WWHN - AM 1510 - Joliet, IL

On November 30, 1989, Raymond and Tornelia Hawkins acquired ownership of WWHN Radio, which at the time was a local radio station with only 500 watts covering the southwest suburbs. The Hawkins, were people of vision. In order to compete in a major market, such as Chicago, several things must ... See more happen. 1. The station must have a unique format that listeners would enjoy. 2. The station must have a powerful signal that adequately services the people in which we want to reach. The station must have a signal in which a person with the most inexpensive radio could pick up easily. 3. The station must have interesting and entertaining radio personalities with an innovative approach to entertain. 4. The station must break new ground with fun on-air promotions and contests that would rival any station in the market. Well, to point (1), when WWHN was purchased, it was a local station with only 500 watts of power. Within one year, Hawkins Broadcasting petitioned the Federal Communications Commission and was granted an increase in power to 1000 watts on a clear channel frequency. What this means basically is our 1000 watts is the equivalency of some 5000 watt directional AM stations in the Chicago market. But WWHN was not complete there. We have petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to once again increase our power to an additional 1500 watts which would give us more density of signal in the Chicago area. Our coverage area is presently from Michigan City on the east, to the Iowa border on the western extremity, from Champaign/Urbana on the south, to Racine Wisconsin on the north. In essence, our signal coverage is the best of any urban station in the Chicago market. WWHN is a gospel radio station. In the past when someone would mention gospel, it would become synonymous with a religious station. Meaning every word said would be, God Is, God Was, God Must Be" …The announcers tend to be dull, stoic and reverent, condemning and condescending. In essence, another version of church, i.e. everything had to be truly anointed, every advertiser had to be sent to them by God, and every statement must be backed by bible doctrine. The people that listen tend to be older, fanatical, and take the radio station and the announcers as messengers of God. We have found through our research that the majority of the people who enjoy gospel music did not fit into this classification.

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