WYFR was a

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...

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 ...

located in

Okeechobee, Florida Okeechobee ( ) is a city in south-central Florida and is the county seat of Okeechobee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 5,254. It is the county seat of Okeechobee County. The Lake Okee ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The station was owned by Family Stations, Inc., as part of the

Family Radio Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

network, and used to broadcast traditional

Christian radio Christian radio is a Christian media radio format that focus on programming with a Christian message. Many such broadcasters play contemporary Christian music, though many programs include sermons, radio dramas, as well as news and talk progra ...

programming to international audiences. WYFR ceased all shortwave transmissions July 1, 2013. In December 2013, another shortwave broadcaster,

WRMI WRMI (Radio Miami International) is a shortwave radio station broadcasting from Okeechobee, Florida, United States. WRMI is a commercial radio station that sells airtime to businesses and organizations. Programming WRMI relays several internatio ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, purchased the WYFR transmission complex.

History

WYFR was descended from W1XAL, an experimental shortwave station in that was granted its license in 1927 and broadcast from

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

until 1936 when the station moved to Scituate, Massachusetts. In 1939, the call letters were changed to WRUL and initially served as an educational station broadcasting university lectures. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it became a propaganda station and was leased by the US government from 1942 until the end of the war. The station became

WNYW WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagship W ...

in 1966. In 1973, it was purchased by Family Stations, Inc, and began broadcasting as WYFR on October 20, 1973. The call sign stands for "We're Your Family Radio". The station built new transmitters in Okeechobee, Florida in 1977, and closed the Scituate site in 1979. In mid-2013 Family Radio announced it would be permanently closing WYFR on June 30, 2013. The station did in fact close but was purchased by

and brought back to the air in December 2013. The

interval signal An interval signal, or tuning signal, is a characteristic sound or musical phrase used in international broadcasting, numbers stations, and by some domestic broadcasters, played before commencement or during breaks in transmission, but most comm ...

of WYFR was a brass quintet playing the first eight bars of "To God Be the Glory".

Radio Taiwan International

Radio Taiwan International Radio Taiwan International (RTI; ) is the English name and call sign of the Central Broadcasting System (CBS), national broadcaster and international radio service of the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan. It is a government-owned sta ...

leased broadcast time on WYFR from Family Radio. After 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. until sometime the next morning

Eastern Time Zone The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...

(depending on

Daylight Saving Time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...

), WYFR broadcast RTI programming in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

, and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

. These broadcasts also ended on July 1, 2013. Family Radio, however, continued to host RTI's audio service to the Chinese community in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

area on a digital subchannel of Family Radio's television station,

WNYJ-TV WNYJ-TV (channel 66) was an independent non-commercial television station licensed to West Milford, New Jersey, United States. The station's transmitter was located in West Orange, New Jersey. Its broadcast license was owned by the Oakland, Calif ...

, until that station ceased operations on October 25, 2017.

References

External links

New Family RadioFCC information for WYFRHistory of WRUL-WYFR
{{US Shortwave Radio Family Radio stations YFR Radio stations established in 1973 Radio stations disestablished in 2013 Defunct radio stations in the United States Cantonese-language radio stations Chinese-language radio stations in the United States YFR Hakka Chinese Mandarin-language radio stations Shortwave radio stations in the United States 1973 establishments in Florida 2013 disestablishments in Florida Defunct religious radio stations in the United States YFR