WDAY (AM)
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| WDAY logo | |
| City of license | Fargo, North Dakota |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Fargo-Moorhead |
| Branding | 970 WDAY |
| Slogan | News/Talk |
| Frequency | 970 AM (kHz) Digital television subchannel audio: WDAY/WDAZ 6/8.3 |
| First air date | May 23, 1922 |
| Format | Commercial; News/Talk |
| Power | 10,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 22126 |
| Affiliations | ABC News |
| Owner | Forum Communications |
| Sister stations | WDAY-TV, WDAZ-TV, KBMY-TV/KMCY-TV |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wday.com |
970 WDAY is North Dakota's first and oldest radio station, having signed on in 1922. It is an affiliate of the ABC Radio Network. Its parent company, Forum Communications, also owns ABC affiliate WDAY-TV 6 and The Forum newspaper in Fargo. Forum Communications also owns ABC affiliate WDAZ-TV 8 in Grand Forks and several other newspapers and TV stations in North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The Forum bought 49 percent of the station in 1935 to become the largest shareholder, and bought the remaining 51 percent interest in 1958.
WDAY's power is 5,000 watts. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved increasing to that strength January 8, 1935.[1] It uses one tower to transmit a nondirectional signal by day and three towers to operate directionally at night. WDAY covers the eastern half of North Dakota, west central Minnesota, northeastern South Dakota, and southern Manitoba.
Most stations west of the Mississippi have call letters which begin with K. However, WDAY was licensed before the U.S. government changed its call sign conventions. Prior to 1923, call signs beginning with W were generally assigned to stations east of an irregular line forming the western borders of states from North Dakota south to Texas, with calls beginning with K going to stations in states west of that line. In 1923, the dividing line was shifted to the Mississippi River.
Contents
Programming
970 WDAY features local talk shows weekdays and Saturday mornings. Evenings and weekends feature a variety of syndicated programming. The station also airs various sports programming from the University of North Dakota.
Tower collapse and new transmitter
On May 30, 2011, a severe thunderstorm damaged WDAY's AM Radio tower system (which was located on Main Avenue in West Fargo, North Dakota). Of its three towers, one completely collapsed, the second snapped approximately two-thirds of the way up, and the third remained standing but severely mangled, knocking WDAY off the air. WDAY was able to get back on the air several days later with the remaining tower, using their full 5kW non-direction signal during the day, but only 1.2 kW at night, as the two towers lost transmitted the directional 5 kW signal at night.[2] The FCC granted WDAY a construction permit to make it a 10kW full-time signal from a new transmitter site near Barnesville, Minnesota. The new transmitter began broadcasting at full power in March 2013. [3]
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://wdayradio.areavoices.com/2011/05/31/wday-970am-live-streaming-now-available-wday-tv-news-on/
- ↑ https://secure.forumcomm.com/?publisher_ID=1&article_id=392536
External links
- WDAY website
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WDAY
- Radio-Locator Information on WDAY
- Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WDAY
- FCC construction permit
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