WEIC

WRJM

Charleston, Illinois
Broadcast area	Charleston / Mattoon
Frequency	1270 AM (KHz)
Branding	Your NEW source for local news and agriculture information! When you need to know, DEPEND on us!
Programming
Format	newstalk as of October 19, 2011
Ownership
Owner	Kaskaskia Broadcasting, Inc.
Technical information
Class	B
Power	1,000 watts day 500 watts night
Links
Website	http://www.WRJMdailynews.com

WRJM 1270 AM is a radio station licensed to Charleston, Illinois, USA. The station signed on for the first time December 12, 1954 as WEIC, built by Charleston resident Jack Owens, who took a disability settlement from an injury suffered while working for the railroad, and used it to build the radio station. The station signed on with 1,000 watts of power on 1270 khz operating during daytime hours only, from studios, transmitter and towers located at the same place they are today--2560 West State Street, on what was formerly Illinois Route 16, now Illinois Route 316, on Charleston's northwest side.

Owens' family was involved in the operation of the station as well. Owens owned the station thru the 1960's, and they also began the work to file an application with the Federal Communications Commission to add nighttime service with 500 watts and 3 additional towers.

WEIC-FM 92.1 signed on the air in 1968, providing the first FM radio station in Charleston.

In 1972, under the ownership of John Hurlbut and Rusty Russell who was also the general manager at the time, WEIC finally received authority to transmit on 1270 full-time. By that time, the station had established a "Top 40" music format, similar to the format heard at the time on WLS and WCFL in Chicago. The station was extremely popular with the students at Eastern Illinois University, also located in Charleston.

WEIC-AM was purchased by Jim Withers in 1979, Steve Garman in 1984, and Gary Lee in 1996. WEIC-FM was sold to the Cromwell Group, Inc., which owns stations in Mattoon and Effingham, Illinois, in 1993.

Under Lee's ownership, WEIC-AM went from a variety of formats, to a southern gospel music format, which was heard on 1270 until October 7, 2011. Lee died in 2003, and his son Brad inherited the station and operated it until he sold the station to the Miller Media Group's Kaskaskia Broadcasting, Inc. of Taylorville, Illinois, on October 7, 2011. Miller immediately took the station off the air to re-tool and re-program for its new newstalk and agriculture format which premiered October 19, 2011.

Miller changed the call letters of the station to WRJM at the FCC on January 4, 2012; the call letters officially were changed on the air on February 1, 2012.

The new newstalk format features a live and local morning show with expanded local newscasts, 2 local interview shows, and a daily Swap Shop. Hourly local news updates will air 24/7 at 30 minutes past each hour. The new WRJM features nearly 6 hours a day of agriculture programming, including programming from the RFD Radio Network, AgriTalk Radio Network, and WILL-AM 580.

The new WRJM has 6-minute hourly newscasts from the CBS Radio Network, along with syndicated talk from the Westwood One Radio Network featuring Dennis Miller weekdays 3-6pm, Phil Valentine weekdays 6-9pm, and Jim Bohannon weekdays 9pm to 6am.

Saturday’s programming line-up on the new WRJM includes a Saturday Farm Show from 8am to 9:30am, and a weekly "Coaches Corner" show interviewing local high school coaches, from 9:30am to 11:00am. An oldies request show is heard from 11:00am to 1pm on Saturdays.

Sunday’s programming line-up on the new WRJM includes the long-running Gospel Sing Time with Brad Lee from 7 to 11am.

WRJM programming is also heard 24/7 on a new FM repeater covering Coles County and surrounding area at 107.5 FM, which went on the air December 5, 2011. WRJM local programming is also streamed on-line on its new web site, WRJMdailynews.com.

WRJM as WEIC, celebrated its 57th anniversary on the air with a 5-hour interview show on Saturday, December 10, 2011; interviews from the show are archived at WRJMdailynews.com.

External links

• WRJM's website
• Facility details for Facility ID WRJM ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's AM station database