Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.WPAT. In mid-1948 the ''Passaic Herald-News'' purchased a 90 percent interest in WPAT and the not-yet built WNNJ. This sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission in December 1948.
At this time the ''Herald-News'' already owned a Paterson FM station,
WWDX
WWDX (1530 AM, "Sport 1530") is a daytime-only radio station broadcasting a sports format. Licensed to Huntingdon, Tennessee, United States, the station is currently owned by Jim W Freeland and features programming from SportsMap
SportsMap is ...
on 107.1 MHz, and contemporary FCC regulations did not permit licensees to operate more than one FM station in a given community. WWDX was only authorized to transmit with 190 watts, while WNNJ was authorized for 8,000 watts. The decision was made to shut down WWDX, which made its final broadcast on January 9, 1949, with station management reporting that the "outstanding program features f WWDXwill be incorporated into the schedule of WNNJ". WWDX was formally deleted on January 18, 1949, "in fulfillment of condition to grant of purchase by Daily News of WPAT (AM) and WNNJ (FM) Paterson".
WNNJ made its formal debut broadcast on February 1, 1949. A few months later, the station's call letters were changed to WPAT-FM.
In late November 1950 WPAT-FM's transmitter tower on Garret Mountain was blown down during the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950. The station was subsequently deleted on March 8, 1951, with a contemporary report giving the reason as "Tower destroyed by storm; too expensive to replace.""FCC Roundup: Deletions" ''Broadcasting'', March 26, 1951, page 85. In 1957 a new
WPAT-FM
WPAT-FM (93.1 FM) – branded "93.1 Amor" – is a radio station that programs a Spanish CHR radio format. Licensed to Paterson, New Jersey, the station is owned by the Spanish Broadcasting System and serves the New York metropolitan area. I ...
debuted, operating on 93.1 MHz. In 1958, the original WPAT-FM's vacated frequency of 103.5 MHz was assigned to a new station, WGLI-FM (now
WKTU
WKTU (103.5 FM) is a rhythmic adult contemporary formatted radio station licensed to Lake Success, New York, a suburb of New York City. WKTU is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former AT&T Building in the Tribeca neighbo ...