WJNO

Infobox Radio station
name = WJNO


city = West Palm Beach, Florida
area =
branding = "Newsradio 1290 WJNO"
slogan =
airdate = July 31, 1936
frequency = 1290 kHz
format = News/Talk
power = 10,000 Watts (day)
4900 Watts (night)
class = B
facility_id = 1917
coordinates = coord|26|45|50|N|80|12|17|W|
callsign_meaning = unknown, but could refer to Juno Beach, a suburb of West Palm Beach
former_callsigns =
owner = Clear Channel Communications
licensee = Clear Channel Broadcasting Licenses, Inc.
sister_stations =
webcast =
website = http://www.wjno.com
affiliations =

WJNO (1290 AM) is a News/Talk radio station in the West Palm Beach market.

Its location links WJNO to two nationally syndicated radio programs. WJNO is a "de facto" flagship station for The Rush Limbaugh Show; Limbaugh hosts the show from his home studio, located in the area. And starting April 14, 2008, former WJNO local host Randi Rhodes returned to the WJNO studios to originate her syndicated show, after her move from Air America Radio to Nova M Radio. [http://www.wjno.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=244038&article=3530099] [http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/04/14/s1b_rhodes0414.html]

Timeline

July 31, 1936: -- WJNO signed on at 1 p.m. According to the "Palm Beach Post", WJNO was originally a CBS affiliate, and it aired everything from classical music to Steve Allen. [cite news
title=WJNO, Launched in 1936, County's First Radio Station
publisher=Palm Beach Post
date=March 29, 2000
author=Eliot Kleinberg ]

September 1943: -- pollsters found that 94 percent of all radios in use in Palm Beach, West Palm Beach and Lake Worth were tuned to WJNO (1200-AM). At the time, the 7-year-old station was the only signal between Orlando and Miami. [cite news
title=Good News: WJNO Still Talking It Up
publisher=Miami Herald
date=July 24, 1986
author=Jeffrey Weiss] August 13, 1979: -- WJNO Program Director, John Picano, moves WJNO to a full-time News station.1984: -- WJNO switches from national syndicated talk shows during the daytime to local hosts. Afternoon host Mike ("Captain Radio") Levine leaves for Tampa and Jack Cole from Boston, at that time 45 years old, takes the slot. Cole referred to himself as the "Inquisitor General" and described his program as coming from "World Headquarters."

September 1984:-- Barry Young is hired as midday talk host. According to the "Palm Beach Post", Young was a conservative "who believes in nuclear energy, the death penalty and, more often than not, Ronald Reagan. Abortion is repugnant, he says, and a vice-presidential candidate that goes by Ferraro-Zaccaro would be better off as a foreign sports-car." Young was first heard on WJNO in early 1980 - 1982 when he was hosting overnights from Atlanta's WRNG (now WCNN) radio. The program was broadast on a small number of stations via GN (The Georgia Network) and FN (The Flordia Network). Young came to WJNO from WGBS in Miami, where he angered management by leaving. "Barry Young has a valid contract with this radio station," Lee Fowler, WGBS operations manager, said. Young left the station for KFYI in Phoenix in April 1987, where he remains today. [ [http://www.kfyi.com/pages/barry_young.html?feed=119587&article=359580 KFYI - "The Valley's Talk Station" ] ] [cite news
title=So Long, Barry!
publisher=Miami Herald
date=April 23, 1987
author=Dave Hogerty] John Broward and John Levitt did the program until late summer. [cite news
title=Blue Bloods Divorcing In Palm Beach
publisher=Miami Herald
date=August 15, 1987
author=Glenn Singer]

1986: According to the Miami Herald, WJNO runs constant local and state news, punctuated by national feeds, from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. six days a week. Weekdays, local talk hosts work from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., when a national talk show network takes over.. [cite news
title=Good News: WJNO Still Talking It Up
publisher=Miami Herald
date=July 24, 1986
author=Jeffrey Weiss]

April 1987: Barry Young leaves to join the staff of new talk station KFYI Phoenix, Arizona. This time there is no queston that Young's contract allowed for is move. In Phoenix, Young would later become a founding partner in WestStar TalkRadio Network, a brocast syndication comany. WJNO carries programming, such as The Kim Komando Show originated bt WestStar.

1987: Mike Miller from WIOD joins the station. [cite news
title=Blue Bloods Divorcing In Palm Beach
publisher=Hiami Herald
date=August 15, 1987
author=Glenn Singer]

May 1988: -- Jack Cole moves to KFYI Phoenix, Arizona. Cole was hired by former WJNO midday host and then KFYI Program Director, Barry Young. [cite news
title=Radio Talk Host Moving To Phoenix
publisher=Palm Beach Post
date=May 11, 1988
author=Joseph Schwerdt] Lee Fowler, formerly of WNWS in Miami, moves into the slot. [cite news
title=Ex-Radio Host Joins WJNO
publisher=Sun-Sentinel
date=May 17, 1988] Geoff Charles and Dick Farrel host the program in his absence. [cite news
title=WJNO Shuffling Evening Lineup To Bring Back Talk Host Cole
publisher=Sun-Sentinel
date=March 22, 1989
author=Tom Jicha]

January 1989: -- Miller shifted to 9 a.m. to noon, Fowler moved to noon to 3 p.m., and Geoff Charles moves to the afternoon slot. Syndicated Rush Limbaugh was on the station briefly. [cite news
title=Local Radio Talk Shows Shuffling Their Lineups
publisher=Sun-Sentinel
date=January 6, 1989
author=Tom Jicha]

March 1989: -- Jack Cole returns from Phoenix [cite news
title=WJNO Shuffling Evening Lineup To Bring Back Talk Host Cole
publisher=Sun-Sentinel
date=March 22, 1989
author=Tom Jicha]

