WNIV (970 AM) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

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

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. It is one of three

Salem Media Group Salem Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SALM; formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher formerly based in Camarillo, California (moved most operations to Ir ...

-owned stations in the

Atlanta metropolitan area Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ...

carrying a Christian talk and teaching

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

AM 590 The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 590 kHz: 590 AM is a Regional broadcast frequency. Argentina * LRA30 in Bariloche, Río Negro. * LS4 in Buenos Aires. * LV12 in San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán. Brazil * ZYH-44 ...

WDWD WDWD (590 AM; "Faith Talk 590") is a Christian talk station serving the metro Atlanta market. It airs "The Eric Metaxas Show", "Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson", "Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah" and "The Narrow Path" hosted by Steve Gr ...

carries a different schedule of national and local religious leaders, while

AM 1400 The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1400 kHz. 1400 kHz is defined as a Class C (local) frequency in the coterminous United States and such stations on this frequency are limited to 1,000 watts. U.S. stations outside t ...

WLTA WLTA (1400 AM) is a commercial Christian radio station licensed to Alpharetta, Georgia, and serving the Atlanta metropolitan area. It is owned by Salem Communications along with its sister station AM 970 WNIV in Atlanta. WLTA is a full-time si ...

Alpharetta, Georgia Alpharetta is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia, United States, and is a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 US Census, Alpharetta's population was 65,818 The population in 2010 was 57,551. History In the 1830s, the Ch ...

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

s WNIV's programming for Atlanta's northern suburbs. WNIV broadcasts with 5,000

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 ...

s of power during daytime hours. But to protect other stations on

AM 970 The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 970 kHz: 970 AM is a regional broadcast frequency. In Argentina * LRA43 Neuquén, Neuquén * LT25 in Curuzú Cuatiá, Corrientes In Mexico * XECJ-AM in Apatzingán, Michoacán * X ...

, it drops to 39 watts during nighttime hours. WNIV uses a

non-directional antenna In radio communication, an omnidirectional antenna is a class of antenna (electronics), antenna which radiates equal radio power in all directions perpendicular to an axis (mathematics), axis (azimuthal directions), with power varying with angle ...

day and night. WNIV's single transmitting tower is shared by WAFS (previously under common ownership) using an antenna diplexing system. 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 ...

considers WNIV to be a Class D AM facility.

Programming

WNIV and WLTA air national and local religious leaders, including

David Jeremiah David Jeremiah is an American evangelical Christian author, founder of Turning Point Radio and Television Ministries and senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch in El Cajon, California, a suburb of San ...

, Jim Daly, Alistair Begg, Charles Stanley and

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 ...

. Many of the same shows are also heard on co-owned FaithTalk 590 WDWD, but at different times. Salem sells blocks of

brokered programming Brokered programming (also known as time-buy and blocktime) is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot comm ...

time to hosts, who in turn, may appeal for donations to the radio ministries. SRN News begins some hours of the day.

History

The radio station, which is the current WNIV, has had a long history in the Atlanta

radio market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

. The station first signed on in Decatur in 1949 with the original

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 ...

WGLS. It was owned by the DeKalb Broadcasting Company and a 1,000-

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 ...

, required to go off the air at night. It later picked up the call sign WTAM when the

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

station that had used those call letters changed to KYW. In the 1960s, it changed to WIIN.Jeffrey Leachman - Atlanta, Georgia AM Radio Directory
/ref>Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Home Page
/ref> In 1968, WIIN flipped to a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

format. During the early 1970s WIIN changed format to

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

under new local owner Blake Hawkins. WIIN was, for a while, Atlanta's only progressive rock station and quickly became known for introducing new rock music to the Atlanta market. Under Program Directors John Parker and Brent Alberts, WIIN featured morning talent Skinny Bobby Harper who was consistently in the top 5 in Atlanta morning ratings.The Brent Alberts US Tour 1968-??
/ref> WIIN became an adult standards/

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

station in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, the station changed its call letters to WKLS and format to

album rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. Album-orient ...

, as a simulcast of 96.1 WKLS-FM (now

WWPW WWPW (96.1 FM) – branded as Power 96-1 – is a commercial contemporary hit radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station serves the Atlanta metropolitan area and is the Atlanta affiliate for ''American Top 40 ...

). The simulcast lasted until 1988 when the station was sold. The new owner, Salem Communications, changed the call letters to the current WNIV. The station adopted Christian talk and teaching programming. Former Georgia Congressman

Pat Swindall Patrick Lynn Swindall (October 18, 1950 – July 11, 2018) was an American politician, attorney, and businessman who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Repre ...

hosted a daily talk show on WNIV for several years, after serving a federal prison sentence.

References

External links

*
FCC History Cards for WNIV
{{Salem Communications Talk radio stations in the United States

NIV Niv may refer to: * Niv, a personal name; for people with the name, see * Niv Art Movies, a film production company of India * Niv Art Centre, in New Delhi, India NIV may refer to: * The New International Version, a translation of the Bible into ...

Moody Radio affiliate stations Radio stations established in 1967 Salem Media Group properties