WBIS (1190 AM) was an American

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 ...

broadcasting a

News Talk Information 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, interviews wi ...

format. Licensed to

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...

, United States, the station served the

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

area. The station was last owned by Nations Radio, LLC (a subsidiary of Potomac Radio, LLC). In early 2011, WBIS's callsign was briefly changed to WCRW. Two weeks later the station was deleted, in order clear the way for a Leesburg, Virginia station to expand its operations.

History

The station was first licensed, as WANN in Annapolis, on March 6, 1947. The station's callsign was changed to WBIS (reflecting a "business" format) on September 21, 1998. On May 16, 1960, WANN added a sister F.M. station: WANN-FM/107.9. WANN-FM is today’s WLZL. As of April 2010, WBIS, along with

WAGE A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work (human activity), work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include wiktionary:compensatory, compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', ''prevailin ...

Leesburg, Virginia Leesburg is a town in and the county seat of Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. It is part of both the Northern Virginia region of the state and the Washington metropolitan area, including Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. European se ...

, effectively had the same ownership. On October 29, 2008, the Leesburg station received permission from 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) to move from 1200 to 1190 kHz and raise its power to 50 kW. On April 21, 2010, the FCC approved applications for WAGE to increase its daytime power to 50 kW and nighttime power to 1,300 watts from different antenna sites on the new frequency. The call sign WCRW was briefly parked on the Annapolis station beginning on January 28. On February 10, 2011, its license was cancelled, and the station was shut down, in order to make room for WAGE's move to expanded operations on 1190 kHz. (WAGE in Leesburg in turn changed its call sign to WCRW on April 7, 2011.)

References

External links

Facility details for Facility ID 2297 (WCRW)
in the FCC Licensing and Management System
FCC History Cards for WBIS/WCRW Annapolis
(covering 1946-1981 as WANN) BIS Defunct radio stations in the United States Radio stations disestablished in 2011 Radio stations established in 1947 BIS 1947 establishments in Maryland 2011 disestablishments in Maryland BIS {{Maryland-radio-station-stub