WNSW
Encyclopedia
WNSW is a radio station
licensed to Newark, New Jersey
, serving Northeastern New Jersey and parts of New York City
. The station, formerly known by the call letters WNJR
, runs an ethnic and brokered format. It is owned by Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, Inc.
.
, Bobby Jay, Hal Jackson, and others. In 1967, Rollins Broadcasting, after a dispute with its airstaff, restructured into Continental Broadcasting.
(Now Sheridan Broadcasting's American Urban Radio Networks
) in 1973. WNJR subsequently evolved into more of an Urban AC format by 1978. Also, the station played Gospel music and sermons on Sunday mornings and evenings. In 1982, Sound Radio received the WNJR license. The format stayed much the same. Initially the station was profitable but by 1988, it began to lose money as its core audience switched to New York City's two FM Urban powerhouses, WBLS
and WRKS (98.7 Kiss FM). In 1989, Sound Radio filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.
In 1995 Multicultural Media bought 1430 WNJR and shifted the station to include more Asian shows. They kept some Gospel music programming on Sundays. The station was then profitable.
which had a Standards format for 6 years was shut down and Radio Disney
moved to that dial position. In March 1999 Multicultural decided to fill the hole and put a Standards format on 1430. The call letters became WNSW on June 8, 1999. The station became known as "Sunny 1430". They originally planned to switch to this format full time except for Sunday mornings, but initially would run this format from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to Midnight Saturdays and not at all on Sundays. The rest of the time they ran ethnic programming that was brokered. On Sundays they played Gospel Music and preaching.
During the week though they played a Standards format with artists like Frank Sinatra
, Neil Diamond
, Petula Clark
, Tony Bennett
, Tommy Dorsey
, Peggy Lee
, Elvis Presley
, Nat King Cole
, Pat Boone
, The Carpenters
, Jack Jones
, Tom Jones
, the Andrews Sisters, Bobby Darin
, James Taylor
, the Four Aces
, Johnny Mathis
, Artie Shaw
, Righteous Brothers, etc. The format was similar to 1560 WQEW's old format. They mixed in baby boomer pop in moderation. Still they focused on the standards. Some of the airpeople included Johnny Knox
(who was program director and operations manager the first year of operation), John Von Soosten, Chuck Leonard
, Danny Stiles
, Julius LaRosa, among others.
Finally on February 28, 2001 WNSW would drop the format altogether with the playing of Frank Sinatra
's "Softly As I Leave You." The format would, however, continue with a few evening hours with Danny Stiles. The rest of the day would revert to brokered programming full time again.
.
to Clifton, New Jersey
. The station also has applied for a power increase of 5,000 watts day/night to 10,000 watts day and 7,000 watts night which would allow their signal to be heard throughout New York City
.
In Summer of 2008, the Union Township towers were dismantled. WNSW now transmits from the four towers of co-owned WPAT in Clifton.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
licensed to Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, serving Northeastern New Jersey and parts of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The station, formerly known by the call letters WNJR
WNJR (AM)
WNJR was a commercial radio station based in Newark, New Jersey, on 91 Halsey St. in Newark, NJ. The station broadcast on 1430 kHz with a transmitter power output of 5000 watts.-History:...
, runs an ethnic and brokered format. It is owned by Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, Inc.
Multicultural Broadcasting
Multicultural Broadcasting is a media company based in New York City founded by Chinese-American businessman Arthur Liu. Multicultural caters mostly to the Asian American community and owns television and radio stations in several of the top markets in multiple languages.-History:This company was...
.
Early years
The station signed on in 1947. Initially the station was diversified running Jazz blocks, R & B music, talk shows, and Latin music. The Newark Evening News owned WNJR until 1953, when Rollins Broadcasting bought the station. As Newark's population became increasingly African-American in the 1960s, WNJR evolved into an R&B Music format full time. Some of the jocks included Hal Wade, Danny StilesDanny Stiles
Danny Stiles was a radio personality at WNYC, WNSW, WJDM and WPAT in the New York City market. He worked on the radio for 63 years in the New York City area, up to the time of his death.-Early life:...
, Bobby Jay, Hal Jackson, and others. In 1967, Rollins Broadcasting, after a dispute with its airstaff, restructured into Continental Broadcasting.
City of Newark/urban era
In 1968 The FCC refused to renew Continental Broadcasting's license but pending an appeal they still continued to run WNJR which was profitable. The Soul format continued as well. In July 1971 Continental Broadcasting's license was officially revoked and the station was forced off the air on the 21st. The FCC though allowed the city of Newark to run the station and it signed back on a week later.Financial problems
WNJR continued with an Urban Contemporary format and became the flagship station of Unity Broadcasting's National Black NetworkNational Black Network
The National Black Network, or NBN, began operation in July 1973 as the first coast-to-coast radio network wholly owned by African Americans.-Early years:...
(Now Sheridan Broadcasting's American Urban Radio Networks
American Urban Radio Networks
American Urban Radio Networks is the result of a merger between the National Black Network, founded by Unity Broadcasting in 1973, and the Sheridan Broadcasting Network, founded in 1972 as the Mutual Black Network. The merger took place in the late 1980s. American Urban Radio Networks is an African...
