WINW (1520 kHz) 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 radi ...

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 ...

to Canton, Ohio. The station is known as "Joy 1520," and features an

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 ...

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 was compelle ...

. WINW is

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 ...

station, transmitting with 1,000

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 with a four-

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

; but because

AM 1520 The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1520 kHz: 1520 AM is a United States clear-channel frequency. WWKB in Buffalo, New York, and KOKC in Oklahoma City share Class A status on 1520 AM. Argentina * LRI721 in Chascomús, B ...

is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A

WWKB WWKB (1520 AM) is a commercial radio station in Buffalo, New York. It broadcasts a sports betting radio format and is owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. Most programming is from the co-owned BetQL Radio Network, with some shows from CBS Sports R ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

and KOKC

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

, WINW must sign-off at sunset to avoid interference. 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 in Martindale Park in Canton, near Martindale Road NE.

History

Top 40 Era

WINW established a solid reputation as 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 "cont ...

station in the 1960s and 1970s, using the slogan "WIN-Wonderful." Even as a daytime station with a highly directional 1,000-watt signal, it was successful in Canton for over a decade, sometimes approaching double digits in the ratings, despite its obvious signal limitations. WINW had shared its frequency with WJMP located in nearby

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, which made the Canton station difficult to hear in Northern Stark County. The station was originally built and run by Joseph Patterson "Patt" Wardlaw, Jr., who owned radio station

KIST Kist or KIST may refer to: Abbreviations * Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, a former university in Kigali, Rwanda, now part of the new University of Rwanda * K. International School in Tokyo, Japan *Konark Institute of Science and Tech ...

1340 in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...

, and who had previously owned and operated WLEU in

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 ...

. New AM Top 40 competition in the form of

WQIO WQIO is an FM radio station in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The station plays adult contemporary music as "The New Super Q 93.7". Currently. WQIO and its sister Good Times and Great Oldies WMVO are currently owned by BAS Broadcasting of Fremont, Ohio. H ...

(Q-10) (now WILB) in late 1976, as well as the increasing popularity of FM radio stations, eventually brought an end to the glory years of "WIN-Wonderful."

Adult Standards

WINW purchased FM station WHLQ (106.9) from

Susquehanna Radio Corporation The Susquehanna Radio Corporation was a media corporation which operated from 1941 to 2006 that was headquartered in York, Pennsylvania. The company was a unit of Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff, a conglomerate more widely known for the Pfaltzgraff ki ...

in 1978, changing its

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 assign ...

to WOOS-FM, and installed an automated Top 40 format there, while WINW changed to an Adult Standards format in 1981 and then went through a string of format and call letter changes for the next 15 years. WINW evolved into 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 ...

station by the mid-1980s, became an automated

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as ...

station in 1987, changed 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 ...

WRQK (AM) on February 14, 1989 when it was coupled with

WRQK-FM WRQK-FM (106.9 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Canton, Ohio, featuring a mainstream rock format known as "Rock 106.9". Owned by iHeartMedia, the station serves both the Canton and Akron metro areas and is the local affiliate ...

, changed back to WINW on August 16, 1989, then changed once again to WPGY on April 5, 1996 (by that time owned by Sabre Communications, which was "parking" the WPGY call letters for use on its new FM in Elmira, New York), and finally changed back to WINW on March 27, 1997.

Urban Gospel

The 1997 version of WINW was originally a

Contemporary Christian Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

station, but leased an increasing amount of its air time to preachers while playing Urban Gospel music. Eventually the station decided to go full time with urban gospel. After many years using studios near its transmitter site on Martindale Road, N.E., WINW moved into new studios at 237 West Tuscarawas Street in downtown Canton not long after the format change to Gospel. The "WIN-Wonderful" sign from the station's Top 40 heyday remained standing outside the Martindale studio building until the mid-1990s.

Transmitter Vandalism

On September 23, 2010, WINW's transmitter site was heavily vandalized - the victim of copper theft during the station's off-hours in the nighttime. Due to that and severed tower support cables, WINW was forced off the air for an extended period. Pinebrook Corp. also realized that a 2004 license renewal was dismissed and the station no longer had authority to operate. It returned to the air with a temporary wire antenna, but would eventually fall silent again on February 23, 2011. The FCC deleted WINW's license from the records on March 3, 2011. However, on September 15, 2011, the FCC granted special temporary authority (STA) for WINW to resume operations, following a request by Pinebrook Corp., which claimed that repairs to the station's facilities were completed.http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=28165 The station returned to the air in December 2011.

References

External links

WINW weekly music survey ("WIN-Wonderlist") from January 17, 1970

WINW weekly music survey ("WIN-Wonderlist") from February 20, 1971

Aircheck of WINW from May 1986
(also featuring an old WINW logo from the 1960s or 1970s) {{Daytime-only radio stations in Ohio INW Radio stations established in 1966 Culture of Canton, Ohio 1966 establishments in Ohio INW