WILM-AM

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For the television station in Wilmington, North Carolina go to WILM-LP

WILM (AM) is a News/Talk-formatted radio station broadcasting at 1450 kHz in Wilmington, Delaware, USA. Often mistakenly called "the birthplace of talk radio", WILM is best known as the station where radio and television personality Joe Pyne honed his skills in the late 1940s and developed the confrontational style that would make him famous. Another well-known WILM personality was Tom Mees (ESPN) who worked at the station in the 1970s.

In the 1950s and 1960s WILM, under the ownership of Ewing Hawkins, experimented with various music formats, including Top-40 and MOR (middle-of-the-road). For a time, the WILM deejays were known as the "Flip Top Jocks." One of the program directors was Dean Tyler, who would later go on to be an influential broadcaster and manager in Philadelphia radio. In the early 1970s WILM adopted an Adult contemporary music format and featured an all-night block of rhythm and blues music geared to the city's African-American community. By this time, the station was affiliated with NBC Radio and carried that network's weekend mainstay, "Monitor."

In January of 1976 WILM switched to an all-news format, using the ill-fated NIS (News and Information Service), operated by NBC. When the NIS ceased operations shortly thereafter, WILM continued on with its news format. Eventually the station modified its format and affiliated with the CBS radio network for news and features. The station also kept a secondary affiliation with the Mutual Broadcasting System, which carried nighttime shows from Larry King.

Despite its relatively weak AM broadcasting signal, WILM competed closely with rival WDEL in the Arbitron rating service during this time.

By the 1990s, WILM had added syndicated talk programming throughout its lineup. The station became one of the first to add, then, the very first to drop Rush Limbaugh's daily show from its schedule. Program director Allan Loudell said the decision was made due to incompatibilities with sales and audience demand. But critics speculated the station simply didn't want to pay increase carriage fees.

The station and its news staff won numerous awards through the 1990s, and the station boasted the largest radio news staff between Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

By 2000, WILM began to shift away from its heritage all-news format and more toward talk radio. The syndicated "Mike Gallagher Show" joined local host John Watson on the station's daily schedule. An evening hour featured a cavalcade of amateur talk radio hosts; most were members of the Wilmington-area community. Weekend programming was almost exclusively all satellite talk by 2004.

In 2004, owner Sally V. Hawkins sold WILM to Clear Channel Communications for $4 Million. On July 28, 2006, WILM-AM dropped the national newscasts from CBS Radio and switched to Fox News Radio. Clear Channel has moved WILM into a new broadcast facility shared with its other Delaware stations. The new facility allows automated operation and Clear Channel has reduced WILM's local air staff and local programming and added syndicated talk programming including Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Michael Savage.

[edit] Notable Alumni

Jim Bachman - Traffic broadcaster, Shadow Traffic, Philadelphia; Sports broadcaster, WCBS Newsradio 88, New York
Matt Cherry - Reporter and newscaster, CNN Radio
Jim DeSouza - News director, WDIY public radio, Allentown, PA
Tom Donahue - Late Top 40 DJ in Philadelphia and Los Angeles
Janet Fried - Reporter and newscaster, Millennium Radio New Jersey Network
Randy Hennig - Editor, Voice of America
Valerie Knight - Morning show co-host, WOGL Oldies 98, Philadelphia
John Lewis - Newscaster, WCBM, Baltimore
Tom Mees - Sports broadcaster, ESPN
Sharon Mittelman - Newscaster, CBS Radio Network
Marcy Norton - Newscaster, Wall Street Journal Radio
Michelle Pilenza - After Hours talk show host, New Jersey 101.5
Joe Pyne - Late nationally-syndicated talk show host
Jeff Seldin - Editor, WTOP Newsradio, Washington, DC
Mike Strug - Reporter, NBC 10, Philadelphia
Adam Tuss - Reporter, WTOP Newsradio, Washington, DC
Dean Tyler - Music director, WIBG; Program Director and General Manager, WPEN, both in Philadelphia
Lauren Wilson - Wilmington reporter, ABC 6, Philadelphia.