WEJL

WEJL is a radio station broadcasting in Scranton, Pennsylvania on the AM dial at 630 kHz. Its programming is simulcast on WBAX in Wilkes-Barre, at 1240 kHz and WEJL-FM in Forest City at 100.1 MHz. The stations, known on-air as Northeast PA's ESPN Radio, broadcast sports talk programming from ESPN Radio, as well as Philadelphia Phillies baseball, Philadelphia Eagles football, Notre Dame football and Villanova Wildcats basketball. They are owned by Times-Shamrock Communications, publishers of Scranton's daily newspaper, The Times-Tribune.

History

E. J. Lynett, publisher of The Scranton Times (now The Times-Tribune), believed radio was a natural business for a newspaper. In November 1922, he bought WRAY, that had signed on a few days earlier (November 29) and changed the calls to WQAN. The Times thus became the first American newspaper to own and operate a radio station.

Originally at 1070 kHz, WQAN changed frequency to 1200 kHz by 1925. By 1927, the station had begun sharing the frequency of 1300 kHz with Scranton's other station, WGBI (now WBZU).