WMAL
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WMAL | |
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| City of license | Washington, D.C. |
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| Broadcast area | Washington, D.C. |
| Branding | 630 WMAL |
| Slogan | Stimulating Talk - Breaking News |
| Frequency | 630 kHz (Also on HD Radio) |
| First air date | October 12, 1925 |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | 10,000 watts (day) 5,000 watts (night) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 73250 |
| Callsign meaning | M.A. Leese |
| Affiliations | ABC News |
| Owner | Citadel Broadcasting (Radio License Holding VII, LLC) |
| Sister stations | WJZW, WRQX |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www.630wmal.com |
WMAL is one of the oldest radio stations in Washington, D.C. The Citadel Broadcasting-owned outlet is a news-talk formatted station, broadcasting on 630 kHz in the AM band. The station is affiliated with ABC.
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[edit] History
WMAL first went on the air on October 12, 1925, using call letters incorporating the initials of M.A. Leese, a local optician. WMAL was originally owned by a company run by Leese, and shifted through various frequencies in its first three years, until the Federal Radio Commission's national frequency allocation plan assigned WMAL the AM 630 frequency in 1928; WMAL still broadcasts on that frequency today. WMAL was a CBS affiliate from 1928 until October 19, 1932, and then was briefly unaffiliated until joining the NBC Blue network in January 1933; this network later became ABC, with which WMAL is still affiliated today.
In addition to being the first owner and manager of WMAL, Washington optician M.A. Leese was also the station's first announcer. In 1927, Leese left his optical business to focus full-time on running the station. By mid-1932, M.R. Baker had been appointed Manager of the station, and Kenneth H. Berkeley was appointed station director of WMAL in 1933. While still owned by the Leese family, WMAL was eventually leased to the National Broadcasting Company in 1934, joining it with owned-and-operated station WRC.
NBC’s Washington vice president Frank M. Russell supervised the operation of both WMAL and WRC by 1935 when studios were moved from the National Press Building to the Trans-Lux Theatre Building, 724 14th Street NW. Transmitting facilities continued to be located at 712 Eleventh Street NW.
In the late months of 1937, the lease to NBC was terminated, with station operation reverting back to the Leese interests. NBC, however, continued to operate it under a managerial agreement executed in the fall of 1937. Norman Leese was President of WMAL’s licensee at this time. On May 1, 1938, the M.A. Leese Radio Corporation was acquired by publishers of the now-defunct "Washington Evening Star" newspaper, a family-owned concern headed by Board Chairman and President Samuel H. Kauffman. Norman Leese remained President and K.H. Berkeley continued as General Manager of WMAL.
The operating arrangement between NBC and the M.A. Leese Radio Corporation ended in February of 1942. The station then reverted back to the direct control of the Evening Star Broadcasting Company, of which K. H. Berkeley was executive vice president. Mr. Berkeley was also WMAL’s general manager. In October 1947, WMAL-TV signed on as the first high-band VHF television station in the United States. It became an ABC affiliate a year later.
By 1946, S.H. Kauffman, president and part owner of the Evening Star, was given additional duties as president of its broadcasting subsidiary, the Evening Star Broadcasting Company until his resignation in August 1954. His replacement as general manager was Frederick S. Houwink.
Also in 1954, John W. Thompson, Jr. replaced S.H. Kauffman as president of Evening Star Broadcasting Co. Andrew Martin Ockershausen was appointed station manager of WMAL in 1960. In 1962, Fred Houwink became a company vice-president while continuing as WMAL’s general manager. In 1965 Houwink was named Vice President of Evening Star Broadcasting and Ockershausen was elevated to general manager of WMAL.
In 1970 Houwink retired and Ockershausen was named Vice President, Operations. Also in 1970 Richard S. Stakes was named general manager and Harold L. Green was named station manager. In 1974 Charles A. Macatee became WMAL’s general manager.
In early January 1976, the Evening Star Broadcasting Company’s WMAL, WMAL-FM and WMAL-TV and majority control of the ailing newspaper were acquired from the Kauffman, Noyes and Adams families by publisher Joseph L. Albritton’s Perpetual Corporation and Albritton became board chairman and chief owner of WMAL’s license. On January 21, 1976, WMAL’s licensee name was changed to Washington Star Communications of Delaware, Inc. Richard S. Stakes became station president, but resigned in December of 1976. Mr. Albritton then assumed the presidency, with Robert Nelson becoming president of the broadcasting division. General Manager Charles Macatee resigned in January 1977.
