| |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Bloomington-Normal |
| Frequency | 1230kHz |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/talk |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WBNQ,WBWN,WJBC-FM,WJEZ | |
| History | |
First air date | May 1925 (1925-05)[1] |
Former frequencies | |
Call sign meaning | "Where Jazz Becomes Classic" (oldmnemonic for sequentially assigned callsign) |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 5876 |
| Class | C |
| Power | 1,000 watts unlimited |
Transmitter coordinates | 40°27′1.1″N89°0′42.3″W / 40.450306°N 89.011750°W /40.450306; -89.011750 (NAD83) |
| Translator(s) | 102.1 W271DC (Bloomington) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www |
WJBC (1230kHz) is acommercialAM radio stationlicensed toBloomington, Illinois, and serving theBloomington-Normal region. It broadcasts anews/talkradio format and is owned byCumulus Media, part of a five-station cluster. It has two full-time show hosts.[4] The station calls itself "The Voice of Central Illinois".
WJBC is powered at 1,000 watts, using anon-directional antenna. Thetransmitter is on Greenwood Avenue at West Hamilton Road in Bloomington.[5] Programming is also heard on 50-wattFM translatorW271DC at 102.1MHz.
In morningdrive time, Scott Miller is heard. In afternoon drive, Blake Haas hosts.Syndicated programming on the station includesThe Ramsey Show,The Rich Eisen Show,CBS Eye on the World withJohn Batchelor,Our American Stories,Coast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory, andAmerica in the Morning.
On weekends, WJBC has shows on home repair, real estate, technology and travel. Weekend hosts includeKim Komando andChris Plante. Most hours begin withCBS News Radio. A station staff supplies local news, sports and agricultural reports.
WJBC has been the longtime home to theIllinois State Redbirds, as well as local high school sports. It also carriesChicago Bears football andSt. Louis Cardinals baseball. On occasion, WJBC has also broadcast theCentral Illinois Flying Aces and theBloomington Edge.
The station was first licensed on April 17, 1925, to the Hummer Furniture Store at Second and Joliet streets inLa Salle, Illinois. It was initially powered at 100 watts on 1280kHz.[6] The WJBC call sign was randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call letters. However, for a while the station adopted themnemonic slogan "Where Jazz Becomes Classic".[1] The station later moved from the Hummer store to theKaskaskia Hotel. During the years in La Salle, it moved to 1320 kHz, then 1200 kHz.
TheGreat Depression eventually closed both the companies backing the station in LaSalle, and the owner of Hummer Furniture owner moved the station toBloomington-Normal.[2]
Malcolm Magregor bought WJBC from Kaskaskia Broadcasting Company effective April 1, 1933. At that time, WJBC was still a 100-watt station, sharing time with WJBL inDecatur, Illinois.[7]
On September 11, 1934, WJBC began transmitting from its new facilities, making it the first radio station in Bloomington. The transmitter was inNormal and its main studio was atIllinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. Other studios were atIllinois State Normal School and theIllinois Farm Bureau.[2] At first it was only on the air a few hours a day, with eight daily newscasts, weather twice a day, and the Western Union time announced at the top of each hour.[2][4]
For much of the 1940s and 1950s, WJBC wasaffiliated with theNBC Blue Network and its successor, theABC Radio Network. It carried a line up of dramas, comedies, news, sports and other programs during the "Golden Age of Radio". It was owned by the Bloomington Broadcasting Company, which also put an FM station on the air in 1947, 101.5 WJBC-FM (nowWBNQ). The two stations mostlysimulcast for the FM station's first two decades on the air.[8]
On the morning of August 25, 1971, the station broadcast the last radio program of the Reverend R.J. Zehr, who died later that morning. Zehr's first broadcast on the station was on a Sunday in October 1934; shortly thereafter, he was given a daily slot, which he continued - without missing a day - until the mid-1960s.
Almost all of Zehr's broadcasts were live, not prerecorded. In 1949, he began doing the program from his house, via telephone. His program's time slot varied over the years, but normally aired between 5:00 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., and lasted 15 to 30 minutes.[9]
The audio tape cartridge machine, which fundamentally changed the way radio stations played commercials and music on air, was developed at WJBC in 1959. Ted Bailey (then Chief Engineer of WJBC) and staff engineer Jack Jenkins developed the ATC (Automatic Tape Control) machine. A joint patent was granted to Bailey, Jenkins and Nolte (station manager of WJBC) as inventors.[10]
On April 30, 2012, Townsquare Media announced that it was selling the station toCumulus Media.[11] The assignment of the station's license to Cumulus was consummated on July 31, 2012.
In 2005, and again in 2009, the station won the Marconi Award from the National Association of Broadcasters for Best Small Market Radio Station in the United States.[12] WJBC has won severalEdward R. Murrow Awards for its local news coverage, as well as several Illinois Silver Dome Awards.
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| International | |
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