WARW is a

Christian worship In Christianity, worship is the act of attributing reverent honour and homage to God. In the New Testament, various words are used to refer to the term worship. One is ("to worship") which means to bow down to God or kings. Throughout mo ...

formatted radio station, licensed to

Port Chester, New York Port Chester is a village in the U.S. state of New York and the largest part of the town of Rye in Westchester County by population. At the 2010 U.S. census, the village of Port Chester had a population of 28,967 and was the fifth-most popul ...

and is the

Air 1 Air1 is an American Christian radio network. Owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), it primarily broadcasts contemporary worship music, and is a sister to the EMF's K-Love network. History In 1986, KLRD began broadcasting Christian ...

radio affiliate for

Westchester County, New York Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

and the Connecticut Panhandle. The station is currently owned by

Educational Media Foundation Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's large ...

and its transmitter is located in

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...

History

WARW went on the air in 1947 as WSTC-FM licensed to

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2 ...

and simulcasting

WSTC WSTC (1400 kHz) is a public AM radio station in Stamford, Connecticut. It serves the Stamford- Norwalk area with a non-commercial, listener-supported news/talk radio format, simulcast with co-owned WSHU 1260 AM Westport, Connecticut. WSTC is ow ...

. On February 19, 1974, the call letters were changed to WYRS and the station began programming an automated

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator m ...

format aimed at women using the moniker "Yours 96.7". At 6:00 p.m. on September 2, 1980 WYRS switched to a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

format after WRVR in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

had switched formats from jazz to

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

. On December 17, 1981, the station was sold to Radio Stamford Inc. The call letters were changed to WJAZ in 1987. In 1990, the format was changed to an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as wel ...

format of songs from 1954 to 1973 and the call letters changed to WQQQ with branding as "Q-96.7". From 1992 to 2006, the station was known as WKHL, branded as "Kool 96.7", with no change in format. On March 29, 2006, the station changed from oldies to

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 198 ...

as ''96.7 The Coast'' under the WCTZ calls. The

FCC 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 jurisdictio ...

approved an allocations shift to Port Chester, New York in December 2006 which allowed the station greater access to New York City; at the time, the station still marketed itself strictly to a Fairfield County audience. On November 5, 2010,

announced they would be purchasing WCTZ and moving the transmitter to the Trump Plaza in New Rochelle, serving as the K-LOVE affiliate for New York City with the call letters WKLV-FM; the sale was completed in mid-May 2011, after which the station went silent for a few weeks to relocate its transmitter. On February 13, 2019, WPLJ New York and five other Cumulus Media stations were sold to the

Rocklin, California Rocklin is a city in Placer County, California, about from Sacramento, and about northeast of Roseville in the Sacramento metropolitan area. Besides Roseville, it shares borders with Granite Bay, Loomis and Lincoln. As of the 2010 census, Ro ...

-based nonprofit broadcaster,

(EMF) for $103.5 million. After the sale received final approval by the FCC, EMF announced that WPLJ and the other Cumulus stations acquired would all begin broadcasting its primary programming service, K-Love, on June 1 at midnight local time; this was later moved up to May 31 at 7:00 p.m., five hours earlier than originally planned. EMF's acquisition of WPLJ created a

duopoly A duopoly (from Greek δύο, ''duo'' "two" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market. It is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicity ...

for their non-profit enterprise in the New York City market. Between May 31 and July 10, 2019, EMF programmed both WKLV-FM and WPLJ with K-Love programming, but this was not a true

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/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, simult ...

, as a time-delay existed between both stations. On July 11, 2019, the duplicated programming arrangement ceased as EMF swapped the WKLV-FM call-sign with their K-Love affiliate for

Butler, Alabama Butler is a town in and the county seat of Choctaw County, Alabama, United States. The population was 1,894 at the 2010 census. History When Choctaw County was formed in 1847, Butler was created as the county seat. The town was located and se ...

, WMKQ. Simultaneously, EMF discontinued K-Love programming over 96.7 FM and replaced it with a looping message stating that K-Love programming for the New York City market had moved exclusively to WPLJ and that sister network

would soon be launched on 96.7. On July 19, 2019, Air 1 programming began on the station, which concurrently changed its call letters to WARW (transferred from the Air 1 station in

Remsen, New York Remsen is a town in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 1,929 at the 2010 census. The town is named after Henry Remsen, an early settler. The Town of Remsen contains a village also named Remsen. The town is north of the c ...

). On July 26, 2019, WARW moved "K-Love Classics" from 96.7 HD-3 to 96.7 HD-2, and Radio Nueva Vida started broadcasting on the HD3 subchannel.

References

External links

* {{Air 1 ARW (FM) Radio stations established in 1947 1947 establishments in New York (state) Air1 radio stations Educational Media Foundation radio stations ARW (FM)