WNLR (1150 AM) 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 radio ...

licensed to

Churchville, Virginia Churchville is a census-designated place (CDP) in the western part of Augusta County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 Census was 194.

, United States, broadcasting a

Christian talk and teaching 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 programm ...

format to Staunton and

Augusta County Augusta County is a county in the Shenandoah Valley on the western edge of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The second-largest county of Virginia by total area, it completely surrounds the independent cities of Staunton and Waynesboro. Its county ...

. WNLR is owned and operated by New Life Ministries, Inc.

History

On September 26, 1959, a partnership of four men known as the Deerfield Broadcasting Company applied with 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 ...

(FCC) for permission to build a new radio station at

Deerfield, Virginia Deerfield is a census-designated place (CDP) in Augusta County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 Census was 132. It has a very low population density, as it is a small unincorporated rural area. The Deerfield mall is the mai ...

, to broadcast with 1,000 watts during daytime hours only. A construction permit was approved on September 13, 1961, and after an investment estimated at $20,000, WABH began broadcasting on March 3, 1962. To accommodate the new station, telephone service in the town had to be upgraded with new wiring. One of the four founding owners, Ralph O. Hamilton, gradually bought out the other partners in WABH by 1969; Vincent D. O'Connell and Robert Lee Dean acquired WABH in 1973. The station moved to Churchville in 1976. In 1981, Blue Ridge Broadcasting acquired WABH from O'Connell and Dean. On June 1, the station became WNLR "New Life Radio", the first Christian radio station in the area, operated on a noncommercial basis. Blue Ridge was locally owned by Alan Carter of Staunton and Jack Ferguson of Waynesboro; Carter subsidized the station's operations for more than a decade using the profits from a voice messaging system he ran, but when a balloon payment to the former owners came due in 1992, Carter opted to sell the station to a nonprofit in order to raise the funds necessary to make the payment. He set up New Life Ministries, Inc., which began seeking donations to buy WNLR from Blue Ridge Broadcasting for $200,000. The purchase price represented a discount from Carter's investment over the preceding decade. This acquisition was completed on January 1, 1994. In 2010, as a fundraiser, New Life Ministries built a house near Waynesboro in order to sell it and raise an estimated $20,000 to $30,000 for station operations; the ministry received loans to finance the purchase of land and construction costs, while a local construction company pledged at-cost services.

References

External links

{{Harrisonburg Radio Contemporary Christian radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1962 NLR 1962 establishments in Virginia Augusta County, Virginia