WALE (990
AM) was a
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 to the community of
Greenville, Rhode Island
Greenville is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in the New England town, town of Smithfield, Rhode Island, Smithfield in Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 8,658 at the 20 ...
, and serving the
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...
, area. The station was last owned by Cumbre Communications Corp. The
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
(FCC) announced that the station's license was deleted on April 1, 2014.
History
WLKW
WLKW began official broadcasting on April 12, 1961, as Rhode Island's only 50 kW radio station during daylight hours only. This fact was noted in the calls as "LKW" really reads as "50 (L in Roman Numerals) KiloWatts" (sic). For most of its life the station's format was
easy listening
Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...
. After being dropped from this station, the WLKW call sign was used by
790 AM
The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 790 kHz: The Federal Communications Commission classifies 790 AM as a regional broadcast frequency.
In Argentina
* LR6 Mitre in Buenos Aires
* LRA22 in San Salvador de Jujuy, Jujuy
...
from 1989 to 1997, on
550 AM
The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 550 kHz, which the Federal Communications Commission classifies as a regional frequency.
Argentina
* La Primera in Neuquén, Neuquén. (still have no call sign assigned)
Bolivia
* CP ...
in
Pawtucket from 1997 to 2000, and on
1450 AM
The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on AM broadcasting, AM frequency 1450 kHz: 1450 AM is a Regional and Local broadcast frequency.
Argentina
* LRJ211 in San Juan.
* LRI203 El Sol in Buenos Aires.
Bermuda
*VSB
Canada ...
in
West Warwick from 2002 to 2017.
As WALE
The station was assigned the WALE call sign from the FCC on July 24, 1989.
The WALE callsign was held for some 25 or so years by a different company operating
WHTB
WHTB (1400 AM) is a Portuguese language radio station in Fall River, Massachusetts, operating with 1 kW unlimited hours.
History
WALE began broadcasting May 6, 1948, on 1400 kHz with 250 watts of power (full-time). It was owned b ...
out of the basement of an abandoned theater in Fall River, Massachusetts. Colonel Milton Mittler (formerly of
WADK
WADK (1540 AM) is a radio station licensed to serve Newport, Rhode Island, United States. The station is owned by 3G Broadcasting, Inc. It airs a business news/talk format, with jazz airing each weekend.
The station, the first to be built o ...
) was the owner.
When Francis Battaglia's North American Broadcasting Company bought WEAN, they attempted to program a talk format. The top-rated show at this time was hosted by Rhode Island talk show legend Steve White (d. 2004). WALE nearly lost its FCC license when, on July 9, 1991, it broadcast that Steve White had been shot and killed during his afternoon talk show. The news report led to an immediate response by local law enforcement and media and the station soon after announced that the report was "a dramatization". White, who had been the most popular radio talk show host in Rhode Island in the early 1980s, was fired immediately after the incident, which, effectively, ended his long career as a local radio personality.
In the summer of 1991, WALE host Bob Giammarco was recognized by Arbitron as having the top-rated evening program (After Hours with Bob Giammarco) in the market. This was no small feat considering the evening signal was quite low and the listening area was limited.
As the 1990s wore on, the station added more and more brokered programming until the station aired nothing but brokered programming. While much of its programming was from doctors, lawyers and practitioners of alternative medicine, WALE earned a reputation in the Providence area as having fringe programming, such as
American Dissident Voices program of the neo-Nazi
National Alliance National Alliance may refer to:
Electoral alliances
*National Alliance (Egypt) (2015)
* National Alliance (Ireland) (2024 onwards)
* National Alliance (Pakistan) (2002-2004)
*Nation Alliance (Turkey) (2018-2023)
Political parties and organizations ...
, which aired from 4-4:30 p.m. on Saturdays. WALE was also the home of Rick Adams, a follower of
Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby
Liberty Lobby was a far-right think tank and lobby group founded in 1958 by Willis Carto. Carto was known for his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories, white nationalism, and Holocaust denial.
