WALE
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| WALE | |
| City of license | Greenville, Rhode Island |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Providence, Rhode Island |
| Branding | Amor 990 |
| Frequency | 990 kHz |
| First air date | April 12th 1961 |
| Format | Spanish Adult Contemporary |
| Power | 50,000 watts (day) 5,000 watts (night) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 49128 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Callsign meaning | Whaling City (calls began on 1400-Fall River, Ma.) |
| Former callsigns | WLKW, WEAN[1] |
| Owner | Cumbre Communications Corp. |
| Sister stations | None |
| Website | http://www.amor990.com/ |
WALE (990 AM, "Amor 990") is a radio station licensed to the community of Greenville, Rhode Island, and serving the Providence, Rhode Island, area. The station is owned by Cumbre Communications Corp. It airs a Spanish Adult Contemporary format.[2]
Contents |
[edit] WLKW
WLKW began official broadcasting on April 12, 1961 as Rhode Island's only 50kW radio station during daylight hours only. This fact was noted in the calls as "LKW" really reads as "50 (L in Roman Numerals) KiloWatts" (sic). For most of its life the station's format was easy listening, which is how the calls are associated today (now the calls exist on 1450-West Warwick).
[edit] As WALE
The station has been assigned these call letters by the Federal Communications Commission since July 24, 1989.[1]. When Francis Battaglia's North American Broadcasting Company bought WEAN after selling their facility on 1400 in Fall River, Massachusetts it tried to make a go at straight-ahead talk against better-established 630/WPRO & 920/WHJJ. As the 1990s wore on the station added more & more brokered programming until the station aired nothing but brokered programming. The station was the last radio home of Steve "White" Wight, a controversial talk host. White registered the highest ratings at WALE since its move to Providence. While at WALE White was named top AM radio host by the Providence Journal's Lifebeat contest in 1991, finishing ahead of radio legend Salty Brine. WALE earned a reputation in the Providence area as having fringe programming, such as The National Vanguard, which aired from 16:00-16:30 on Saturdays as well as nearly no listeners.
WALE was sold at a bankruptcy auction in 2003 to Cumbre Communications where it reemerged as "Supermax 990", a Spanish-language outlet going up against 1110/WPMZ & 1220/WRIB. The station was an affiliate of the Red Sox Beisbol Network in 2005, but it is unknown if it will air games in 2008. WALE went silent on December 29th 2006 & returned to the airwaves in late 2007. Today the station airs a Spanish-language adult contemporary format as "Amor 990" (Love 990).
[edit] References
- ^ a b Call Sign History. FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database.
- ^ Winter 2008 Station Information Profile. Arbitron.
[edit] External links
- WALE official website
- History of 1st transmitter, the RCA Ampliphase 50G
- One former time broker's story about how they were, as they put it, scammed while hosting a show on WALE.
- Old WALE website on www.archive.org
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WALE
- Radio Locator Information on WALE
- Query Arbitron's AM station database for WALE
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