WJSM

WJSM is a religious radio station serving the Altoona, Pennsylvania market, known as Victory Radio. The radio station is an outlet for televangelists such as Dr. James Dobson and others.

History

WJSM Radio had its start many years ago by a man with a dream for South Central Pennsylvania to have its own Christian radio station. He was Kenneth W. Ferry of Martinsburg, who owned a trucking firm, and while driving heard a western Centre County-based Christian Station, WPHB in Philipsburg, founded by Reverend William Emert. That station programs country music and talk programming today, with religious programming reserved for Sundays.

Inspired by the experience, Ferry thought that the Martinsburg area needed a station like that and began by filing an application for an AM station in the early 1960s. After several applications and amendments to those applications, the FCC granted a construction permit for an FM station instead. WJSM-FM pioneered FM Christian Broadcasting with its first regular scheduled broadcast on April 19, 1965. It was a challenge indeed, as back in the 1960s, FM broadcast frequencies were virtually unknown or hardly used and fewer people yet had home FM receivers, and even fewer people had FM compatible radios in their vehicles. WJSM finally came on the air on February 27, 1968, finally meeting the need of the majority of the station's audience in these pre-FM radio years. A daytime-only station, WJSM was required to sign off at sunset, but WJSM-FM continued to broadcast during the evening hours. The FM band finally became more popular by the early 1980s, and listenership grew.