 | |
| Broadcast area | Rhode Island |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 630kHz |
| Branding | News/Talk 99.7 FM & AM 630 WPRO |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/talk |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | June 15, 1924; 100 years ago (1924-06-15) (as WKBF) |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | Providence |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 64843 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 5,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 41°46′28.00″N71°19′23.00″W / 41.7744444°N 71.3230556°W /41.7744444; -71.3230556 (WPRO) |
| Repeater(s) | 99.7 WEAN-FM (Wakefield-Peacedale) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | www |
WPRO (630kHz) is acommercialAM radio station inProvidence, Rhode Island. It is owned byCumulus Media, broadcasting anews/talkradio format, which issimulcast in theNewport area on co-owned 99.7WEAN-FM. The studios for WPRO and other Cumulus Providence stations are on Wampanoag Road inEast Providence, at theSalty Brine Broadcast Center, named after WPRO's longtime morning host.
WPRO transmits 5,000 watts, from atransmitter site co-located with the studios in East Providence.[2] It has anon-directional signal by day. To protect other stations on630 kHz from interference, at night it uses a two-tower arraydirectional antenna.
Much of WPRO's weekday lineup is made up of local hosts. Evenings,nationally syndicated programs are heard:The Ben Shapiro Show,CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor andRed Eye Radio. Weekends mostly focus on specialty shows about money, health, pets, home repair, real estate and the law, some of which are paidbrokered programming.The Ramsey Show withDave Ramsey is heard on Sunday evenings.
WPRO is anaffiliate of theNew England Patriots Radio Network. It carriedBoston Red Sox baseball from 1986 to 2005.[3] In 2006, Red Sox games moved to WEEI-FM (nowWVEI-FM).[4]
WPRO has an unusual history, as the station has twice been assigned dual call letters, as WDWF-WLSI (1925–1931) and WPRO-WPAW (1932–1933).
The station was first licensed on June 10, 1924, as WKBF, toDutee W. Flint inCranston, Rhode Island.[5] It made its formal debut broadcast on June 15, 1924, announcing an initial regular schedule of 7:30 to 8:30 pm. Thursdays; 6:00 to 9:00 pm. Sundays; and, beginning June 23, alternate Mondays from 8:30 to 10:30 pm.[6] The original call sign was randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call letters. In January 1925, thecall sign was changed to WDWF, reflecting the owner's initials.
In late 1925, Lincoln Studios began to share ownership of WDWF with Flint. The two owners formed a joint operation, which was assigned the dual callsigns of WDWF-WLSI.[7]
In late 1926, an adverse legal ruling temporarily limited the government's ability to regulate radio stations. This led to the formation of theFederal Radio Commission (FRC), which starting in early 1927 sought to rationalize the broadcasting band, which in turn led to multiple frequency shifts. An initial May 1927 allocation assigned the station to 680 kHz,[8] which was changed to 780 kHz on June 30,[9] and later that year to 800 kHz,[10] 1090 kHz,[11] and 1150 kHz.[12] In early 1928 the station was shifted to 1210 kHz.[13] On November 11, 1928, the FRC made a major reallocation under the provisions of itsGeneral Order 40. The station stayed on 1210 kHz, but now had to share this frequency with Frank Cook Inc.'s WFCI (which became WPAW early the next year), located in Pawtucket.[14]By 1930, the studios for WDWF and WLSI were located in Providence.[15]
The Providence department store Cherry & Webb acquired WDWF-WLSI in September 1931, and changed the stations' callsigns to WPRO.[16] This purchase made Cherry & Webb the third department store in Providence to get into radio broadcasting, after the 1922 launches of Shepard Stores' WEAN (nowWPRV, a sister station to WPRO) andThe Outlet Company's WJAR (nowWHJJ).[17] WPRO formally launched on October 16, with an initial daily schedule of 10:30 a.m to 1 p.m. and 8:30 to 11 pm, plus Sundays from 1:30 to 5:30 pm.[18]
In February 1932, Cherry & Webb purchasedWPAW, WPRO's timesharing partner on 1210 kHz in nearbyPawtucket. Following the WPAW acquisition, the consolidated station operated under the dual call sign of WPRO-WPAW.[19] However, on May 15, 1933, after the FRC requested that stations using only one of their dual callsigns drop the one that was no longer in regular use, WPAW was eliminated and the station reverted to just WPRO.[20] WPRO moved to its current frequency, 630 kHz, in 1934.[21] It was an affiliate of the short-lived American Broadcasting System in 1935;[22] in 1937, the station joined theCBS Radio Network, replacing charter affiliate WEAN.[23]
Although WPRO moved from Cranston to Providence soon after Cherry & Webb took over, the station's transmitter site remained in Cranston[24] until its destruction by the1938 New England hurricane;[25] it then constructed a new transmission facility in East Providence.[26] FM service was added on April 17, 1948, with the debut ofWPRO-FM (92.3MHz),[27] and a television sister station, WPRO-TV (channel 12), went on the air March 27, 1955.[28]
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Cherry & Webb exited broadcasting in April 1959, selling WPRO to Capital Cities Television Corporation, which eventually becameCapital Cities Communications.[27] Soon afterward, WPRO ended its CBS Radio affiliation[30] and became Providence's top-ratedtop 40 station, competing against WICE (nowWPVD) and, later, WGNG (nowWSJW).[3] The station's studios were moved to the transmitter location in East Providence in 1974; WPRO's previous studio location, which until then had also continued to house what had becomeWPRI-TV even after that station was sold by Capital Cities in 1967, was then donated to public television stationWSBE-TV.[26] That same year, WPRO-FM adopted its own top 40 format, and the AM side began a gradual evolution toadult contemporary that would continue through the remainder of the decade.[3] During the 1980s, the station again began to shift its format by gradually addingtalk shows to its schedule;[3] it also became an affiliate ofABC Radio by 1984,[31] two years beforeABC was purchased by Capital Cities. WPRO discontinued its remaining music programming on March 20, 1989, moving to an all-talk format.[3]
Capital Cities/ABC sold WPRO to Tele-Media in 1993;[3] this put the station under common ownership with WLKW (the former WEAN) andWWLI. Tele-Media, in turn, sold its stations toCitadel Broadcasting in 1997.[32] WPRO added its simulcast on WEAN-FM on March 11, 2008.[33] Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.[34]
WPRO's longest-serving on-air staff member wasSalty Brine, who served as the station's morning host from 1943 until April 28, 1993.[3] Other former WPRO voices include sportscasterBryan Fustukian (as Vik Armen). New York media personalities who previously worked at WPRO includeWMCA "Good Guy"Jack Spector, CBS staff announcerHal Simms, and former Providence mayorBuddy Cianci until his death on January 27, 2016.