WREJ

Infobox Radio station
name = WREJ


city = Richmond, Virginia
area = Richmond
branding =
slogan = "Rejoice Radio"
airdate =
frequency = 1540 kHz
format = Gospel Music
power = 10,000 Watts (Daytime)
7 Watts (Nighttime)
erp =
haat =
class = D
facility_id =
coordinates = coord|37|37|08|N|77|25|27|W
callsign_meaning =
former_callsigns = WRGM, WKIE, WRBN
owner = Davidson Media
licensee =
sister_stations =
webcast =
website = [http://www.rejoice1540.com/ rejoice1540.com]
affiliations = Rejoice! Musical Soul Food

WREJ (1540 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Gospel Music format, mostly from the Rejoice! Musical Soul Food radio network. The station is currently owned by Davidson Media.

Licensed to Richmond, Virginia, USA, it serves the Richmond area with a daytime power of 10,000 Watts. However, during the nighttime hours, its signal is much weaker because there are other "clear channel" stations within the area.

History

This station originally signed on in May 1964 as WRGM. It was known as " Richmond's Good Music " doing an easy popular music format, commonly called "Middle Of The Road" or MOR playing artists like Frank Sinatra, Henry Mancini , and Tony Bennett. One of the slogans used at the time was "A New Adventure in Listening", which was incorporated in their jingles also. The first owners were some what advanced in their thinking in those days as they designed the building to be heated at least partially by the heat given off by their very large transmitter that was located in the same building as the studios and offices. In those days a 10,000 watt transmitter took up a lot of space and gave off unbelievable amount of heat that had to be dealt with in some way. Eventually that system was shut down and disconnected.

An interesting fact was that the WRGM studios were located directly across the street from the WRFK studio and transmitter site. That site had been the original location of WRNL AM&FM before they moved to a better facility in the West End of Henrico County ( WRNL had donated that facility to WRFK's owners , Union Theologiocal Seminary . )

Past winner of the Frank Soden Lifetime Achievement Award Tim Timberlake worked at the station in the very early years.

In 1969 the station attempted to do Richmond's first attempt at an adult contemporary format, adding softer pop records by the Beatles, Petula Clark , Simon & Garfunkle, The Cowsills, and others.

In 1971 the station switched to a Jazz Format which gained the station a "cult audience' for a few years.

In 1973 the station flipped for an Oldies format as " Rock Gold Music ".That format proved popular for a few years, but, mostly due to bad management , WRGM fell on hard financial times by 1975.

In 1975, announcer and Big Band enthusiast Les Sand purchased the station and the format went to Big Bands. The format was not successful and WRGM was forced sign off in early 1977.

In late 1977 the station was purchased by a group of local African American businessmen known as 1540 Broadcasting and the station signed back on as R&B/Jazz formatted WKIE. In late 1978 the station briefly switched to an adult contemporary format calling itself "Radio 15", but by the end of 1978 , it switched to a straight R&B format. By the mid eighties, WKIE had evolved into mostly Hip Hop & Rap. The "Z - Rock Crew " was a popular feature on the station.

In the late 80s the station switched to an all business news format as WRBN. In the early 90s it became gospel WREJ. 1540 Broadcasting, by then known as Radio 100, sold WREJ to Radio Richmond and then in 2004 the station was sold again to Davidson Media.

External links

* [http://www.rejoice1540.com/ official website]
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