A requirement of the purchase of the Evening Star properties included the sale of the radio or television properties. In March of 1977, WMAL and WMAL-FM were spun off to ABC Radio, while the TV station was retained and became WJLA-TV, named after Albritton's initials. The transfer fetched $16 million, a record price for radio properties at that time. Andrew Ockershausen was appointed executive vice president.
On January 3, 1986, Capital Cities and ABC, Inc. merged in a $3.52 billion deal. Thomas S. Murphy was chairman and CEO of the new firm. Frederick Weinhaus became president and general manager following the resignation of Andrew Ockershausen in March 1986. Weinhaus was transferred to ABC Radio New York in January 1988. His replacement in May 1988 was Thomas Bresnahan, who continued in that role until his retirement in 2002. Chris Berry was named president and general manager November 19, 2003. Prior to joining WMAL, Berry was vice president, radio for ABC News, based in New York.
WMAL-FM has since become WRQX (Mix 107.3). The local Citadel group now also includes WJZW-FM (True Oldies 105.9). Today, 630 WMAL remains Washington’s oldest station to be operating under its original call letters.
[edit] Studios
WMAL broadcast from various facilities in Washington, D.C., and suburban Maryland until July 25, 1973, when it settled in at its current studio facility at 4400 Jenifer Street NW in Washington, two blocks from the city's border with Maryland.
WMAL's transmitting facility, located in the Bradley Hills section of suburban Bethesda, Maryland, once housed studios for WMAL-AM and WMAL-FM.
[edit] Personalities
Among the WMAL broadcasters over the years have been Frank Harden and Jackson Weaver, who co-hosted WMAL's morning show for more than four decades until Weaver's death in the early 1990s; Tom Gauger, who also spent several decades at WMAL; Arthur Godfrey, a national radio and early-TV personality who briefly broadcast on WMAL in 1933 as "Red" Godfrey; Bill Mayhugh, a mellow-voiced overnight broadcaster; and Ken Beatrice, a sports talk radio pioneer who hosted a call in show from 1977 to 1995.
The station also kept a local following for a time by broadcasting sports games featuring the Washington Redskins and University of Maryland, College Park Terrapins. Legendary jazz authority Felix Grant broadcast on WMAL for decades.
Support of the local community has been a tradition for WMAL, which founded such innovative fund-raisers as the Leukemia Radiothon and the Gross National Parade, which supported the D.C. Police Boys & Girls Club.
WMAL on-air hosts today include morning-show co-hosts Fred Grandy and Andy Parks (of The Grandy and Andy Morning Show), gardening host Jos Roozen, investing adviser Ric Edelman, lawyer Michael Collins, and Chris Plante in midmorning and on Sundays. The station also carries the syndicated talk shows of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Paul Harvey. In August 2005, conservative host Michael Graham was fired after refusing to apologize for calling Islam a "terrorist organization." Chris Core was dismissed from WMAL as part of a broad cost-cutting move; a temporary rotation of hosts, including Bob Grant from WABC and Steve Malzberg of WOR, will fill the hole in the schedule until a permanent replacement, most likely syndicated, is named.
[edit] Jerry Klein’s 2006 Islamophobia Radio Experiment
The station aired a radio talk show on November 26, 2006 allegedly exposing the prevalence of Islamophobia by seeming to advocate a government program to force all Muslims to wear "identifying markers."[1] The hoax was revealed at the end of the program. See Jerry Klein’s 2006 Islamophobia Radio Experiment for more details.
[edit] Controversies
On May 2, 2008, Andy Parks of the Grandy & Andy program, stated on air that he found nothing to object to in public school officials "outing" homosexual teenagers to peers, friends, and family (this was in connection to a Memphis, TN situation in which a public school administrator did this). Additionally, several months earlier, during the illegal immigrant controversy in Prince William County, VA, Parks disclosed that he walks up to people of Hispanic origin in public places and asks them if they are illegal aliens. He did not indicate if he does the same to persons of Asian, African/African-American, or European backgrounds. The owners and managers of WMAL AM630 publicly state they are not responsible for any comments made on any of the station's broadcasts.
[edit] References
- ^ Bernd Debusmann. "In U.S., fear and distrust of Muslims runs deep", Reuters, Dec 1, 9:05. Retrieved on Dec. 16, 2006
[edit] External links
- WMAL's official website
- Unofficial WMAL history, with recordings of past WMAL station-ID jingles
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WMAL
- Radio Locator Information on WMAL
- Query Arbitron's AM station database for WMAL
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