WQQW (Illinois)

WQQW
Highland, Illinois; United States;
Broadcast area	Madison County; Bond County; Clinton County; St. Clair County; Greater St. Louis (limited)
Frequency	1510 kHz
Programming
Format	Defunct
Ownership
Owner	Entertainment Media Trust; (Entertainment Media Trust, Dennis J. Watkins, Trustee);
Operator	Insane Broadcasting Company
Sister stations	KFTK, KQQZ, KZQZ
History
First air date	May 19, 1998; (26 years ago)
Last air date	March 5, 2019; (5 years ago)
Former call signs	WBDI (1998–99); WCBW (1999–2001); WINU (2001); WDID (2001–06); WXOZ (2006–09)
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	90598
Class	D
Power	1,000 watts (daytime)
Transmitter coordinates	38°44′56″N 89°34′10″W / 38.74889°N 89.56944°W
Links
Public license information	Public file; LMS;

WQQW was a commercial daytime-only radio station that was licensed to serve Highland, Illinois, at 1510 AM, and broadcast from 1998 to 2019. The station's transmitter site was located in the town of Pierron, Illinois.

The station's license was revoked by the Federal Communications Commission on March 20, 2020, after it was revealed that the principal ownership—Entertainment Media Trust—was set up as a shell company for a convicted felon. This license cancellation also included three other AM stations in the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area owned by the group: KFTK (1490 AM), KQQZ and KZQZ.

History

Originally licensed on May 19, 1998, WINU became WDID on June 14, 2001; WDID changed to WXOZ on May 11, 2006; and finally WXOZ changed to the current WQQW on November 18, 2009.^[2]

On March 4, 2019, WQQW went silent, citing a transmitter prone to turning itself off for unknown reasons and issues with the internet delivery of its programming to the transmitter site.^[3]

In 2012, Mark Kern challenged the license renewals of WQQW and its sister stations, alleging that Robert Romanik, a convicted felon who is also known as the "Grim Reaper of Radio", was controlling the stations in violation of FCC rules that prohibit felons from owning broadcast stations and had arranged a local marketing agreement for one of them.^[4] On June 5, 2019, the Federal Communications Commission designated all four EMT stations' licenses for hearing, finding that Romanik had established EMT and provided all the funding to acquire its stations even though he was not a party to any FCC applications.

The station's license was cancelled on March 20, 2020.^[5]

FCC Auction 109

The FCC announced on February 8, 2021, that the former EMT-licensed AM allocations in the St. Louis market, including WQQW's frequency, would go up for auction on July 27, 2021.^[6] The day after the auction process started, blank applications for new stations, using the facility ID numbers for WQQW and KFTK, appeared in the FCC database.^[7] No bids were received for any of the four frequencies during the eight-day auction.^[8]

References

^ "Facility Technical Data for WQQW". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
^ WQQW's call sign history from the FCC.
^ BLSTA-20190305AAG Request for Silent STA — WQQW
^ Venta, Lance (2019-06-05). "FCC Sends Four St. Louis Area AMs To License Revocation Hearing". Radio Insight. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
^ "CDBS Search". Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
^ McLane, Paul (8 February 2021). "FCC Schedules Auction of 136 FM CPs". RadioWorld. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
^ "Daily Digest: Broadcast Applications" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
^ "iHeartMedia Nabs Sacramento FM In FCC Auction; Four St. Louis AMs Are Left Unsold". Inside Radio. August 6, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.

External links

Facility details for Facility ID 90598 (WQQW) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
WQQW in Nielsen Audio's AM station database

This article about a radio station in Illinois is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] "Facility Technical Data for WQQW". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.

[2] WQQW's call sign history from the FCC.

[3] BLSTA-20190305AAG Request for Silent STA — WQQW

[4] Venta, Lance (2019-06-05). "FCC Sends Four St. Louis Area AMs To License Revocation Hearing". Radio Insight. Retrieved 2019-06-05.

[5] "CDBS Search". Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved March 20, 2020.