The organization produced a daily five-min ...
, who aired discussions promoting
Holocaust denial
Historical negationism, Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazi Party, Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims:
...
.
WALE was first attempted to be sold in 2002 to Jerry Evans' Moon Song Communications, but was ultimately sold at a bankruptcy auction in 2003 to Cumbre Communications, where it reemerged as "Supermax 990", a Spanish-language format. Cumbre also attempted to change WALE's call letters to WMAX, which was impossible due to
an existing AM station in
Bay City, Michigan
Bay City is a city in Bay County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The population was 32,661 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is located just upriver from the Saginaw Bay on the Saginaw River. It is the princip ...
already holding the callsign. Cumbre Communications declared bankruptcy themselves in 2004 to try to avoid completing their purchase of the station after they learned the transmitter site had serious environmental issues.
WALE went silent on December 29, 2006, and returned to the airwaves in late 2007 at half power. In January 2008, the station requested permission to go silent again based on a technical problem causing the transmitter to consume a quantity of electricity that made the station "economically unfeasible" to operate. The FCC rejected that request. According to the filing, Cumbre Communications is still in bankruptcy, as a "
debtor in possession
A debtor in possession or DIP in United States bankruptcy law is a person or corporation who has filed a bankruptcy petition, but remains in possession of property upon which a creditor has a lien or similar security interest. A debtor becomes t ...
".
At one point the station wasi airing a Spanish-language adult contemporary format as "Amor 990" (Love 990).
The station was an affiliate of the
Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ch ...
Beisbol Network in 2005 & 2008.
In 2009, it went back on the air as "WALE ABC Radio News Now 990" and became an affiliate of
ABC News Radio
ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News (United States), ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five-minute newscasts on the hour ...
. For a brief period, they broadcast an audio feed of
WLNE-TV
WLNE-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Providence, Rhode Island, area. The station is owned by Standard Media, and maintains studios in the Orms ...
's former
24-hour
The modern 24-hour clock is the convention of timekeeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours. This is indicated by the hours (and minutes) passed since midnight, from to , with as an option to indicate ...
cable news
Cable news channels are television networks devoted to television news broadcasts, with the name deriving from the proliferation of such networks during the 1980s with the advent of cable television.
In the United States, the first nationwide ca ...
television channel, ''
NewsChannel 5'' (formerly the ''Rhode Island News Channel''), in various timeslots. On
Labor Day
Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...
2009, WALE carried WLNE's entire broadcast of ''
The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon
The ''MDA Labor Day Telethon'' was an annual telethon held on (starting the night before and throughout) Labor Day in the United States to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). The Muscular Dystrophy Association was founded in ...
'', which was being simulcast on ''NewsChannel 5'' (now operated by
WJAR
WJAR (channel 10) is a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios on Kenney Drive in Cranston, Rhode Island (shared with Telemundo owned-and-op ...
as ''
Ocean State Networks (OSN)''). An assortment of odd brokered fare also emerged once again on the station.
As of August 18, 2010, WALE was noted as silent. As of April 1, 2014, it had not filed for a renewal of its license and it was deleted by the FCC
References
External links
Facility details for Facility ID 49128 (WLE)in the FCC Licensing and Management System
FCC History Cards for WALE(covering 1958-1981 as WLKW)
Old WALE website on www.archive.org
{{Other Radio Stations in Rhode Island
ALE
Ale is a style of beer, brewed using a warm fermentation method. In medieval England, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops.
As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to balance the malt and act as a preservative. Ale ...
Radio stations established in 1961
Radio stations disestablished in 2010
Defunct radio stations in the United States
Smithfield, Rhode Island
1961 establishments in Rhode Island
2010 disestablishments in Rhode Island
ALE
Ale is a style of beer, brewed using a warm fermentation method. In medieval England, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops.
As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to balance the malt and act as a preservative. Ale ...