WWDB (860 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 ...

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 ...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, with its studios and offices in the "555 Building" on City Avenue in

Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania Bala Cynwyd ( ) is a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. It is located on the Philadelphia Main Line in Southeastern Pennsylvania, bordering the western edge of Philadelphia at U.S. Route 1 (City Avenue). It was originally two sep ...

. It is owned by the

Beasley Broadcast Group Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc., based in Naples, Florida, is an owner/operator of radio stations in the United States. , the company owned 63 stations under the Beasley Media Group name. History The company was founded in 1961 by George G. Bea ...

and broadcasts mostly paid

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 ...

. Shows on health, money, gardening, home repair, real estate, religion and politics are found on the schedule. Some programs are broadcast in Hungarian,

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

, Italian and other languages. Hosts pay for their time on the air and may advertise their services or products during their programs. WWDB is 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-co ...

radio station. Because

AM 860 AM or Am may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * A minor, a minor scale in music * ''A.M.'' (Chris Young album) * ''A.M.'' (Wilco album) * ''AM'' (Abraham Mateo album) * ''AM'' (Arctic Monkeys album) * AM (musician) AM is an Am ...

is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A CJBC

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, WWDB must go off the air at sunset to avoid interference. It is powered at 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 ...

s, using a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performance ...

. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

is off Foundry Road in East Norriton Township. WWDB's tower site is also used by 950 WKDN for its nighttime operations.

History

On December 6, 1926, the station

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

as WFKD. It became WTEL in 1930. It began operating on the 860 frequency in the late 1950s. Before that, it had shared time on AM 1340 with

WHAT What or WHAT may refer to: * What, an interrogative pronoun and adverb * "What?", one of the Five Ws used in journalism Film and television * ''What!'' (film) or ''The Whip and the Body'', a 1963 Italian film directed by Mario Bava * '' Wha ...

. Through most of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, WTEL was best known as a

Foreign language A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at school ...

broadcaster, with programs in several languages. (The WTEL

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 ...

is now used on AM 610.) In October 1998, the call letters changed to WWDB.Call Sign History

FCC 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 jurisdictio ...

The station began airing a

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

format as a complement to sister station to

WWDB-FM WTDY-FM (96.5 Hertz, MHz) is a commercial radio station in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc. and broadcasts a contemporary hit radio, Top 40/CHR format. WTDY's studios are co-located with located with ...

. Some of the FM station's older personalities were moved to the AM station in an attempt to increase the FM's appeal in younger demographics without alienating older listeners. The strategy was not successful, and by February 2000, the WTEL call sign had returned, and the station switched to

urban gospel Urban/contemporary gospel is a modern subgenre of gospel music. Although the style developed gradually, early forms are generally dated to the 1970s, and the genre was well established by the end of the 1980s. The radio format is pitched prim ...

music. The gospel format lasted only until November 2000, when the call letters were changed back to WWDB and switched business talk. Business talk, sometimes augmented with general-interest talk from syndicated personalities such as

Don Imus John Donald Imus Jr. (July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019), also known mononymously as Imus, was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. His radio show, '' Imus in the Morning'', was aired on various sta ...

and

Mancow Muller Matthew Erich "Mancow" Muller (born June 21, 1966) is an American radio and television personality, actor, and former child model. Considered a shock jock, his career has been well known for controversy and clashes with the Federal Communicati ...

, was the station's format until the end of the broadcast day on August 1, 2010.

ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ''ESPN Sports'') is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications ...

Radio took over the schedule on the next day. The Spanish-language sports programming was dropped after a year, and on June 13, 2011, WWDB began carrying a schedule of

, some previously heard on

AM 1540 The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1540 kHz: 1540 AM is a United States clear-channel frequency. KXEL Waterloo, Iowa, and ZNS-1 Nassau, Bahamas, share Class A status on 1540 AM. Argentina * LU 28 in General Madariaga, B ...

WNWR WNWR (1540 AM) is a commercial radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania owned by Aztec Capital Partners. Its studio is located at 200 Monument Road, Suite 6, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania and its transmitter is located in the Roxborough neighbor ...

. The WWDB call letters, which stand for the names of former owners "William and Dolly Banks", were first used in Philadelphia at 96.5 on the FM band in the late 1960s. The station had previously been WHAT-FM. It operated with a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

format that did not change when the call letters did. In the early 1970s, WWDB-FM tried an

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

format during some hours, then reverted to jazz full-time, then adopted a talk format in 1975. The talk format was one of the first successful ones on the FM band in the United States, lasting until November 2000. Until WWDB-FM's debut, almost all American talk stations were found on AM radio.

References

External links

FCC History Cards for WWDB
* {{Daytime-only radio stations in Pennsylvania WDB WDB News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1926 1926 establishments in Pennsylvania WDB WDB