WURD (900 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 ...

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 ...

. It broadcasts 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 primarily targeted to

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, and is currently under the ownership of LEVAS Communications, LP. It is also heard via FM repeater W241CH on 96.1 MHz.

History

The station began operations around 1958 as WFLN, serving as a daytime-only AM simulcast of classical station WFLN-FM. In the early 1980s, the station was sold to veteran Philadelphia broadcaster Frank Ford, who changed the callsign to WDVT, and changed the format to talk. Weekday talk show hosts on WDVT included Peter Tilden,

Philadelphia Magazine ''Philadelphia'' (also called "''Philadelphia'' magazine" or referred to by the nickname "Phillymag", once called ''Greater Philadelphia'') is a regional monthly magazine published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by the Lipson family of Philadelphia ...

writer Carol Saline, former

Philadelphia Bulletin The ''Philadelphia Bulletin'' was a daily evening newspaper published from 1847 to 1982 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the largest circulation newspaper in Philadelphia for 76 years and was once the largest evening newspaper in the United ...

columnist D.I. Strunk and Ford himself. Weekend specialty shows on the station covered subjects ranging from pro wrestling to gay issues. WDVT made little impact in the ratings, and after a few years, Ford took the station off the air and returned its license to the owners of WFLN, who sold it to Willis Broadcasting, a Virginia-based religious broadcaster who changed the call letters to WURD. In 1996, Spanish broadcaster

Alfredo Alonso Alfredo Alonso is a retired Cuba-born media executive. He held senior management positions in Spanish-language media publishing, radio broadcasting, television production, corporate event management and restaurateur. He is known as an innovator of ...

bought the station for $1.5 million and turned it into a Spanish-language operation as

WEMG WEMG (1310 AM, "Mega 105.7") is a commercial AM radio station licensed to serve Camden, New Jersey. The station is owned by Mega-Philadelphia LLC and airs a Spanish Hits format. History The station was originally owned by the City of Camde ...

, "Mega 900." The station became the first property purchased by Alonso, who founded Mega Broadcasting that same year. Eventually, Mega moved the WEMG call sign to 1310 kHz, and sold 900 AM for $8.5 million in 2002. The new owner, Walter P. Lomax Jr., reinstituted the WURD call sign. After a period of apparent indecision during which the station aired various types of music and

CNN Headline News HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the network primarily carries true crime programming. The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982 by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News ...

, management settled on the current talk format.

External links

FCC History Cards for WURD
{{coord, 39, 55, 02, N, 75, 13, 18, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title News and talk radio stations in the United States URD Radio stations established in 1958 1958 establishments in Pennsylvania