WCRJ (88.1 FM, "The Joy FM 88.1") is a Christian radio station in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

. Owned by

Radio Training Network Radio Training Network, Inc. is an American non-profit broadcasting organization that operates several networks of Christian radio- formatted stations, mostly in the Southeast. The network's footprint includes stations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, ...

, it broadcasts a

Christian AC Christian adult contemporary, also known as Christian AC or CAC, is a radio format. In the United States, Christian adult contemporary radio stations cater to a mostly adult audience and are similar to mainstream adult contemporary stations in that ...

format as part of its ''The Joy FM'' network,

History

Prior to 1993, WCRJ was WNCM-FM. The station switched from

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

in 1995. 88.1 was originally owned by The River Educational Media; until 2011, it was home to ''The Promise'', which was first launched by Concord Media Group on 106.5 FM and was later purchased by Salem Communications. Salem then sold the signal to

Cox Radio CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company pri ...

in 2006 (in which they flipped that station to a simulcast of WOKV, now WXXJ), and The River agreed to take the Promise name and format, under a lease management agreement with The Promise Educational Media Inc. In 2011, The River sold WCRJ to the

Educational Media Foundation Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's largest ...

, which switched the station to its satellite-based K-Love network on May 1, 2011. On August 1, 2018, after being sold to

, WCRJ flipped from the EMF's

Air1 Air1 is an American Christian radio network. Owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), it primarily broadcasts contemporary worship music, and is a sister to the EMF's K-Love network. History In 1986, KLRD began broadcasting Christia ...

network to RTN's state-wide "The Joy FM" network.

References

External links

Joy FM Official Website
* CRJ Contemporary Christian radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1984 1984 establishments in Florida CRJ {{Christian-radio-station-stub