 | |
| |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Greater Philadelphia (Delaware Valley) |
| Frequency | 1480kHz |
| Branding | Fox Sports The Gambler |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Sports radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | July 1922 |
Former call signs |
|
Former frequencies |
|
Call sign meaning | Dannenbaum & Steppacher, former owners (1934–1950) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 71315 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
|
| Translator(s) | See § Translators |
| Repeater(s) | 104.5 WRFF-HD2 (Philadelphia) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | foxphlgambler |
WDAS (1480 kHz) is anAM radio station inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania. Owned and operated byiHeartMedia, the station airs asports radio format as an affiliate ofFox Sports Radio. WDAS's studios and offices are located inBala Cynwyd.
WDAS'stransmitter is located nearFairmount Park, off West Ford Road.[2] By day, the station’s power is 5,000 watts; to avoid interfering with other stations on1480 AM, it reduces power to 1,000 watts at night and uses adirectional antenna at all times. WDAS programming is also heard on anFM translator station, 102.5 W273DO in Philadelphia.
The station was first licensed to the Ocean City Yacht Club as WIAD inOcean City, New Jersey,[3] andsigned on the air in July 1922. The station was originally assigned to the "entertainment wavelength" of 360 meters (833 kHz), and call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call signs. In 1923, ownership was transferred to Howard R. Miller,[4] who moved the station to Philadelphia.[5]
Following the establishment of theFederal Radio Commission (FRC), stations were initially issued a series of temporary authorizations starting on May 3, 1927.[6] In addition, they were informed that if they wanted to continue operating, they needed to file a formal license application by January 15, 1928, as the first step in determining whether they met the new "public interest, convenience, or necessity" standard.[7] On May 25, 1928, the FRC issuedGeneral Order 32, which notified 164 stations, including WIAD, that "From an examination of your application for future license it does not find that public interest, convenience, or necessity would be served by granting it."[8] However, the station successfully convinced the commission that it should remain licensed.
On November 11, 1928, the FRC made a major reallocation of station transmitting frequencies, as part of a reorganization resulting from its implementation ofGeneral Order 40. WIAD was assigned to 1370 kHz.
In 1929, the station's studio and transmitter were moved to theElks Club at Broad and Vine Streets and thecall sign changed to WELK.[9]
In 1934, Miller sold the station, and the new owners, silk manufacturers Dannenbaum & Steppacher, adopted the WDAS call sign, with the letters spelling out the company's initials. A.W. Dannenbaum served as the station president. The studios were located at 1211 Chestnut Street.[10]
WDAS broadcast ethnic programming in languages such as Italian,Yiddish andPolish. In 1941, WDAS moved to 1400 AM, then about 15 years later to its current frequency of 1480 AM.
In 1950, candy manufacturerMax Leon purchased the station for $495,000 from William Goldman, a theater chain owner. The programming at the time consisted ofbig band music,ethnic and cultural shows. Leon, the founder and conductor of the original PhillyPops Orchestra, added an all-night classical music show.
In 1951, Leon promoted his son-in-law, Bob Klein, to general manager. Klein saw an opportunity in the marketplace and adopted programming geared toward the local African-American community. The music consisted ofrhythm & blues andjazz. WDAS added a number of young personalities, includingGeorgie Woods, Jimmy Bishop, Carl Helm, Butterball Tamburro,Jocko Henderson andHy Lit. The station also added black-oriented public affairs and news programs, and provided coverage of the unfoldingcivil rights movement, with journalists Joe Rainey and Jim Klash, along with Walt Sanders, Carl Stubbs, Bill Adams, Dave Colman, Jimmy Carter and reporterEd Bradley (later ofCBS's60 Minutes).
The station employed many black professionals, in on-air, office and management positions. The station also took on an activist role. WDAS was commended by many in the industry and in the civil rights movement. In 1959, Leon and Klein signed on an FM sister station,WDAS-FM. By the early 1970s, the FM station would launch a groundbreaking and influentialurban adult contemporary format still heard today.
WDAS (AM) retained its R&B format throughout the 1960s and 70s, while addinggospel music with Louise Williams on Sunday mornings. Many people involved in the civil rights movement, includingMartin Luther King Jr. andMalcolm X, visited and were heard on the station. Following hisreturn from Mecca, Malcolm X visited the station on December 29, 1964. He was interviewed by Rainey under heavy armed police guard due to assassination threats.[11]
Klein filed a class action lawsuit against theArbitron rating service in 1972, on behalf of all black radio stations, protesting that black radio listenership was undercounted. Arbitron settled the suit after four days of testimony and amended its methodologies and policies to make a better effort to survey African-American listeners and other minorities.
