Broadcast area Delaware Valley | Frequency 1540 kHz | |
City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania First air date July 11, 1947 (as WJMJ) Format News/Talk (simulcast of China Radio International) Power 50,000 watts daytime only | ||
WNWR (1540 kHz) is an AM radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania owned by Global Radio, LLC. Its studio is located at 200 Monument Road, Suite 6, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania and its transmitter is located in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia, off Ridge Avenue.
The station carries English-language programming from China Radio International for its entire broadcast day. It had been branded as "New World Radio" prior to June 2011 when it carried paid brokered programming in various languages.
WNWR broadcasts by day at 50,000 watts, the maximum power permitted for AM stations by the Federal Communications Commission. But because AM 1540 is a clear channel frequency, WNWR must sign-off at night, to protect Class A stations KXEL in Waterloo, Iowa and ZNS-1 in Nassau, Bahamas.
WNWR has applied for an FCC construction permit to remain on the air at night with 250 watts.
History
The station first signed on the air on July 11, 1947 as WJMJ ("Jesus, Mary, Joseph"), which broadcast middle-of-the-road music and religious programming. In the mid-1960s it was acquired by Rust Craft Greeting Cards, which changed the call sign to WRCP and in 1967 changed the format to country music. In 1981, after 560 WFIL adopted a country format, WRCP switched to oldies. Later in 1985, the call sign was changed to WSNI to match a co-owned FM station. For a time, WSNI-AM broadcast an all-Beatles-and-Motown format. After two years, a more conventional oldies mix returned and the station became WPGR ("Philly Gold Radio"). In 1995, when the station was sold to new owners operating as Global Radio LLC, it became WNWR and switched to mostly ethnic brokered programming. On June 13, 2011, WNWR's entire brokered program schedule moved to 860 WWDB.