WJBC (AM)

Infobox Radio station
name = WJBC


station_
city = Bloomington, Illinois
area = Bloomington-Normal, Illinois
branding =
slogan = The Voice of McLean County
airdate =
frequency = 1230 kHz
format = News/Talk
power =
erp = 1000 watts
class = C
callsign_meaning = Where Jazz Becomes Classic
owner = Regent Broadcasting
webcast = [http://www.wjbc.com/wjbc-webcasts.htm]
website = [http://www.wjbc.com/ www.wjbc.com]
affiliations = CBS News

WJBC is a radio station based in the twin cities of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. It broadcasts on the AM frequency 1230.

The station began broadcasting from La Salle, Illinois in 1925. Its call letters were apparently assigned arbitrarily during the AM radio expansion era of the 1920s. The station was initially music-oriented, and for a while it adopted the backronym slogan "Where Jazz Becomes Classic."

In 1934 the station moved about 60 miles straight south, to the Twin Cities area. At first it was only on the air a few hours a day at first, with eight daily newscasts, weather twice a day, and the Western Union time announced at the top of each hour.Ken R., [http://www.rwonline.com/reference-room/special-report/2006.05.24-07_rwm_wjbc.shtml "Bloomington's WJBC: Life Begins at 80"] , Radio World Magazine online, May 24, 2006]

On the morning of August 25, 1971, the station broadcast the last radio program of the Reverend R.J. Zehr, who died later that morning. Zehr's first broadcast on the station was on a Sunday in October 1934; shortly thereafter, he was given a daily slot, which he continued - without missing a day - until the mid-1960s. Almost all of Zehr’s broadcasts were live, not prerecorded. In 1949, he began doing the program from his house, via telephone. His program’s time slot varied over the years, but normally aired between 5:00 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., and lasted 15 to 30 minutes. [Bill Kemp, [http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/07/22/news/doc46a2ba3e510fc017145829.txt "Pastor's voice was heard loudly on WJBC"] , "The Pantagraph" (Bloomington, IL), July 21, 2007]

In 2005, the station won the Marconi Award from the National Association of Broadcasters for Best Small Market Radio Station in the United States. [ [http://www.nab.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Awards&CONTENTID=8601&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm "2005 Marconi Radio Award Winners"] , National Association of Broadcasters, retrieved April 14, 2008]

In 2006, Janae Jontry, the station manager, said a focus on localism differentiated WJBC from most of the competition. Part of a five-station cluster owned by Regent Communications, WJBC was the only AM station of the group. It had five full-time news people and an agribusiness director.

The station currently calls itself "The Voice of McLean County".

Personalities

Current

Former

References

External links

* [http://wjbc.com/ Station website]
*amq|WJBC
* [http://www.wjbc.com/wjbc-audioarchive.htm Highlights in WJBC History] - history and dozens of historical audio clips