KWUL (920

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...

) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

licensed A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) 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 part ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, and serving the

Greater St. Louis Greater St. Louis is the 23rd-largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States, the largest in Missouri, and the second-largest in Illinois. Its core city—St. Louis, Missouri—sits in the geographic center of the metro area, ...

media market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television station, television and radio broadcasting, ra ...

. The station is owned by Louis Eckelkamp, through licensee East Central Broadcasting, LLC. KWUL 920 airs an

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana music, a genre or style of American music * Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1981 film), an American drama film * ''Americana'' (20 ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

. The studios and offices are on Hampton Avenue in St. Louis. KWUL is a Class B station. It transmits with 450

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), 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 quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s by day and 500 watts at night. Its

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is near the

Interstate 255 Interstate 255 (I-255) is a bypass route of I-55 in Greater St. Louis. Along with I-270, it forms a loop around the central portion of the bi-state metro area; a majority of I-255 is located on the Illinois half. It shares its southern ...

Illinois Route 255 Illinois Route 255 (IL 255), also referred to as the Alton Bypass, is a northwesterly extension of Interstate 255 (I-255) in southwestern Illinois in the St. Louis metropolitan area. IL 255 starts at I-270 in Pontoon Beach an ...

/ Interstate 270 interchange, off Chain of Rocks Road in

Edwardsville, Illinois Edwardsville is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The population was 26,808 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city was named in honor of Ninian Edwards, former governor of the Illinois Te ...

. Programming is also heard on

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

K268CT, 101.5

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

in St. Louis.

History

Talk, Top 40, Country

The station first

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on December 1, 1961. Its original

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 as ...

was WGNU and its

city of license In U.S., Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American broadcast ...

was

Granite City, Illinois Granite City is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, within the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. The population was 27,549 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in the Metro East and S ...

. Founded by Chuck Norman and owned by him for the rest of his life, it was held in trust after his 2004 death. Under Norman's ownership, the station featured a wide-ranging local

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...

format. Norman also signed on FM

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

WGNU-FM (now 106.5

WARH WARH (106.5 MHz "106-5 The Arch") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Granite City, Illinois and serving Greater St. Louis, including sections of Illinois and Missouri. WARH is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting and airs an adult hits rad ...

) on November 24, 1965. For a time, WGNU had a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

format, then changed to

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

. It later tried

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

shows aimed at the

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

community.

Gospel, Sports and Urban Talk

WGNU was sold to Radio Property Ventures, owners of KXEN, on September 26, 2007. WGNU switched to an

urban gospel Urban/contemporary gospel, also known as urban gospel music, urban gospel pop, or just simply urban gospel, is a modern subgenre of gospel music. Although the style developed gradually, early forms are generally dated to the 1970s, and the genr ...

format. Former KFNS host Tim McKernan and his company, InsideSTL Enterprises, bought the weekday air time on WGNU, and the station switched its weekday programming to

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

talk on August 1, 2013. The weekday schedule consisted of 11 hours of local shows, as well as programming from

CBS Sports Radio Infinity Sports Network is an American sports radio network. It debuted as CBS Sports Radio with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013. Infinity Sports Network is programmed by Audacy, Inc ...

. The Urban Talk format continued to air on weekends. This lease agreement ended in September 2016, when insideSTL Enterprises took over the operations of KFNS and moved its programming onto that station.

Controversy

The station briefly made national headlines. Former

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

player Jack Clark, who cohosted "The King and the Ripper" with longtime St. Louis radio personality Kevin "the King" Slaten, claimed

Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, ...

slugger

Albert Pujols José Alberto Pujols Alcántara (, ; born December 11, 1985) is a Dominicans, Dominican professional baseball Manager (baseball), manager and former first baseman and designated hitter who is the manager of the Leones del Escogido of the Domin ...

had used

performance-enhancing drugs Performance-enhancing substances (PESs), also known as performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), are substances that are used to improve any form of activity performance in humans. Many substances, such as anabolic steroids, can be used to improve at ...

(PEDs) while Pujols was with the Cardinals. Clark had been the Cardinals' hitting coach during the early part of Pujols' 12-year tenure in St. Louis. Clark had said that he talked to Pujols' former personal trainer and said that "I know for a fact he was" using PEDs. Pujols responded by threatening Clark and WGNU with a

defamation Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

lawsuit, and vehemently denied that he had ever used PEDs. The trainer added that he hadn't even talked to Clark in over ten years. InsideSTL cut ties with Clark and Slaten after only seven shows. It also issued an apology to Pujols.

Sports betting

In 2018, the station's

community of license In U.S., Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American broadcast ...

was changed from Granite City to St. Louis, Missouri. On October 12, 2021, WGNU changed its format from

brokered programming Brokered programming (also known as time-buy and blocktime) is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot com ...

sports gambling Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. Sports bettors place their wagers either legally, through a sportsbook or bookmaker (colloquially known as "bookies"), or illegally through priva ...

, branded as "The Game". It used programming from the VSiN Sports Betting Network, based in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

.Sports Betting The Game Debuts In St. Louis
Radioinsight - October 12, 2021

Americana

In early 2023, it switched to a

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

101.7 KWUL-FM in

Elsberry, Missouri Elsberry is a city in Lincoln County, Missouri, Lincoln County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,937 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History Elsberry was laid out in 1871, and named after one of its founders, Robert T ...

. The stations are running a mix of Southern-influenced

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

and

Americana music Americana (also known as American roots music) is an amalgam of Music of the United States, American music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the musical ethos of the United States of America, with particul ...

. On March 27, 2023, the station changed its call sign to KWUL. Effective May 8, 2023, Radio Property Ventures sold KWUL, KXEN, and translator K264CY to Louis Eckelkamp's East Central Broadcasting for $210,000.

Previous logo

References

External links

* * {{St. Louis Radio WUL (AM) Madison County, Illinois Radio stations established in 1962 1962 establishments in Illinois Americana radio stations