April 1993: -- Miller was fired and replaced with the syndicated G. Gordon Liddy show. Miller returned the following year hosting afternoon drive at WBZT, then moved to Jacksonville and eventually left radio. [cite news
title=WJNO, Citing 'Political Balance,' Fires Liberal Talk Host Miller
publisher=Palm Beach Post
date=April 15, 1993
author=Elizabeth Akoi] [cite news
title=The Radio Talk Show Wars
publisher=Palm Beach Post
date=September 27, 1993
author=Scott Benarde] Miller returned the following year hosting afternoon drive at WBZT, then moved to Jacksonville and eventually left radio. [cite news
title=Ex-Radio Host Miller Puts Talk Into Action
publisher=Palm Beach Post
date=July 9, 2002
author=Thom Smith ]

September 1994: -- Randi Rhodes, then 36, is brought in from Miami's WIOD, where she was the evening talk show host. General Manager George Mills said Rhodes would bring a "younger, more aggressive approach" to the station's lineup. "She's very talented. I think she'll be a positive addition," Mills said. [cite news
title=Day Job In View For Randi Rhodes
publisher=Miami Herald
date=June 29, 1994
author=Bill Gato]

March 1997: -- Fairbanks Communications purchased a station at 1040 AM and moved WJNO to that spot on the dial, after more than six decades at 1230, to take advantage of its strong signal strength in southern Palm Beach and Broward counties. [cite news
title=WJNO, Launched in 1936, County's First Radio Station
publisher=Palm Beach Post
date=March 29, 2000
author=Eliot Kleinberg ]

January 2000: -- WJNO and WBZT swapped frequencies. WJNO moved to 1290 AM and WBZT moved to AM. The switch was designed to boost WJNO's signal in all of Palm Beach County but weaken it in Broward and Miami-Dade, where it competed with other Clear Channel properties. [cite news
title=WJNO Fires Talk Host Cole Half-Hour Before Show
publisher=Palm Beach Post
date=January 15, 2000
author=George Bennett] [cite news
title=WJNO, Launched in 1936, County's First Radio Station
publisher=Palm Beach Post
date=March 29, 2000
author=Eliot Kleinberg ]

January 14, 2000: -- Syndicated Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura Schlessinger were added to the station as Rhodes was moved to afternoon drive. [cite news
title=WJNO Fires Talk Host Cole Half-Hour Before Show
publisher=Palm Beach Post
date=January 15, 2000
author=George Bennett]

January 14, 2000: -- Randi Rhodes moves to afternoons as Jack Cole is fired. Cole said he was informed of the decision about half an hour before he was to begin his regular 3-to-7 p.m. show. The station aired a tape of an old Cole broadcast instead. Operations Director Jim Edwards said WJNO's owner, Clear Channel Communications of San Antonio "has taken the radio station in a new direction and has chosen to end the professional relationship between Jack and WJNO" [cite news
title=WJNO Fires Talk Host Cole Half-Hour Before Show
publisher=Palm Beach Post
date=January 15, 2000
author=George Bennett]

November 15, 2000: -- Jon Howe leaves WEAT/Sunny 104.3 to join WJNO's Palm Beaches' Morning report. Howe had been co-hosting WEAT's "Champion's of Breakfast Show" with Jennifer Ross, following the untimely passing of that show's host, Kevin Kitchens.

March 2004: --- Randi Rhodes moves to New York to join the Air America Radio liberal talk network. Her program continues in syndicated form on WJNO. Later her producer, Tim Allan Walker, exits to WOLL. Kool 105.5. [cite news
title=Rhodes Show Still On WJNO
publisher=Palm Beach Post
date=March 3, 2004
author=Thom Smith] [cite news
title=Radio's Randi Rhodes Expands, Moving To New York
publisher=Stuart News
date=March 21, 2004
author=Bob Betcher]

June 2007: --- WJNO adds weekend talent Shawn Wasson to host 'The News Junkie.' The show, which currently airs every Saturday from 8 to 10PM, made headlines in September when Wasson interviewed Republican Senator and Presidential candidate John McCain. McCain, referring to the Iranian President's intentions to visit Ground Zero, said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be 'physically restrained if necessary.' [ [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297526,00.html FOXNews.com - McCain Suggests Physical Force to Prevent Ahmadinejad From Visiting World Trade Center Site - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum ] ]

April 2008: --- Randi Rhodes returns to WJNO after her dismissal from Air America due to remarks made at a fund-raiser for KKGN deriding Hillary Clinton as a "whore" as part of a comedy routine. Rhodes' show becomes syndicated by Nova M Radio. [cite press release
title=News radio 1290 WJNO Welcomes Home Randi Rhodes
publisher=WJNO
date=April 11, 2008
url=http://www.wjno.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=244038&article=3530099
accessdate=2008-04-13]

September, 5th, 2008: --- After 8-years, Jon Howe leaves WJNO's Palm Beaches' Morning Report. Howe served as host and also news anchor for the show along with various co-hosts since November 15, 2000. Howe started his radio career in 1979, and has worked at WSNG, WTIC, WKCI, WKSS, WWYZ, WNFI, WOVV/WLDI, WRMF, WEAT and WJNO. He currently lives in Lake Worth, FL.
url=http://wjno.com/pages/JonHowe.html?_show

References

27. ""'Sheldon Swartz, Broadcast Historian, former Production Director at WJNO, 1988 to 1993

External links

* [http://www.wjno.com WJNO official website]
* [http://www.wjnoblog.com The News Junkie]
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* [http://radiopages.net/radio/wbztwjno.html "Why Do These Radio Stations Keep Switching Frequencies?"] , a South Florida Radio History article by Alan Diskin