[6] McLane, Paul (8 February 2021). "FCC Schedules Auction of 136 FM CPs". RadioWorld. Retrieved 12 February 2021.

[7] "Daily Digest: Broadcast Applications" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved August 2, 2021.

[ir-nobids-8] "iHeartMedia Nabs Sacramento FM In FCC Auction; Four St. Louis AMs Are Left Unsold". Inside Radio. August 6, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.

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v t e Daytime-only radio stations in Illinois
Stations	WCAZ - Carthage WCIL - Carbondale WCKG - Elmhurst WCRA - Effingham WHOW - Clinton WIBK- Watseka WLDS - Jacksonville WLIQ - Quincy WPEO - Peoria WRIK - Brookport WSMI - Litchfield WTIM - Assumption WVEL - Pekin WWHN - Joliet WXES - Chicago
Defunct	WAIT - Crystal Lake WGLC - Mendota WLBH - Mattoon WPOK - Pontiac WQQW - Highland
See also: Clear channel radio stations and Why AM Radio Stations Must Reduce Power, Change Operations, or Cease Operations at Night

v t e Country radio stations in the state of Illinois
By AM frequency	750 910 920 980 1060 1230 1240 1330 1350 1360 1440 1510 1520 1530 1540 1550 1570
By FM frequency	92.1 92.1 92.9 93.7 94.1 94.3 94.3 94.9 95.1 95.3 95.7 95.7 95.9 96.3 96.5 96.9 97.3 97.3 97.5 97.7 98.3 98.3 98.5 99.1 99.3 99.5 99.5 99.9 100.1 100.3 100.3 100.5 100.9 101.3 101.7 101.7 101.9 102.1 102.1 102.3 102.3 102.3 102.3 102.5 102.7 103.7 103.7 104.1 104.5 104.9 105.5 105.9 105.9 106.1 106.5 107.3 107.7 107.9
By callsign	KSGM – Chester WAAG – Galesburg WAKO - Lawrenceville WALS – Oglesby WAUR - Somonauk WBBA-FM – Pittsfield WBWN – Le Roy WCAZ – Macomb WCCI – Savanna WCCQ – Crest Hill WCOY – Quincy WCRC – Effingham WDDD-FM – Johnston City WDUK – Havana WDWS-FM - Arcola WDZQ – Decatur WEBQ – Harrisburg WFMB-FM – Springfield WFPS – Freeport WFRL – Freeport WFYR – Elmwood WGEL – Greenville WGKC – Mahomet WGLC-FM – Mendota WHCO – Sparta WHET – West Frankfort WHPO – Hoopeston WIBH – Anna WIBK - Watseka WIBL – Fairbury WIBV – Mount Vernon WIXY – Champaign WJBC-FM – Pontiac WJDK-FM – Seneca WJRE – Galva WJVO – South Jacksonville WKJT – Teutopolis WLCN – Atlanta WLFZ – Springfield WLIQ – Quincy WLLR-FM – Davenport, Iowa WLUV – Loves Park WLWF – Marseilles WMCI – Mattoon WMCL – McLeansboro WMIX-FM – Mount Vernon WMKR – Pana WMOK – Metropolis WNLF - Macomb WOKZ – Fairfield WOOZ-FM – Harrisburg WRAM – Monmouth WRCV – Dixon WRIK – Brookport WRMJ – Aledo WRMS-FM – Beardstown WRUL – Carmi WRTB – Winnebago WRVY-FM – Henry WSEI – Olney WSIQ - Salem WSMI – Litchfield WSMI-FM – Litchfield WSVZ – Tower Hill WUSN – Chicago WXCL – Pekin WXLC - Waukegan WXNU – Saint Anne WXXQ – Freeport WYOT – Rochelle WYUR – Gilman WYXY – Savoy WZUS – Macon WZZT - Morrison
Defunct	WQQW - Highland (1510 AM)
See also adult contemporary classic hits college country news/talk NPR oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in Illinois