WWSJ
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| WWSJ | |
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| City of license | St. Johns, Michigan |
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| Broadcast area | [1] (Daytime) [2] (Nighttime) |
| Branding | Joy 1580 Christian Radio |
| Frequency | 1580 kHz |
| First air date | 1950s |
| Format | Urban contemporary gospel |
| Power | 1,000 watts (Daytime) 3 watts (Nighttime) |
| Class | D |
| Callsign meaning | St. Johns |
| Former callsigns | WLNZ (9/13/85) WGZS (9/2/85-9/13/85) WRBJ (?-9/2/85) WJUD (?-?) |
| Owner | Larry & Helen Harp, Wayne & Elmira Hill |
| Website | http://www.wwsj.com/ |
WWSJ is an AM radio station broadcasting from St. Johns, Michigan on 1580 kHz. The station transmits with 1,000 watts during the day using a directional antenna that sends the signal primarily to the north and south (including Lansing, Michigan). At night it operates with a mere 3 watts, but still manages to cover much of Clinton County.
The station began operation in the 1950s as WJUD. In the 1960s, it was purchased by Robert D. Ditmer and began operating under the new callsign of WRBJ. In 1972 Ditmer added WRBJ-FM on 92.1 MHz (now WQTX). During the time the station was owned by Robert Ditmer it was a true community station playing a variety of music along with local high school sports, news and announcements.
Robert Ditmer sold WRBJ AM and FM to R. Charles McLravy in 1981. McLravy changed the call letters of WRBJ-AM/FM to WQTK-AM/FM, and implemented a Country music format which was simulcast on both stations. AM 1580 changed calls again in November 1982, this time to WKZY, when the station switched to an MOR format as "Cozy 16". The format did not last long, and by May 1983, the station had reverted back to the Country music format, and also back to the WQTK calls. The station implemented Al Ham's Music of Your Life format in October 1983, this time adopting the call letters WVGO, which had recently been dropped by Lansing station WVIC-AM. By the spring of 1985, the call station's call letters changed again, this time to WKLH-AM, simulcasting the Country music format of FM sister station WKLH-FM (K-92). In early 1985, McLravy moved the WKLH-FM studios to the DeWitt Shopping Center, although the WKLH-AM studio and transmitter remained on Parks Road, just south of St. Johns.
McLravy sold WKLH-AM/FM, to Lansing Broadcasting Associates in July 1985, and on Labor Day 1985, the format of FM 92.1 was flipped to Album Oriented Rock. The call letters WGZS were applied for and assigned to AM-1580, in anticipation of a Christian format, but the format never materialized. Instead, WGZS became a simulcast of AOR sister station WLNZ-FM 92.1. The WGZS call letters, although assigned to the station for a short time, were never used on the air. Lansing Broadcasting Associates continued to maintain the AM studios on Parks Road, mainly because of an FCC requirement that the both the AM and FM stations originate 50% of their news and public affairs programming from the St. Johns studio. Part-time employees were paid to operate the St. Johns studio and transmitter.
In 1986, Robert Ditmer repurchased the AM station, now known as WLNZ, and changed the call sign to WWSJ. The station featured country music, talk, local news and high school sports. During a portion of this time it went by News Radio 1580 and featured syndicated talkers Phil Donahue, Church Harder and Jack Ellery. By the mid-1990s, the station added time-brokered Tejano music programming to a portion of its broadcast day.
In February 1995, Ditmer sold the station to Steve and Cheryl Evans of DeWitt, Michigan, who operated the station under the company name Mint City Radio. WWSJ continued with a mix of Country music, community information, Tejano music (time-brokered) and talk programs from the USA Radio Network. The station dropped the Country music portion of its format in favor of Oldies on Labor Day 1995, and was rebranded as AM-16 The Mint. The Evans' sold the station back to Ditmer in August 1996. Shortly thereafter, Ditmer resold the station to Larry Harp, Helen Harp, Wayne Hill and Elmira Hill, and it became Joy 1580 playing urban Christian music. The station still uses the original studios at the transmitter on Parks Road, just south of St. Johns.
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