WLKW (95.3 FM) is 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 radi ...

broadcasting a

Christian adult contemporary 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 tha ...

music format. Licensed to

Celoron, New York Celoron ( ) is a village in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. It is part of the town of Ellicott and sits on the west boundary of the city of Jamestown. The population of Celoron was 1,082 at the 2020 census. History Celoron Park ...

, United States, the station serves the Jamestown, New York area. The station is owned by Educational Media Foundation (EMF), and carries EMF's K-Love format.

Programming

WLKW carries no local programming and, with rare exceptions, has never done so.

History

As a commercial station

WLKW signed on in 2011, initially with an "-FM" suffix attached to its call sign, as an AM station in Rhode Island also held the call sign at the time. Until March 14, 2016, News Talk 95.3 The Lake aired Fox News Radio reports at the top of each hour and local news reports at the bottom of each hour. Its daytime programming came from the

Premiere Networks Premiere Networks (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a wholly owned subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. ...

talk network (''

Glenn Beck Program ''Glenn'' (previously titled ''The Glenn Beck Program'') is a news talk and political opinion show on TheBlaze hosted by Glenn Beck. It is produced and recorded at TheBlaze studios in Dallas, TX. The show originally ran on CNN Headline News fr ...

'', ''

The Rush Limbaugh Show ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'' is an American conservative talk radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh. Since its nationally syndicated premiere in 1988, ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'' became the highest-rated talk radio show in the United States. At its ...

'', ''

The Sean Hannity Show ''The Sean Hannity Show'' is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Sean Hannity. The program is broadcast live every weekday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. The show is produced in the New York City studios of radio station WOR and is sometimes ...

''), with secondary programming sources including

Talk Radio Network Talk Radio Network (TRN) was an independent radio producer and syndicator of news and talk radio programming headquartered in Central Point, Oregon. TRN consists of a number of associated companies, which have launched or re-built some of the U ...

(''

The Savage Nation ''The Savage Nation'' (also called ''The Michael Savage Show'') was an American conservative talk radio show hosted by Michael Savage. The program was heard by approximately 11 million listeners a week, which made it the 7th most listened to radi ...

'' on weeknights and select weekend programming), Cox Radio/

Dial Global Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The company ...

(tape-delay airings of

Neal Boortz Neal A Boortz Jr. (born April 6, 1945) is an American author, former attorney, and former conservative radio host. His nationally syndicated talk show, ''The Neal Boortz Show'', which ended in 2013, was carried throughout the United States. The ...

and

Clark Howard Clark Brian Howard (born June 20, 1955) is a popular consumer expert and podcast host of ''The Clark Howard Show''. Life and career Howard grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. His parents, Bernard and Joy Garson Howard, were prominent members of Atl ...

), and Cumulus Media Networks (overnight programs

John Batchelor John Calvin Batchelor (born April 29, 1948) is an American author and host of ''Eye on the World'' on the CBS Audio Network. His flagship station is New York's 710 WOR. The show is a hard-news-analysis radio program on current events, world his ...

and ''

Red Eye Radio ''Red Eye Radio'' is a talk radio program currently hosted by Eric Harley and Gary McNamara. The program is syndicated nationwide by Westwood One, and originates from WBAP in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The show traces its history throug ...

''). The station's owner at its launch was Cross Country Communications, a company majority owned by the Rowbotham family of Rhode Island. On March 14, 2016, WLKW began airing programming from CBS Sports Radio. Beck and Hannity (but not Limbaugh, despite all three sharing the same distributor) were carried over from the previous lineup and continued to air on the station.

Sale to Educational Media Foundation

In August 2018, Cross Country announced plans to exit the Jamestown radio market. Under the terms of the sale, Media One Group, the owners of all other commercial radio stations in Jamestown, would purchase sister station WKZA. To comply with ownership caps, WLKW-FM would instead be spun off to Educational Media Foundation, which would introduce its K-Love contemporary Christian music format to the region, entering a crowded Christian music field against locally originated competitors such as

Family Life Network The Family Life Network is a Christian radio network simulcasting via FM stations across Western and Central New York, as well as northern Pennsylvania from flagship station WCIK. It is owned and operated by the larger Family Life Ministries o ...

and Dove FM.Fybush, Scott (August 20, 2018)
NERW 8/20/18: Media One Grows in Jamestown
''NorthEast Radio Watch''. Retrieved August 20, 2018. The sale to EMF closed on October 31, 2018, at which time the -FM suffix was dropped.

References

External links

Jamestown, New York LKW Radio stations established in 2012 2012 establishments in New York (state) Contemporary Christian radio stations in the United States Educational Media Foundation radio stations K-Love radio stations LKW {{NewYork-radio-station-stub