WSNR

WSNR, AM 620, is a radio station in the New York metropolitan area with a brokered time format. The station is co-owned by Gregory Davidzon, a Russian-American media mogul who also publishes a weekly newspaper under his name, and Sam Katsman, through licensee Davidzon Radio, Inc.^[1] On Saturdays and Sundays (10 a.m. to midnight), the station airs a Caribbean format, One Caribbean Radio.

WSNR is licensed to Jersey City, New Jersey and transmits 3,000 watts days/7,600 watts night from five (5) in-line towers in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, but has an application pending with the FCC to relocate its transmitter to the New Jersey Meadowlands and increase power to 15,000 watts day and night.

History

First signed on in 1947 or 1948. In the 1950s through 1970s, as WVNJ licensed to Newark, New Jersey, the station played Broadway show music and mostly vocal based easy listening music. WVNJ had evolved into an adult standards format by the early 1970s, playing artists like Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, Mills Brothers, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Andrews Sisters, Nat "King" Cole, Peggy Lee, Artie Shaw, Carpenters, Vic Damone, Sammy Davis Jr., Connie Francis, Patti Page, Johnny Mathis, Dinah Shore, among others. By the late 1970s, WVNJ featured a pure big-band show playing only music from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s weekdays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. This show was hosted by Danny Stiles. WVNJ 620 was marketed as a standards station to accompany its then-co-owned FM station WVNJ FM which played Beautiful Music. In 1980, when WRVR New York dropped Jazz for Country WKHK, WVNJ-FM adopted a night-time jazz format keeping easy listening instrumentals and a vocal per 20 minutes during the day. At that point, WVNJ 620 picked up the beautiful music format for night-time hours while keeping big bands and standards during the day. Ratings were low on WVNJ 620 due to the fact it had a weak signal and 1130 WNEW was also doing a big band based format by 1981.

In August 1983, WVNJ-FM was sold to Malrite and became a CHR format in a new location with a new staff and known as Z 100 WHTZ. WVNJ was sold that October and became a Spanish adult contemporary station. They became WSKQ and were owned by Spanish Broadcasting System. They also moved to a new location in Manhattan. After SBS bought an FM station, WSKQ became WXLX and employed a Mexican regional music format beginning in 1990. In 1996, the station was sold to One On One Sports and picked up that sports talk programming becoming WJWR. After One-on-One Sports merged with the Sporting News newspaper, the network would be renamed Sporting News Radio and WJWR would become WSNR. It was around this time that WSNR would also be re-licensed to Jersey City, New Jersey. WJWR and WSNR were the flagship for the New York Islanders, and at various times carried the play by play for the New York Liberty of the WNBA, the New York CityHawks of the Arena Football League, and the Brooklyn Cyclones of the New York–Penn League

From 2001 to 2006, the station was owned by Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures; despite the ownership change, it retained the station's affiliation with Sporting News Radio. The station was also briefly an MRN affiliate and was the only New York metro area station broadcasting NASCAR events.

Gregory Davidzon and Sam Katsman, through licensee Davidzon Radio, Inc. purchased WSNR for $12.5 million in a transaction that was consummated on March 31, 2015.

Daytime programming consists of Russian news/talk shows as Davidzon Radio, named after the station's co-owner. Nighttime is leased to Radio Maria's New York English language programming and various other ethnic and specialty programmers.

References

External links

• Davidzon Radio
• Radio Maria New York (English with streaming audio)
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WSNR
• Radio-Locator Information on WSNR
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WSNR