WSTN (1410 AM) was an American

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

formerly

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to serve

Somerville Somerville may refer to: *Somerville College, Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford Places *Somerville, Victoria, Australia * Somerville, Western Australia, a suburb of Kalgoorlie, Australia * Somerville, New Zealand, a subur ...

, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

Fayette County, Tennessee Fayette County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 41,990. Its county seat is Somerville. The county was named after the Marquis de la Fayette, French hero of the American Revolution. ...

. The station was established in 1983 as "WJED", and changed to "WSTN" in 1986. Since 2002 its

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary ...

was held by

Jimmy Swaggart Jimmy Lee Swaggart (; born March 15, 1935) is an American Pentecostalism, Pentecostal televangelism, televangelist, southern gospel, gospel music recording artist, pianist, and Christian author. His television ministry, which began in 1971, an ...

's Family Worship Center Church, Inc. The station went silent on October 25, 2006.

Programming

Before falling silent, WSTN broadcast a

Gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

to Fayette County and

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, as an affiliate of Jimmy Swaggart's

SonLife Radio Network Jimmy Lee Swaggart (; born March 15, 1935) is an American Pentecostal televangelist, gospel music recording artist, pianist, and Christian author. His television ministry, which began in 1971, and was originally known as the “Camp Meeting H ...

History

Launch

In September 1979, Fayette County Broadcasting Company applied to the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) for a

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

for a new class B broadcast radio station to operate with 500

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s of power on a frequency of 1410

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...

. The FCC granted this permit on June 19, 1981, with a scheduled expiration date of June 19, 1982. The new station was assigned

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

"WJED" on December 1, 1981. After construction and testing were completed, the station was granted its

on February 25, 1983.

WJED era

In May 1984, Fayette County Broadcasting Company applied to the FCC to transfer the WJED license to the similarly named Fayette County Broadcasting Company, Inc. The FCC approved the move on May 31, 1984, and the transaction was formally consummated on August 29, 1984. Almost immediately, Fayette County Broadcasting Company, Inc., made a deal to sell WJED to Floyd Broadcasting, Inc., but this request was ultimately dismissed on December 6, 1984, at the request of Floyd Broadcasting. Fayette County Broadcasting Company, Inc., made another bid to sell the station in May 1986, this time to Fayette County Broadcasting Service. The FCC approved the deal on July 8, 1986, and the transaction was formally consummated on August 8, 1986. The new owners had the FCC assign the station new

"WSTN" on September 22, 1986.

WSTN era

In June 1989, Fayette County Broadcasting sold the station to C.I.T.A. Broadcasters, Inc. The sale received FCC approval on August 24, 1989, and the deal was formally consummated on October 23, 1989. In April 1995, C.I.T.A. Broadcasting, Inc., made a deal to transfer the WSTN broadcast license to Fayette County Broadcasting. The move was approved by the FCC on June 13, 1995, and consummated on August 21, 1995. In November 1996, Fayette County Broadcasting made a deal to sell WSTN to Patria Communications, Inc., but even though the deal gained FCC acceptance on March 12, 1997, the transaction was never consummated and control of WSTN remained with Fayette County Broadcasting. On May 3, 2002, Fayette County Broadcasting's Pat Roberson signed a contract to sell WSTN and its assets to the

-owned Family Worship Center Church, Inc., for a total of $50,000. As part of the deal, Family Worship Center Church immediately took over operation of the station under a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...

while the sale was pending. WSTN became an affiliate of Jimmy Swaggart's

. The FCC approved the sale on September 5, 2002, and the transaction was consummated on December 4, 2002.

Falling silent

WSTN went temporarily

dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lum ...

on October 25, 2006, after license holder Family Worship Center Church, Inc., got into a dispute with the leaseholder of the station's broadcast tower site that made it, in the licensee's words, "impossible to operate the radio station". The FCC granted the station

special temporary authority Special Temporary Authority (STA) in U.S. broadcast law is a type of broadcast license which temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside of its normal technical or legal parameters. In the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stat ...

to remain silent on October 30, 2006, with a scheduled expiration on January 30, 2007. In January 2007, the dispute was not resolved so the station requested an extension which was granted on January 18, 2007, with a new expiration date on April 30, 2007. In April 2007, the station reported that the dispute was not yet resolved and that they were seeking alternative transmitter sites in case no resolution could be reached. The FCC granted them an additional extension on May 1, 2007, with an expiration of August 1, 2007. Normally, under the provisions of the

Telecommunications Act of 1996 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of t ...

, any broadcast station that fails to operate for one full year is subject to automatic forfeiture and cancellation of their

. At the licensee's request, WSTN's license was cancelled on April 5, 2012.

References

External links

FCC Station Search Details: DWSTN
(Facility ID: 8062)
Family Worship Center Media Church
{{Religious Radio Stations in Tennessee STN Radio stations established in 1982 Fayette County, Tennessee Radio stations disestablished in 2012 Defunct radio stations in the United States 1982 establishments in Tennessee Defunct religious radio stations in the United States 2012 disestablishments in Tennessee STN