for $1,000 plus a $94,000 payment for access to station property.