WSNR

Coordinates: 40°47′53.36″N 74°6′22.51″W / 40.7981556°N 74.1062528°W / 40.7981556; -74.1062528
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

WSNR
Facility ID61643
ClassB
Power
  • 3,000 watts (day)
  • 7,600 watts (night)
Transmitter coordinates
40°47′53.36″N 74°6′22.51″W / 40.7981556°N 74.1062528°W / 40.7981556; -74.1062528
Links
Public license information
WebcastListen live
Websitedavidzonradio.com

WSNR (620 AM) is a commercial radio station, licensed to Jersey City, New Jersey, and serving the New York metropolitan area. The station is co-owned by Gregory Davidzon and Sam Katsman, through licensee Davidzon Radio, Inc.[2] Davidzon is a Russian-American media mogul who also publishes a weekly newspaper under his name.

It airs a

brokered time radio format. Weekday programming consists of Russian pop music and talk shows as Davidzon Radio, named after the station's co-owner. Nighttime and weekend hours are leased to various ethnic and specialty programmers. During part of the weekend, the station airs a Caribbean
format, "One Caribbean Radio".

Broadcast signal

WSNR is unusual in that it runs more power at night than in the daytime, the reverse of many AM radio stations. It transmits with 3,000 watts days and 7,600 watts nights, from five nearly in-line towers in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. The signal is directed at Midtown Manhattan, as a consequence of protection requirements to adjacent-channel stations to the northeast and southwest of the transmitter site. (WTEL 610 Philadelphia and WPRO 630 Providence, Rhode Island are both powered at 5,000 watts.)[citation needed]

With WSNR's signal pattern, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens are well-covered, as is Nassau County, New York, although some of New York City's northern and southern suburbs are not. This is the second transmitter site for this station. As WVNJ, licensed to Newark, New Jersey, it was powered at 5,000 watts day and night, with separate antenna patterns from a tower site in Livingston, New Jersey, near Route 10.[citation needed]

The station debuted, as WVNJ in Newark, in 1948.[3]

History

The WVNJ years

WVNJ first

signed on the air December 7, 1948.[4] It was licensed to Newark and owned by the Newark Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Griffith Piano Company, to showcase its instruments. In the 1950s through 1970s, the station played Broadway and Hollywood show tunes as well as instrumental and vocal easy listening music. In 1961, then-owner Herb Saltzman acquired the license to 100.3 MHz, formerly WMGM-FM, which had been terminated in 1955. At first, Saltzman simulcast both stations, however in a few years, WVNJ-FM became an instrumental-based beautiful music station.[citation needed
]

WVNJ AM 620 had evolved into an all-

Nat "King" Cole, Peggy Lee, Artie Shaw, The Carpenters, Vic Damone, Sammy Davis Jr., Connie Francis, Patti Page, Johnny Mathis and Dinah Shore. In 1980, when 106.7 WRVR (now WLTW) New York dropped Jazz programming to become Country WKHK, WVNJ-FM adopted a night-time jazz format, keeping its daytime easy listening format of instrumentals and usually three vocals per hour.[citation needed
]

At that point, WVNJ 620 picked up the beautiful music format for night-time hours while keeping

AM 1130 WNEW was also doing an adult standards format by 1981.[citation needed
]

Spanish Broadcasting System

In August 1983, WVNJ-FM was sold to the

adult contemporary format as WSKQ. It moved to studios in Manhattan. After SBS bought an FM station, the WSKQ call sign switched to FM 97.9. AM 620 became WXLX and aired a Regional Mexican music format beginning in 1990.[citation needed
]

Sports radio

In 1997, the station was sold to

Sporting News newspaper, the network was renamed Sporting News Radio, and the call letters were then changed to WSNR.[citation needed
]

In 2001, the station was acquired by Rose City Radio. Several New Jersey political leaders noted that Jersey City was the largest city in the nation without a commercial AM, FM or TV station. So around 2002, WSNR was

]

From 2001 to 2006, the station was owned by

Vulcan Ventures. Despite the ownership change, it retained the station's affiliation with Sporting News Radio. The station was also briefly a Motor Racing Network (MRN) affiliate and was the only New York metro area station broadcasting NASCAR events. During this time, the station began selling blocks of time to independent producers while still airing sports the other hours of the day. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, WSNR featured a big band show produced and hosted by Danny Stiles, playing only music from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s.[citation needed
]

Russian and ethnic programming

Gregory Davidzon and Sam Katsman, through licensee Davidzon Radio, Inc. purchased WSNR for $12.5 million in a transaction that was consummated on March 31, 2015.

]

Orthodox Jewish talk radio host Zev Brenner uses WSNR for his Talkline Communications network.[7][citation needed]

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WSNR". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ Best Senate District 27 Candidate Rumor Yet. politicsbrooklyn.com. Retrieved December 21, 2011.[dead link]
  3. ^ WVNJ (advertisement), Broadcasting, September 13, 1948, page 41.
  4. ^ "WVNJ STARTS Jersey Outlet Begins, Broadcasting - Telecasting December 13, 1948 pg. 30" (PDF).
  5. ^ Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2003-2004 page D-306
  6. ^ RadioInsight.com "WSNR Sold" Oct. 24, 2014 (retrieved 3/17/19)
  7. ^ "Zev Brenner". Talkline Communications. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
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