WFRF (1070 AM, "Radio Fe") is an American

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 A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to serve

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In ...

, United States. The station, established as

WANM WANM (90.5 FM) is an American radio station broadcasting a college radio (urban contemporary) format. Licensed to Tallahassee, Florida, the station serves the greater Tallahassee area. The radio station is owned by Florida A&M University Flo ...

in 1974, is currently owned and operated by Faith Radio Network, Inc. WFRF is licensed as a "

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 ...

", authorized to broadcast only from sunrise to sunset, to protect the signal of

clear-channel station A clear-channel station is an AM broadcasting, AM radio station in North America that has the highest protection from Interference (communication), interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. The syste ...

KNX in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and adjacent WAPI in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Programming

WFRF broadcasts a Spanish-language Christian format to the greater

, area. WFRF AM programming now consists of Christian music and teaching in Spanish. WFRF first began broadcasting as a religious station on October 6, 1997. When it broadcast in English, notable national programs on WFRF AM once included ''

Adventures in Odyssey ''Adventures in Odyssey'' (AIO), or simply ''Odyssey'', is an Evangelical Christian radio drama and comedy series created and produced by Focus on the Family. Aimed at families with children age 12 and younger, the series first aired in 1987 as ...

'', ''

Back to the Bible Back to the Bible is an international Christian ministry based in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. History Founded in 1939 by Theodore H. Epp on radio station KFOR (AM) in Lincoln, Nebraska, Back to the Bible expanded by supporting missionarie ...

'', ''Bible Reading'' with

Max McLean Max McLean (born April 14, 1953) is a Panamanian-born American stage actor, writer, and producer. He is the founder and artistic director of the Fellowship for Performing Arts, a New York City-based company that produces live theater and film f ...

, ''

Focus on the Family Focus on the Family (FOTF or FotF) is a fundamentalist Protestant organization founded in 1977 in Southern California by James Dobson, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The group is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations ...

'', ''Insight for Living'' with

Chuck Swindoll Charles Rozell Swindoll (born October 18, 1934) is an evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator, and radio preacher. He founded ''Insight for Living'', headquartered in Frisco, Texas, which airs a radio program of the same name on more t ...

, ''Joni and Friends'' with

Joni Eareckson Tada Joni Eareckson Tada (born October 15, 1949) is an evangelical Christian author, radio host, artist, and founder of Joni and Friends, an organization "accelerating Christian ministry in the disability community". Early life Joni Eareckson was b ...

, ''Let My People Think'' hosted by

Ravi Zacharias Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias (26 March 194619 May 2020) was an Indian-born Canadian-American Christian evangelical minister and apologist who founded Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). He was involved in Christian apologet ...

, ''

Love Worth Finding Love Worth Finding is an American radio and television ministry founded by Adrian Rogers, who was the president and CEO, as well as the chairman of the board of directors of it before his death. In 2003, it could be seen and heard worldwide on mo ...

'', plus ''My Money Life'' with Chuck Bentley.

History

This station was founded as "WANM" by B.F.J. Timm as a 10,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

broadcasting on a frequency of 1070

kilohertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one h ...

. Beginning regular broadcast operations on August 24, 1974, the station aired an

urban radio Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...

format for the

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

community in Tallahassee. The call sign reflected the fact that Tallahassee is home to

Florida A&M University Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the U ...

. The station's

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary ...

was held by WANM, Inc. Timm died on September 17, 1993, at the age of 70 and control of the station was passed to Bruce B. Timm and Jan B. Timm as the "co-personal representatives" of the estate of B.F.J. Timm. The FCC approved the transfer of control on November 16, 1993, and the transaction was formally consummated on December 23, 1993. Three years later, on December 20, 1996, they transferred control of WANM, Inc., to Beth L. Timm. During this period the station switched to a satellite-fed

all-news radio All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news stations can run the ...

format featuring

CNN Radio CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

. In August 1997, WANM, Inc., reached a deal with Faith Radio Network, Inc., to acquire the assets of WANM's AM station. The FCC approved the sale on September 14, 1997, and the transaction was formally consummated on September 30, 1997. On October 6, 1997, the station changed its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

to "WFRF" and began broadcasting a

religious radio Religious broadcasting, sometimes referred to as faith-based broadcasts, is the dissemination of television and/or radio content that intentionally has religious ideas, religious experience, or religious practice as its core focus. In some coun ...

format branded as "Faith Radio". Over the years, Faith Radio expanded, buying FM stations in 2004 ( WFRF-FM) and 2012 (

WFRU Fru or FRU may refer to: FRU * Federal Reserve Unit, of the Royal Malaysian Police * Field-replaceable unit * Fiji Rugby Union * Film Resource Unit, a South African film distributor * Fleet Radio Unit, of the United States Navy active during Wor ...

). As a result, the ministry considered selling the AM frequency, but it instead opted to convert it to a Spanish-language service, beginning June 13, 2016.

Outreach

Working with International Christian Ministries, Faith Radio raised money for a mission trip for its founders and more than a dozen WFRF listeners to help establish a

Christian radio Christian radio is a Christian media radio format that focus on programming with a Christian message. Many such broadcasters play contemporary Christian music, though many programs include sermons, radio dramas, as well as news and talk progra ...

station in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. Imani Radio (88.8 FM) launched in May 2005 as one of just four Christian radio stations in Kenya. ("Imani" means "faith" in the

Swahili language Swahili, also known by its local name , is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent litoral islands). It is a Bantu language, though Swahili ...

.) WFRF also raised funds to provide 2,500

solar-powered Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic ef ...

radios pre-tuned to Imani Radio for use in Kenyan villages, hospitals, and prisons. This last effort inspired to a new drive to provide solar-powered radios to prisoners in Florida's Big Bend region. Starting with a single prison and 250 radios which prisoners could check out, as they would a book from a library, by 2009 the program had grown to more than 1200 radios in 8 prisons across the region. These radios are tuned to receive only WFRF programming.

References

External links

FCC History Cards for WFRFWFRF official website
* * * * {{Daytime-only radio stations in Florida FRF (AM) FRF (AM) Radio stations established in 1974 Leon County, Florida 1974 establishments in Florida FRF