| SimulcastingWEPN-FM New York City | |
|---|---|
 | |
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| Broadcast area | New York metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 1190kHz |
| Branding | La Exitosa 98.7 y 1190 AM |
| Programming | |
| Language | Spanglish |
| Format | Latin pop–adult contemporary music |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WEPN-FM | |
| History | |
First air date | 1926 (99 years ago) (1926) |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | The Voice of Liberty (early slogan) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 28204 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 40°47′48.36″N74°6′4.51″W / 40.7967667°N 74.1012528°W /40.7967667; -74.1012528 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WLIB (1190kHz, "La Exitosa 98.7 y 1190 AM") is a commercialAM radio station in New York City. Owned byEmmis Corporation, it is an AM simulcast of sister FM station 98.7WEPN-FM.
By day, WLIB is powered at 10,000 watts, using adirectional antenna with a three-tower array. It switches to a four-tower array at sunset. Unusual for most AM stations, it increases its power at night to 30,000 watts. The station'stransmitter is on Valley Brook Avenue inLyndhurst, New Jersey.[2]
WLIB's origins reach back to 1926. The station'scall sign was originally WBKN.[3] It went on the air inBrooklyn, at the time considered a differentcity of license than New York by theFederal Radio Commission. In 1928, the call sign was changed to WCLB, reflecting its new location in the City ofLong Beach.[4] In 1930, the new call sign of WMIL was adopted,[5] and was changed to WCNW in 1933.[6]
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WCNW shared time withWWRL on 1600kHz with the 1941 enactment of theNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA). A few years later, WCNW was granted permission to move down the dial to 1190 kHz. While it now had its own frequency, it was adaytimer, required to go off the air at night. WCNW, which broadcast foreign language programs, was purchased by its general manager, Elias Godofsky.
Godofsky changed the call sign to WLIB.[8] The station's target audience was upper middle-class and wealthy New Yorkers, as evidenced by its format of classical music andadult standards which competed withWQXR.[9] The station was purchased byNew York Post publisherDorothy Schiff in 1944 and regularly ran news updates from the paper's newsroom several times during the day.
In 1949 WLIB was purchased by the New Broadcasting Company.[10] The firm was headed by formerWNYC executiveMorris S. Novik and his brother, garment executive Harry Novik. Upon taking control of the station the Novik brothers returned WLIB to a station serving ethnic audiences, with large amounts of programming targeting the city'sJewish, and African American communities.
The station eventually became the leading voice of New York's black residents.[11] It had its studios in the community's epicenter at "Harlem Radio Center" in theHotel Theresa inHarlem. During the mid-to-late 1950s, its airstaff included pioneering black disc jockeyHal Jackson, actorWilliam Marshall, andVictor Bozeman, who would later become a Los Angeles-based staff announcer forNBC television.[12] Journalists Bill McCreary,[13] andGil Noble also got their start in WLIB's news department, before each made the leap to television in the mid-1960s.
In the 1960s. WLIB had blocks of time devoted tojazz music. Among its disc jockeys was noted jazz musicianBilly Taylor. During much of this period WLIB's primary competition came from 1600 WWRL, another station which programmed to Black audiences. In 1965, WLIB put an FM station on the air, WLIB-FM at 107.5MHz.[14] At first, the two stations wouldsimulcast their programming. But over time, WLIB-FM began a separate schedule ofR&B and jazz music with fewer commercials and less DJ interruptions. Today that station isWBLS, New York's top station serving the African American community. It was sold to Mediaco in 2019.[15]
WLIB became black-owned in the 1970s after activists picketed the station and demanded African Americans be given a chance to purchase it. Many felt the station's series of white owners didn't care about broadcasting with community concerns in mind.Percy Sutton,Malcolm X's former attorney and then-Manhattanborough president, formed theInner City Broadcasting Corporation (ICBC). The company had the backing of a group of black investors, including Hal Jackson and Billy Taylor. It purchased WLIB from the Novik brothers in 1972.[16][17] The station's first talk shows featuredBetty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, and Dr. Carlos Russell, a noted former college professor who taught some of the black andLatino students who later founded theYoung Lords.
Through much of its history, WLIB was adaytimer and could not be on the air at night. Its hours were limited to broadcasting between sunrise in New York and sunset inFort Wayne, Indiana.AM 1190 was aclear channel frequency on whichWOWO in Fort Wayne was the dominant station in theEast. If WLIB stayed on the air at night, it would interfere with WOWO's signal. Inner City Broadcasting decided to remedy this problem.
The company purchased the Fort Wayne station in 1994 for the sole purpose of lowering its nighttime power. That set the stage for WLIB to eventually begin broadcasting around the clock. After gainingFederal Communications Commission approval for 24-hour broadcasting, it would still be a few years before WLIB would actually begin nighttime programming. In the meantime Inner City sold off WOWO, whose nighttime power was reduced to 9,800 watts from its previous 50,000 watts. It is now owned byFederated Media.
After becoming black-owned, the station broadcast political,Afrocentric, and health-centered programming aimed at New York'sCaribbean American community. WLIB's advocacy strength was credited with getting out the vote forDavid Dinkins in 1989 as he ran to become New York City's first black mayor.[citation needed]
In the 1990s and 2000s, WLIB saw its audience decrease as more radio listeners tuned in FM stations for music. In 2004, the stationaffiliated withAir America, a network specializing inprogressive talk. The change was controversial, with many in the community seeing the switch as replacing local black activist programming with Air America's national, primarily white,liberal on-air personalities.[18] Air America featured shows hosted byAl Franken,Randi Rhodes andRachel Maddow. The network was heard most of the day over WLIB with the exception of overnights, when the station aired theGlobal Black Experience, hosted byImhotep Gary Byrd.
Air America programming left WLIB on August 31, 2006. The network moved to 1600 WWRL the next day. It was rumored that the progressive talk format would be retained on WLIB using local hosts and syndicated talkerEd Schultz, under a lease agreement withRandy Michaels' company,Radioactive, LLC.[19] However negotiations fell through, and on August 21, 2006, WLIB announced that it would switch to anurban gospel format.
Following Inner City Broadcasting's bankruptcy in 2012, WLIB and its FMsister station 107.5 WBLS, along with Inner City's other broadcast properties, were sold. The stations were acquired by YMF Media LLC, owned jointly by investorRonald Burkle and formerprofessional basketball playerEarvin "Magic" Johnson.[20]
Over the next two years, YMF sold off all of the stations it acquired from Inner City. On February 11, 2014,Emmis Communications announced its purchase of WLIB and WBLS for$131 million.[21] Emmis began operating the stations under alocal marketing agreement (LMA) until receiving final approval from the FCC, which came on June 10, 2014.
On January 10, 2025, the station flipped to a simulcast of the new Spanish-languageLa Exitosa format adopted by FM sisterWEPN-FM, which carries a gold-based mix ofLatin pop and English-language adult contemporary hits, with programming and imaging conducted in Spanish.[22]
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