WWRL

WWRL is a radio station in New York City, broadcasting at 1600 kHz AM from a transmitter site in Secaucus, NJ, and owned by Access.1 Communications.

For many years, WWRL catered to New York's African American community first as an R&B station, then later a gospel and even later a talk radio format. In 2006, WWRL replaced WLIB as the flagship station for the Air America Radio network and retained a progressive talk format for the next eight years.

History

Founded by radio enthusiast William Reuman, WWRL (for Woodside Radio Laboratory) began broadcasting at 12:00 a.m., Thursday, August 26, 1926 from a studio and transmitter in his home at 41-30 58th Street in Woodside, Queens, New York on a frequency of 1120 kHz. In 1927 the nascent Federal Radio Commission ordered the station to move to 1500 kHz. In its early days, the station served many ethnic communities, broadcasting programs in Italian, German, French, Polish, Hungarian, Slovak, and Czech, as well as English. Following implementation of the 1941 North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement the station again changed its frequency, this time to 1490 kHz, followed shortly thereafter by a move to the current 1600 kHz. In 1951 the station's official licensed location was changed from Woodside, NY to New York, NY. In 1964 Reuman retired and sold the station to a group headed by Egmont Sonderling.