WBIN (1540 AM) was a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed to

Benton, Tennessee Benton is a town in Polk County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,532 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Polk County. Benton is included in the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area. Nancy Ward, a Cherokee known as ''Nan ...

, United States. The station was last owned by George C. Hudson, III. The station went silent on September 19, 2019; its license was surrendered to the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

on September 8, 2020, and cancelled on September 15, 2020 as WWRO, although this call sign was never used on the air.

History

The station signed on May 18, 1977, as WBIN, a 250-watt

daytimer A clear-channel station is an AM radio station in North America that has the highest protection from interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. The system exists to ensure the viability of cross-coun ...

owned by Stonewood Communications Corporation. It increased its power to 1,000 watts in 1979. By 1989, the station was programming southern traditional gospel. A $197,000 sale of WBIN and the

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

for WBIN-FM (93.1) to Family Communications was announced in 1995; for a period, WBIN shifted to a general

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

format, but returned to southern gospel in December 1996. Stonewood sold WBIN and WBIN-FM to BP Broadcasters for $265,000 in 1998. Upon taking over under a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...

that April, BP began simulcasting WBIN's southern gospel programming on WBIN-FM, replacing a

contemporary Christian Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

format; the simulcast ended in July, when the FM station became

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

station WOCE. BP Broadcasters sold WBIN to John and Jane Sines for $79,000 in 1999. The Sines programmed WBIN as a religious station; by 2003, the station was affiliated with the

Three Angels Broadcasting Network The Three Angels Broadcasting Network, or 3ABN, is a Christian media television and radio network which broadcasts Seventh-day Adventist religious and health-oriented programming, based in West Frankfort, Illinois, United States. Although it is ...

. The Sines donated WBIN to Pioneer Health and Missions in 2019. On September 19, 2019, WBIN went silent following the loss of its transmitter site; in applying for silent authority, Pioneer disclosed that it was in the process of selling the station. WBIN was acquired by George C. Hudson, III, effective June 2, 2020 for $2,500. The call sign was changed to WWRO on July 6, 2020, to allow the WBIN call letters to be transferred to a station in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. The Benton station never returned to the air as WWRO.

References

External links

FCC Station Search Details: DWWRO
(Facility ID: 63492)
FCC History Cards for WWRO
(covering 1975-1979 as WBIN) BIN Three Angels Broadcasting Network radio stations Radio stations established in 1977 1977 establishments in Tennessee Defunct radio stations in the United States Defunct religious radio stations in the United States BIN 2020 disestablishments in Tennessee Radio stations disestablished in 2020 {{Tennessee-radio-station-stub