WACA (AM)

Infobox Radio station
name = WACA


city = Wheaton, Maryland
area =
slogan =
branding = "Radio America"
frequency = 1540 kHz
airdate =
share =
share as of =
share source =
format = Spanish Contemporary
power = 1,000 watts
erp =
haat =
class = D
facility_id = 38439
coordinates = coord|39|0|50.00|N|77|1|46.00|W|region:US_type:city
callsign_meaning =
former_callsigns = WMDO (1981-1997)
owner = Ac Acquisition, LLC
licensee =
sister_stations =
webcast =
website = [http://www.radioamerica.net radioamerica.net]
affiliations = AP Radio

WACA is a radio station broadcasting on 1540 kHz in the mediumwave AM band. It is a Spanish language news and talk station broadcasting as [http://www.radioamerica.net/ Radio America] . Its transmitter is located in Wheaton, Maryland and it serves the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. WACA has a daytime transmitter power of 5,000 watts, reaching as far north as Frederick County in Maryland and as far south as Stafford and Prince William Counties in Virginia.cite web
title=Wellness Through Media
url=http://www.prevencion.org/story.php?module=tv&language=2
accessmonthday=17 February
accessyear=2007 ] WACA's signal is also available (via a special SCA receiver) on a subcarrier of 97.1 FM.cite web
title=Washington DC/Baltimore Area AM Radio
url=http://www.dcrtv.org/mediawa.html
accessmonthday=17 February
accessyear=2007 ] WACA is the flagship Spanish-language radio station for broadcasts of D.C. United soccer games.cite web
title=D.C. United: Schedule
url=http://dcunited.mlsnet.com/schedule/season.jsp?team=t103
accessmonthday=17 February
accessyear=2007 ]

Owner

Alejandro Carrasco is the station's owner-operator. A native of the Dominican Republic, he came to the United States in the 1970s. While attending Montgomery College in 1979, he worked as a DJ at student parties and master of ceremonies at weddings. The news staff at 1540 AM (then Radio Mundo, WMDO) discovered him at a wedding, and hired him as an anchor in 1983. Carrasco later moved to Radio Borinquen (now Radio Viva, WILC 900 AM in Laurel), rising to be general manager, and then returned to WACA to begin a 30-minute morning show, Calentando la Mañana (Heating Up the Morning) in 1987. Carrasco leased WACA and its transmitter in 1997, and then bought the station when the lease expired in 2000, naming it "Radio America."cite web
title=Spanish-Language Radio's Big Voice
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/02/AR2006070200627.html
accessmonthday=17 February
accessyear=2007 ]

History

1540 began as WDON, a country station named for the son of its then-owner, Don Dillard. In the 1970s, it was an oldies station, and then briefly "Disco D-O-N". After that, it converted to Spanish, first as WMDO, "Radio Mundo"cite web
title=Washington, D.C. AM Station History
url=http://earlyradiohistory.us/hist-dc.htm
accessmonthday=17 February
accessyear=2007 ] , and then with the current WACA call sign.

ee also

*WFED (D.C. United English-language broadcasts)

References

External links

* [http://www.radioamerica.net/ radioamerica.net]
*AMQ|WACA
*AML|WACA
*AMARB|WACA