WNSW

WNSW

City of license	Newark, New Jersey
Branding	Radio Cantico Nuevo
Slogan	"La que si Suena"
Frequency	1430 kHz
Format	Religious
Language	Spanish
Power	10,000 watts (day) 7,000 watts (night)
Class	B
Facility ID	73322
Transmitter coordinates	40°50′59″N 74°10′59″W
Former callsigns	WNJR (?-1999)
Owner	Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Licensee, LLC
Website	radiocanticonuevo.com

WNSW (1430 AM) is a radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, serving Northeastern New Jersey and parts of New York City. The station, formerly known by the call letters WNJR, runs an ethnic and brokered format. It is owned by Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, Inc..

Early years

The station signed on in 1947. Initially the station was diversified running Jazz blocks, R & B music, talk shows, and Latin music. The Newark Evening News owned WNJR until 1953, when Rollins Broadcasting bought the station. As Newark's population became increasingly African-American in the 1960s, WNJR evolved into an R&B Music format full time. Some of the jocks included Hal Wade, Danny Stiles, Bobby Jay, Hal Jackson, and others. In 1967, Rollins Broadcasting, after a dispute with its airstaff, restructured into Continental Broadcasting.

City of Newark/urban era

In 1968 The FCC refused to renew Continental Broadcasting's license but pending an appeal they still continued to run WNJR which was profitable. The Soul format continued as well. In July 1971 Continental Broadcasting's license was officially revoked and the station was forced off the air on the 21st. The FCC though allowed the city of Newark to run the station and it signed back on a week later.

Financial problems

WNJR continued with an Urban Contemporary format and became the flagship station of Unity Broadcasting's National Black Network (Now Sheridan Broadcasting's American Urban Radio Networks) in 1973. WNJR subsequently evolved into more of an Urban AC format by 1978. Also, the station played Gospel music and sermons on Sunday mornings and evenings. In 1982, Sound Radio received the WNJR license. The format stayed much the same. Initially the station was profitable but by 1988, it began to lose money as its core audience switched to New York City's two FM Urban powerhouses, WBLS and WRKS (98.7 Kiss FM). In 1989, Sound Radio filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.

Brokered days

In 1991 American Radio Associates bought the station and attempted to keep the Urban AC format. But they too had financial problems and sold the station to Douglas Broadcasting in 1992. At that point the station dropped its Urban AC format in favor of Gospel music mornings and late afternoons, ethnic brokered shows mid-days and nights, and Gospel music and teaching on Sundays.

In 1995 Multicultural Media bought 1430 WNJR and shifted the station to include more Asian shows. They kept some Gospel music programming on Sundays. The station was then profitable.^{[citation needed]}

Sunny 1430 era

After Christmas in 1998 1560 WQEW which had a Standards format for 6 years was shut down and Radio Disney moved to that dial position. In March 1999 Multicultural decided to fill the hole and put a Standards format on 1430. The call letters became WNSW on June 8, 1999. The station became known as "Sunny 1430". They originally planned to switch to this format full time except for Sunday mornings, but initially would run this format from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to Midnight Saturdays and not at all on Sundays. The rest of the time they ran ethnic programming that was brokered. On Sundays they played Gospel Music and preaching.

During the week though they played a Standards format with artists like Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Petula Clark, Tony Bennett, Tommy Dorsey, Peggy Lee, Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole, Pat Boone, The Carpenters, Jack Jones, Tom Jones, the Andrews Sisters, Bobby Darin, James Taylor, the Four Aces, Johnny Mathis, Artie Shaw, Righteous Brothers, etc. The format was similar to 1560 WQEW's old format. They mixed in baby boomer pop in moderation. Still they focused on the standards. Some of the airpeople included Johnny Knox (who was program director and operations manager the first year of operation), John Von Soosten, Chuck Leonard, Danny Stiles, Julius LaRosa, among others.

Standards demise

It was decided that once advertising grew enough to support Standards that they would drop the weekend brokered shows that were still the main source of revenue for WNSW. This never happened. The station was unable to sell even a moderate amount of commercial time but held on to the format during daytime in the week and Saturdays. Brokered shows were the only source of substantial income for WNSW but it was not enough to keep the station profitable after a while. In 2000 the station moved toward a Big Band lean and dropped the Neil Diamond and Elvis cuts.

Finally on February 28, 2001 WNSW would drop the format altogether with the playing of Frank Sinatra's "Softly As I Leave You." The format would, however, continue with a few evening hours with Danny Stiles. The rest of the day would revert to brokered programming full time again.

Voice of Russia

In January 2011, WNSW converted to a 24 hour simulcast of the English language service of the Voice of Russia.

Power increase proposed

In early 2007, WNSW applied to move their transmitter from Union Township, Union County, New Jersey to Clifton, New Jersey. The station also has applied for a power increase of 5,000 watts day/night to 10,000 watts day and 7,000 watts night which would allow their signal to be heard throughout New York City.

In Summer of 2008, the Union Township towers were dismantled. WNSW now transmits from the four towers of co-owned WPAT in Clifton.

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for WNSW
• Radio-Locator Information on WNSW
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WNSW