) in 1973. WNJR subsequently evolved into more of an Urban AC format by 1978. Also, the station played Gospel music and sermons on Sunday mornings and evenings. In 1982, Sound Radio received the WNJR license. The format stayed much the same. Initially the station was profitable but by 1988, it began to lose money as its core audience switched to New York City's two FM Urban powerhouses, WBLS
WBLS
WBLS is an urban adult contemporary FM radio station in New York City, operating on 107.5 MHz. WBLS is owned by Inner City Broadcasting Corporation along with sister station WLIB...
and WRKS (98.7 Kiss FM). In 1989, Sound Radio filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.
Brokered days
In 1991 American Radio Associates bought the station and attempted to keep the Urban AC format. But they too had financial problems and sold the station to Douglas Broadcasting in 1992. At that point the station dropped its Urban AC format in favor of Gospel music mornings and late afternoons, ethnic brokered shows mid-days and nights, and Gospel music and teaching on Sundays.In 1995 Multicultural Media bought 1430 WNJR and shifted the station to include more Asian shows. They kept some Gospel music programming on Sundays. The station was then profitable.
Sunny 1430 era
After Christmas in 1998 1560 WQEWWQEW
WQEW is a Radio Disney affiliate licensed to New York City. Its transmitter is located in Maspeth, Queens. WQEW has a transmitter power of 50,000 watts and is listed as a Clear-channel station...
which had a Standards format for 6 years was shut down and Radio Disney
Radio Disney
Radio Disney is a radio network based in Burbank, California and headquartered out of the Disney Channel headquarters on West Alameda Ave., from where it has been based since November 2008. Prior to that, the network was based in Dallas, Texas...
moved to that dial position. In March 1999 Multicultural decided to fill the hole and put a Standards format on 1430. The call letters became WNSW on June 8, 1999. The station became known as "Sunny 1430". They originally planned to switch to this format full time except for Sunday mornings, but initially would run this format from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to Midnight Saturdays and not at all on Sundays. The rest of the time they ran ethnic programming that was brokered. On Sundays they played Gospel Music and preaching.
During the week though they played a Standards format with artists like Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
, Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
, Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
, Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
, Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, Pat Boone
Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
, The Carpenters
The Carpenters
Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...
, Jack Jones
Jack Jones (singer)
John Allan "Jack" Jones is an American jazz and pop singer. He was one of the most popular vocalists of the 1960s.-Overview:...
, Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
, the Andrews Sisters, Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...
, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, the Four Aces
Four Aces
The 4 Aces is the quartet of passenger-cargo liners Excalibur, Exochorda, Exeter, and Excambion, originally built for American Export Lines by New York Shipbuilding of Camden, New Jersey between 1929 and 1931...
, Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...
, Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....
, Righteous Brothers, etc. The format was similar to 1560 WQEW's old format. They mixed in baby boomer pop in moderation. Still they focused on the standards. Some of the airpeople included Johnny Knox
Johnny Knox
Johnny Knox is an American football wide receiver for the Chicago Bears. He was selected by the Bears as the 140th overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, through a they acquired in the Kyle Orton-Jay Cutler trade....
(who was program director and operations manager the first year of operation), John Von Soosten, Chuck Leonard
Chuck Leonard
Charles Wesley "Chuck" Leonard was an American radio personality at WABC in New York City during the 1960s and 1970s. His deep voice and smoothness resonated across 38 states for 14 years at ABC...
, Danny Stiles
Danny Stiles
Danny Stiles was a radio personality at WNYC, WNSW, WJDM and WPAT in the New York City market. He worked on the radio for 63 years in the New York City area, up to the time of his death.-Early life:...
, Julius LaRosa, among others.
Standards demise
It was decided that once advertising grew enough to support Standards that they would drop the weekend brokered shows that were still the main source of revenue for WNSW. This never happened. The station was unable to sell even a moderate amount of commercial time but held on to the format during daytime in the week and Saturdays. Brokered shows were the only source of substantial income for WNSW but it was not enough to keep the station profitable after a while. In 2000 the station moved toward a Big Band lean and dropped the Neil Diamond and Elvis cuts.Finally on February 28, 2001 WNSW would drop the format altogether with the playing of Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
's "Softly As I Leave You." The format would, however, continue with a few evening hours with Danny Stiles. The rest of the day would revert to brokered programming full time again.
Voice of Russia
In January 2011, WNSW converted to a 24 hour simulcast of the English language service of the Voice of RussiaVoice of Russia
Voice of Russia is the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service owned by the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company. Its predecessor Radio Moscow was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.-Early years:Radio Moscow...
.
Power increase proposed
In early 2007, WNSW applied to move their transmitter from Union Township, Union County, New JerseyUnion Township, Union County, New Jersey
Union is a Township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. In the 18th century, the area that is now Union was then called Connecticut Farms...
to Clifton, New Jersey
Clifton, New Jersey
Clifton is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 84,136. The 2010 population represented an increase of 5,464 residents from its population of 78,672 in the 2000 Census, making it the state's 11th largest...
. The station also has applied for a power increase of 5,000 watts day/night to 10,000 watts day and 7,000 watts night which would allow their signal to be heard throughout New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
In Summer of 2008, the Union Township towers were dismantled. WNSW now transmits from the four towers of co-owned WPAT in Clifton.