WFJS (AM)

WFJS (1260 AM, "Domestic Church Radio") is a radio station broadcasting a religious format to the Trenton, New Jersey, USA area. The station is currently owned by the Domestic Church Media Foundation, a Catholic-based organisation based in Trenton, New Jersey.^[1]

History

The station went on the air as WBUD on January 20, 1947, licensed to Morrisville, Pennsylvania on a frequency of 1490 kHz. In 1952, WBUD moved to its current frequency of 1260 kHz as a Trenton-licensed station. During a period in the late 1970s, the station held the call letters WTRT. On May 29, 1980, the station adopted the call letters WKXW. It reverted to the original call sign WBUD on September 1, 1981 and kept those call letters until 2008.^[2][3]

In the early 1970s, WBUD broadcast a Top 40 format. In 1975, the station became an all-news outlet, carrying the NBC News and Information Service. When that service was discontinued in 1977, WBUD returned to music programming. By the late 1990s, WBUD was airing oldies music as "Great Gold Radio".

In February 2006, WBUD switched to ABC Radio's "Unforgettable Favorites" satellite feed airing a soft oldies/adult contemporary format. Despite a merger into "Timeless", WBUD has maintained its adult standards/oldies playlist up until March 31, 2008 when the station switched to a sports radio format as part of the Fox Sports Radio network. The station aired Fox Sports Radio all day except in afternoons, when it aired Premiere's Jim Rome Show and local programming.

It was announced by Millennium Radio Group on July 25, 2008 that WBUD would be sold to Domestic Church Media Foundation, which would drop Fox Sports Radio in favor of religious programming (mainly from EWTN).^[4] The sale was completed on September 10, 2008.^[5]

On September 14, 2008, WBUD had its final day of broadcasting before the new religious format, featuring the station's automated "Great Gold" oldies format, as well as Jack Pinto's Sunday Sinatra program, live in the studio. The station returned to Fox Sports at 2PM after playing its final song, "Yesterday's Gone", by Chad and Jeremy.^[6]

On September 15, 2008, WBUD officially flipped to a Catholic-based religious format, as "Domestic Church Catholic Radio", named after the owner. On September 22, 2008, the station changed its calls to WFJS, named after Fulton J. Sheen, an archbishop who had used broadcasting (particularly television) to deliver the message about the Catholic faith. The station's studios will also be renamed as "The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Center for Media Evangelization".^[7]

In August 2012 WFJS was granted a construction permit to increase its daytime power to 5,900 watts and to add a fourth tower to its array to modify its daytime directional pattern. The demise of station WNWK in Newark, Delaware, which broadcast on the same frequency as WFJS, freed WFJS from an obligation to minimize interference to that station. The new directional pattern will improve WFJS's daytime signal to the south and southwest. No change will be made to the station's nighttime power or pattern.

References

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for WFJS
• Radio-Locator Information on WFJS
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WFJS
• WFJS official website