Leon sold the station in November 1979, to the minority-owned Unity Broadcasting Network. In the 1980s, WDAS added theNational Black Network (NBN) for hourly newscasts, and tried a news format in the mornings, anchored locally by Karen Warrington, E. Steven Collins andWynne Alexander) and afternoons via the NBN feed. With music listening shifting to FM, WDAS wanted to compete withall-news radioKYW. This was unsuccessful, and the station returned with a mix of gospel, R&B and talk shows. In 1988, as more listeners were choosing FM urban contemporary stations, WDAS switched to a full-time gospel music and religious format.
Beasley Broadcasting purchased WDAS and WDAS-FM in 1994. Two years later, the stations were sold toEvergreen Media, which soon merged with Chancellor Broadcasting, which later became AMFM Inc. In August 2000, after a series of mergers, the two stations would become properties ofClear Channel Communications. Clear Channel changed its name toiHeartMedia after its successfuliHeartRadio internet platform in 2014.
On May 16, 2007, WDAS flipped totropical music asRumba 1480, a format and branding displaced byWRFF's flip tomodern rock asRadio 104.5. The station's former WUBA calls were also adopted by WDAS.[12] WUBA served as the Spanish languageflagship radio station of thePhiladelphia Phillies.
On November 22, 2011, the station began redirecting existing listeners toWHAT, after Clear Channel announced that theRumba format would be replaced by a newurban oldies format the next day asWDAS, The Soul of Philadelphia. The station soft launched with R&BChristmas music for the holiday season, before officially launching its new format on December 27.[13][14]
On June 10, 2013, at 12 pm, the station flipped tosmooth jazz asSmooth Jazz JJZ, reviving a heritage branding that had historically been used by the currentWISX from 1993 to 2006, and from November 17, 2006 to September 5, 2008, by the currentWPEN-FM. Despite the use of the JJZ brand, the station retained the WDAS calls.[15]
From September 19–27, 2015, the station temporarily branded asPope Info Radio — a "pop-up station" coveringPope Francis'sfirst visit to the United States, which concluded in Philadelphia. The station interspersed its smooth jazz programming with live coverage of five masses and speeches throughout the visit, and rolling news, traffic, and weather updates relevant to the events.[16][17][18]
On September 11, 2017, at 12 pm, the station rebranded asBreakthrough Radio. The format was a partnership between iHeartMedia and theChildren's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHoP), featuring a format of uptempo pop hits interspersed with health-related features andpublic service announcements produced by the hospital. TheJJZ format moved toWISX-HD2.[19][20][21]
On August 23, 2019, it was announced that WDAS would flip to asports talk format as part of theFox Sports Radio network the following Monday, asFox Sports The Gambler. The new format launched on August 26, after the station temporarilystunting with a loop of theNFL on Fox theme music over the weekend. Translator W281BI inTrenton was not included in the flip because of its proximity to existing Fox Sports affiliateWNJE.[22]
The station carries local programs geared towardssports betting (taking advantage of the repeal of theProfessional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which had effectively banned sports betting outside of Nevada);[22] it launched withThe Daily Tickets—an afternoon drive program hosted by formerWPEN personality Sean Brace. He describedThe Gambler as the "future" of sports radio, arguing that the betting-oriented positioning of the station would help distinguish itself from WPEN and the market-leadingWIP-FM, and promised that the station would feature "no callers" and "just guests that will bring the best information on the games we love to watch".[22] WDAS otherwise carries the full Fox Sports Radio national lineup, including its own betting-related showStraight Outta Vegas.[23]
More local programs were added to its schedule later on; in October 2019, the station added a new evening program hosted by Eytan Shander,What Are The Odds?—which airs on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings.[24] In June 2020, the station added a weeklyesports program,Cheesesteaks and Controllers, hosted by Jason Fanelli.[25] In July 2020, WDAS became the flagship radio station of thePhiladelphia Union ofMajor League Soccer.[26]
WDAS formerly broadcast inHDIBOC format. The HD transmission was turned off when WDAS flipped to urban oldies at the end of 2011. As the launch of "The Gambler", the station initiallysimulcast on WDAS-FM105.3-HD2.[27][28]On August 31, 2020, the simulcast shifted toWRFF-HD2.
WDAS (AM) programming is broadcast on the followingtranslators:
| Call sign | Frequency | City of license | FID | ERP (W) | HAAT | Class | Transmitter coordinates | FCC info |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W273DO | 102.5 FM | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 138663 | 99 | 114 m (374 ft) | D | 39°56′58.60″N75°10′14.40″W / 39.9496111°N 75.1706667°W /39.9496111; -75.1706667 (W273DO) | LMS |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
39°59′53″N75°12′43″W / 39.99806°N 75.21194°W /39.99806; -75.21194
