WADO
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| City | New York, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | New York metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 1280 kHz |
| Branding | 1280 WADO TUDN Radio Nueva York (Sports) |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | Spanish |
| Format | Sports |
| Affiliations | TUDN Radio |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Uforia Audio Network (Univision Radio Stations Group, Inc.) |
| History | |
First air date | January 30, 1927 |
Former call signs | WGL (1927–1928) WOV (1928–1959) |
Former frequencies | 1020 kHz (1927–1928) 1130 kHz (1928–1941) |
Call sign meaning | Call letters phonetically sound similar to "radio" |
| Technical information | |
| Facility ID | 70684 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 50,000 watts (day) 7,200 watts (night) |
Transmitter coordinates | 40°49′36.00″N 74°4′32.00″W / 40.8266667°N 74.0755556°WCoordinates: 40°49′36.00″N 74°4′32.00″W / 40.8266667°N 74.0755556°W |
| Repeater(s) | 96.3 WXNY-HD2 (New York) |
| Links | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | WADO Website |
WADO (1280 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to New York City. It is owned and operated by Uforia Audio Network, a subsidiary of Univision. It broadcasts a Spanish-language sports radio format.
By day, WADO is powered at 50,000 watts, the maximum permitted for American commercial AM stations. But to protect other stations on 1280 AM from interference, at night it reduces power to 7,200 watts. It uses a directional antenna with a four-tower array. The transmitter is on New Jersey Route 120 in Carlstadt, New Jersey.[1]
History[edit]
WGL and WOV[edit]
On January 30, 1927, the station signed on as WGL. It was owned by the International Broadcasting Corporation. WGL president Colonel Lewis Landes stated on the inaugural broadcast, "The International Broadcasting Corporation's aim is to adhere to truth, to be free of partisanship, religious or political."
WGL was the first station to protest the frequency allocations of the Federal Radio Commission in May 1927. WGL was authorized to move to 1170 AM, but wanted to go to 720, occupied by WOR. When WOR was awarded the 710 frequency, both stations went to court, with WOR eventually winning the case. Finally in June 1927, WGL moved to 1020 AM and shared time with Paterson station, WODA.
In August 1927, studio manager Charles Isaacson announced one of the city's first attempts at local news coverage. WGL was organizing listeners to volunteer as radio reporters and call the station with breaking news stories.
On September 16, 1928, WGL changed its call sign to WOV and was sold to Sicilian-born importer John Iraci. The WGL call letters were then picked up by a station in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which uses them to this day.
Italian programming[edit]
WOV's initial programming was aimed at a general audience, but by the mid-1930s, it strengthened its ethnic ties and expanded its Italian-language programming to fill the daytime hours. WOV soon became the dominant Italian voice in the Northeast through its affiliation with share-time station WBIL and Iraci's WPEN in Philadelphia.
Top 40 and R&B[edit]
The station was owned by WOV Broadcasting until 1959, when it was sold to Bartell Broadcasters, at which time the station call letters were changed to WADO. During the day, WADO broadcast Top 40 and R&B music. At night, it ran Italian programming. By 1962, some Spanish programming was run on weekends. By 1963, the only English programming found on WADO was in Sunday religious broadcasts.
Ethnic programming[edit]
In 1964, WADO began broadcasting completely in Spanish from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Italian from 8 p.m. to Midnight. Overnight, Asian programming was run. By 1970, Spanish had replaced the Asian format.
Musical programming[edit]
In terms of music, the station played a blend of Spanish MOR and Spanish oldies. WADO evolved to a Spanish adult contemporary music and oldies format by the mid-1970s. Italian programming was dropped in 1971.
Four full-time Spanish stations battled for listeners during the 1980s: WADO along with WKDM 1380, WSKQ 620, and WJIT 1480. Only WADO remains as a secular Spanish-language station. WKDM airs Spanish Christian radio programming, and the other two have ethnic programs in Russian and Korean.
Sports programming[edit]
WADO currently broadcasts all games of the New York Jets, and certain games for the New York Yankees, New York Knicks and New York Islanders. It previously aired the New York City FC soccer team.
On December 20, 2016, Univision announced that WADO would be one of the charter network affiliates of Univision Deportes Radio, the company's new Spanish-language sports network launched on April 19, 2017.[2]
Ownership changes[edit]
The station was sold to Command Broadcasting in 1979. In 1986, Heftel bought the station, and over the next three years, moved to a Spanish language adult contemporary music and talk format. By the early-1990s, WADO was a Spanish language news and talk station.
In March 1996 the company bought WPAT and put a Spanish MOR format there, which would later grow to cover additional languages such as Korean. In 1997, Heftel restructured into Hispanic Broadcasters. The company sold WPAT to Multicultural, and acquired WNWK from them]. The brokered shows from WNWK went to WPAT and WCAA went to a Spanish tropical format. WADO remained News and Talk.
In 2002, Hispanic Broadcasting was sold to Univision, making WADO and 96.3 WXNY-FM both Univision-owned and operated stations.
Power increase[edit]
In the 1990s the FCC began to entertain the idea of power increases on formerly regional channels like 1280. Application was made to raise day power from 5,000 watts on two towers to 50,000 watts on a four-tower system. This remained on file, and was periodically amended as the ownership changed. In 1998 the FCC granted a construction permit (CP) for daytime operation at 50,000 watts. While planning the rebuilt site, Engineering Director David Stewart hit on the idea of a night power increase using the proposed extra day towers. CP was granted for 7,200 watts. The new system went on air in 2000 using a Harris DX-50 transmitter for days and a DX-10 for nights. The phasing and coupling equipment was designed by Ron Rackley at duTreil, Lundin and Rackley.
Sports[edit]
- New York Jets and Monday Night Football from the National Football League - Spanish language play by play from Clemson Smith-Muñiz
- New York Islanders from the National Hockey League - Spanish language play by play from Bruno Vain
- New York Knicks from the National Basketball Association - Spanish language play by play, produced by MSG Network, simulcast on second audio program
- New York Yankees from Major League Baseball - all regular season and postseason games aired; simulcast on the second audio program of YES Network, and MLB.tv
References[edit]
External links[edit]
- Official website
- WADO in the FCC AM station database
- WADO on Radio-Locator
- WADO in Nielsen Audio's AM station database