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WJDM AM (1530 kHz Elizabeth, New Jersey) is a local AM radio station serving Elizabeth, New Jersey (the seat of Union County) and the surrounding municipalities with Spanish language programming. The station's transmitter is located in nearby Union Township, Union County, New Jersey. The original calls of WELA were changed in January 1971 to avoid any confusion with WERA Plainfield, NJ (1590 kHz) which left the air years later in 1996 after being acquired by WWRL 1600 kHz New York, New York and shut down to extend that station's coverage area to the west.
[edit] History
WELA signed on the air on March 11, 1970 with the following jingle: (Drumroll) - Announcer: "You've listened to the rest, now listen to the best!" (Chorus - "W-E-L-A, You never heard it so good!") The original format consisted of music, mainly middle-of-the-road (MOR), adult contemporary and rock 'n roll oldies selections, with local news and information. The station made a name for itself with its coverage of an explosion at the Linden, NJ Bayway Refinery on Saturday December 5, 1970, which had area residents fearing for their lives much of the day.
In January 1971, the station changed its call letters to WJDM, with the letters J, D and M standing for the first names of the original owners (see infobox above for detailed information on this topic).
Later in its history, the station adopted an ethnic format to better cater to the city's changing demographics, expanding from Sundays only to every day by the 1990s. Later that decade, the station became the first in the United States to acquire a license to operate in the expanded AM radio broadcast band at 1660 kHz, carrying AAHS World Radio network children's format until 1997. Initially, the station carried the same WJDM call letters as its parent station, but later adopted WWRU and changed its city of license to Jersey City, New Jersey.
[edit] Past Air Personalities
- Ed Klein
- Bill Schaefer
- Laura Scott
- Frank Settipani
- Jack Franks
- Skip Painton
- Dean Hunter
- Gary Cubberly
- Jerry Carroll
- Rich Phoenix
- Fred Fishkin
- Bob Salter
- Dave DeLore
- Jim Bosh
- Frank Cipolla
- Bernie Wagenblast
- Rich Rapiti
- Jan Ochs
- Cathy Oliver
- Jeff Rafter
- Gary Guida
- Lauren Pressley
- Cosmo Rose
- Bob Aronson
- Tommy Dean
- Bobby Ryan
- Frank Thomas
- Vinny Marino
- Fran Harris
- Roger Foote
- Robert J. Wright
- Mike Curci
- Chuck Blitzer
- Rob Taylor
- Art (Looney Skip) Rooney
- Dave Frankel
- Jean Bayrock
- Mary Barbieri Young
- Robert Bober
- Claudia Davis
- Bob Recchia
- Dan Coben
- Tom Dwyer
- Joe Caroselli
