WENJ

This is the article about former NJ 101.5 in Atlantic City. For the NJ 101.5 in Trenton, please refer to WKXW.

WXKW

Millville, New Jersey
Broadcast area	Atlantic City, New Jersey
Frequency	97.3 MHz
Branding	New Jersey 101.5
Programming
Format	Talk/Oldies/News
Ownership
Owner	Millennium Atlantic City II License Holdco, LLC
Sister stations	WKXW-FM
Technical information
Facility ID	72981
Class	B
ERP	50,000 watts
HAAT	142 meters
Transmitter coordinates	39°19′15″N 74°46′17″W
Links
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	nj1015.com

WXKW (97.3 FM) was a radio station that simulcasteds New Jersey 101.5 near Atlantic City, New Jersey until June 1st, 2009. Its transmitter is located in Corbin City, New Jersey.

History of the WXKW call letters

WXKW was a radio station in upstate New York, and later in eastern Pennsylvania. The station was originally licensed to Albany to operate on 850 kHz with 10,000 watts of power. The XK in the call sign stands for Ten Thousand. The station signed on in 1947 under a Program Test Authority from the FCC, operating at the same power day & night. The transmitter, using a 6 tower array, was located in the Town of Bethlehem, about 10 miles south of the city of Albany.

Troubled from the beginning

Ever since the station's sign-on, another radio station in the area (WGY) was uncomfortable that a powerful radio station be allowed to operate so close to them on the dial. However, WGY owner General Electric had no legal basis for this argument, and therefore enrolled radio station KOA in Denver (which GE then owned) to protest WXKW's use of the channel. KOA is the dominant clear channel station on 850, and had a better footing in which to object, alleging that WXKW was interfering with KOA's protected nighttime skywave service area. It was under this light that WXKW never actually received a formal license to operate. The station was subject to having to go off the air for brief times at scheduled intervals during the course of the day for signal measurement, thus repeatedly interrupting their broadcast day.

How TV killed the radio star

WXKW had landed the ABC Radio affiliation early on, which was important in that era of broadcasting. However, because television broadcasting was now on the horizon, things were about to change. AM radio station typically started and owned companion television stations in the early days of TV, and the Albany market would be no exception. General Electric, which already owned WGY AM and an experimental FM radio station in the region, had been broadcasting television programming since 1928. WRGB would come to be regarded as the first TV station in the USA, and because of GE ownership, already had a lock on NBC affiliation.

Another local station, WTRY, was the local CBS affiliate and it was planned that their future TV station would be the CBS TV affiliate.

Yet another radio station, WROW, was the Mutual radio network affiliate and also wanted to put a TV station on the air. Mutual didn't offer a TV network, WXKW already had ABC, and the remaining Dumont TV network wasn't performing very well and was a much less attractive alternative for programming. At that time (much as it is today), it was considered essential that a TV station have a network affiliation in order to survive. A deal was struck between the owners of WROW and WXKW owner Stephen Rintoul. WROW would pay $50,000 to have WXKW go off the air permanently, so it could clinch the ABC affiliation for both the radio and TV stations. And so in September 1952, WXKW left the air for good.

WXKW call letters return, but not for long

The mighty WXKW calls were once again issued to an Albany radio station in 1961. This time for a 500 watt daytime only station operating at 1600 kHz in Watervliet, New York, 6 miles north of Albany. This station went through a number of format changes in its short history, to include Easy-Listening, Middle-of-the-road hits, R&B and soul music, Old Time Radio, Ethnic, Religious, and even some country music. The studios were located in the Hendrick Hudson Hotel in downtown Troy, New York, while the transmitter tower was located off 19th Street in Watervliet. That station had a very difficult time becoming financially stable, and late in its history it's said that employee paychecks frequently bounced. In 1966, during a period when the owner owned several months of back rent, the landlord cut off the electricity to the station's studio. Later that evening, a fire completely destroyed the facility. The disc jockey's attempted to keep the station on the air by playing records at the transmitter site. However, the owner decided that it time to give up on the venture, and ordered the station off the air. The Chief Engineer proceeded to transmitter site, turned off the station, and smashed the main transmitter tube. That ended the second chapter of WXKW radio. Just a couple of small corrections and additions here. It was not the owner who decided to take the station off the air. It was the staff (program director, chief engineer, secretary and unpaid intern, me). The general manager called around 7:30 and said he would be there to pay with cash. The program director told him that if he came with checks that would be the end. He was so sure he would come with checks that the decision was made to end it when the general manager arrived with checks. I did the last show on the station starting at 8 a.m. playing music commercial free with just cut ins on the hour and half hour to announce, "WXKW, Troy, NY broadcasting from our transmitter site in Watervliet, NY". Shortly before 11 a.m., the general manager arrived with checks and the program director went on the air at 10:55 and said, "Due to circumstances beyond our control, WXKW will cease operations at this time." He played Auld Lang Syne, then the National Anthem and the Chief Enginneer smashed the main transmitter tube.

WXKW calls move to eastern PA

From the 1970s to the spring of 1985, WXKW was an FM station on 104.1 MHz located in the Allentown, Pennsylvania area, in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, United States. From 1980 to 1985 the station had a country music format. In the spring of 1985 the entire station (format, equipment, library, personnel, and all) was transferred to the AM band. The station was acquired by Holt Broadcasting in 1992; the country music format remained in place. In 1996, Holt Broadcasting sold 1470 WXKW (and FM 95.1 WZZO) to Capstar, who changed the AM station's call letters to WKAP and changed the format to oldies.

Today's WXKW

WXKW was asimulcast station in southern New Jersey for New Jersey 101.5 until June 1st, 2009. It was at 97.3 FM in southern New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania and Delaware.

External links

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