WHIC

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WHIC

Broadcast area	Rochester, New York
Branding	The Station of the Cross
Frequency	1460 kHz
Format	Religious (Catholic)
Power	5,000 watts
Class	B
Callsign meaning	Holy and Immaculate Conception
Owner	Holy Family Communications
Website	www.thestationofthecross.com

Dedicated to The Holy and Immaculate Conception, WHIC is a Catholic radio station broadcasting from Rochester, New York. WHIC is located at 1460 on the AM dial. Referred to as The Station of the Cross, WHIC is owned and operated by Holy Family Communications. The station began broadcasting Catholic programming on July 1, 2003. WHIC broadcasts at 5000 watts in the daytime and 5400 watts at night.

[edit] History

WHIC enjoys a legacy in Rochester's broadcast history. The station became Rochester's second radio operation in 1925 when it launched as WHEC. Until 1941 the station used a number of broadcast frequencies, but had settled on 1430 kHz by the early 1930s. Following the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) in 1941, WHEC was reassigned to 1460 kHz. In the 1950s and 1960s WHEC broadcast popular music along with local and CBS news.

In 1972, new owners rebranded the station WAXC "Waxy", and changed format to compete with the top station in the market WBBF by playing Top 40 hits. Through much of the decade of the 1970s WAXC was successful both financially and in popularity (as measured by Arbitron ratings). But after 7 years of competition, toward the end of which FM stations started to cut into the audiences of both WAXC and WBBF, the callsign WAXC was retired and the station sold to American General Media, beginning the era of 3WG.

American General Media named the station WWWG for "Where We Worship God" and, in so doing, earned the distinction of being Rochester's first religious radio broadcast. 3WG 1460 offered a mix of religious programming among other leased-time shows.^[1]

In the summer of 2003 WWWG was purchased by Buffalo based Holy Family Communications to become the network's fourth Catholic radio venture. Holy Family created The Station of the Cross as a network name and rebranded 1460 as WHIC, for the "Holy and Immaculate Conception". The similarity of the new name to the original WHEC, may certainly also be a nod to the historic roots of the station. WHIC began carrying Catholic programming 24 hours a day, with much of the content provided by the EWTN Catholic Radio Network.