WCHR (1040

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 ...

AM radio AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transmi ...

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

Flemington, New Jersey Flemington is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in and the county seat of Hunterdon County, New Jersey, Hunterdon County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Central New Jersey Central Jersey, or Central New Jersey, is the middle region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The designation Central Jersey is a distinct administrative division, administrative toponymy, toponym. While New Jersey is often divided into North Je ...

and Eastern Pennsylvania. It airs a

Christian talk and teaching Christian radio refers to Christian media radio formats that focus on Christian religious broadcasting or various forms of Christian music. Many such formats and programs include contemporary Christian music, gospel music, sermons, radio dramas, ...

format and is owned and operated by

Townsquare Media Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...

, with studios and offices in Ewing, New Jersey. By day, WCHR is powered at 15,000

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. But at night it greatly reduces its power to 1,500 watts.

AM 1040 The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1040 kHz: 1040 AM is a United States clear-channel frequency. WHO Des Moines is the dominant station on 1040 AM. In Argentina * LRG203 Antena in Santa Rosa In Canada In Mexico ...

is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A

WHO The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 6 regional offices and 15 ...

Des Moines Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

so WCHR must avoid interference. It uses

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

with a three-

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

by day and four

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

s at night. During

critical hours Critical hours for radio stations is the time from sunrise to two hours after sunrise, and from two hours before sunset until sunset, local time. During this time, certain American radio stations may be operating with reduced power as a result of Se ...

it broadcasts at 7,500 watts. The

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 off Locktown Road in

Kingwood, New Jersey Kingwood Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, Hunterdon County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located on the Hunterdon Plateau. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 3,802 ...

.Radio-Locator.com/WCHR-AM
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Programming

WCHR is a

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 ...

station. It sells blocks of airtime, where hosts may use their shows to seek donations to their ministries. National religious leaders heard on WCHR include John MacArthur, Jim Daly,

Chuck Swindoll Charles Rozell Swindoll (born October 18, 1934) is an evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator, and radio preacher. He founded Insight for Living, headquartered in Frisco, Texas, which airs a radio program of the same name on more than 2 ...

James Dobson James Clayton Dobson Jr. (born April 21, 1936) is an American evangelicalism, evangelical Christian author, psychologist, and founder of Focus on the Family (FotF), which he led from 1977 until 2010. In the 1980s, he was ranked as one of the m ...

, Kay Arthur, J. Vernon McGee, Michael Youssef,

Joni Eareckson Tada Joni Eareckson Tada (born October 15, 1949) is an American evangelical Christian author, radio host, artist, and founder of Joni and Friends, an organization "accelerating Christian ministry in the disability community". Early life Joni Eareck ...

and

Adrian Rogers Adrian Pierce Rogers (September 12, 1931 – November 15, 2005) was an American Baptist pastor and conservative author. He served three terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1979–1980 and 1986–1988). Early life and educatio ...

History

Jersey Hometown Radio

The station

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 ...

in . Originally its

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 WJHR ("Jersey Hometown Radio") with an

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

format. In February 1998, the station began broadcasting in

AM stereo AM stereo is a term given to a series of mutually incompatible techniques for radio broadcasting stereo audio in the AM band in a manner that is compatible with standard AM receivers. There are two main classes of systems: independent sideban ...

using the

C-QUAM C-QUAM (Compatible QUadrature Amplitude Modulation) is the method of AM stereo broadcasting used in Canada, the United States and most other countries. It was invented in 1977 by Norman Parker, Francis Hilbert, and Yoshio Sakaie, and published in ...

system. In December of that year, the station changed its format to

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (CHR, also known as contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top ...

(Top 40). It briefly broadcast a

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 called "Chat Radio" on May 3, 1999, and the station turned off the AM stereo system. It later had short stints as a business talk station and an

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

station before adopting the call letters and religious format of WCHR. WCHR which had been operating on 920 AM in Trenton, in 2002.

Sports station

On January 3, 2008,

Nassau Broadcasting Partners Nassau Broadcasting Partners LP was a company based in Princeton, New Jersey that owned radio stations in New England and the Mid-Atlantic United States. Nassau's stations, which included both AM and FM frequencies, were located in Maryland, New J ...

announced that 1040 AM would drop the religious format and switch to a full-time simulcast of New York City's sports station WEPN 1050 AM. Nassau moved the religious programming and the WCHR call sign back to 920, which had been broadcasting as a Philadelphia-oriented ESPN Radio affiliate under the call letters WPHY. On February 5, 2008, the station took the WNJE call sign. On May 21, 2012, WNJE ended the simulcast of WEPN and joined

ESPN Deportes Radio ESPN Deportes Radio was an American Spanish language sports radio network created and produced by Disney-owned ESPN. Programming included call-in talk shows and commentary from hosts about a full range of sporting events, including soccer, ...

, a Spanish-language sports station. This came in advance of WEPN's own switch to ESPN Deportes Radio in September, after ESPN Radio took over the operations of

WEPN-FM WEPN-FM (98.7 FM, "La Exitosa 98.7") is a radio station in New York City, owned by Emmis Corporation. The station carries a Spanish-language format with a gold-based mix of Latin pop and English-language adult contemporary music. The station' ...

in April. WNJE and nine other Nassau stations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania were purchased at a

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

cy auction by NB Broadcasting in May 2012. NB Broadcasting is controlled by Nassau's creditors —

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

, Pluss Enterprises, and P.E. Capital. In November, NB Broadcasting filed a motion to assign its rights to the stations to

Connoisseur Media Connoisseur Media LLC is an American media company. It is based in Westport, Connecticut and led by Jeff Warshaw. As of May 2024, Connoisseur operates 13 radio stations and digital assets in four U.S. markets: Frederick, MD, Nassau-Suffolk, NY, Ne ...

Back to Christian Radio

On December 3, 2012, WNJE dropped ESPN Deportes Radio and began simulcasting the religious format of sister station WCHR 920. The sale to Connoisseur Media, at a price of $38.7 million, was consummated on May 29, 2013. On November 13, 2013, the simulcast of the religious format ended, and the Christian programming was subsequently heard only on 1040. AM 920 adopted a secular

format, changed its call letters back to WNJE and later was sold. (It is now a

Regional Mexican Regional Mexican music refers collectively to the regional subgenres of the country music of Mexico and its derivatives from the Southwestern United States. Each subgenre is representative of a certain region and its popularity also varies by ...

station.) The WCHR call sign was once again moved to 1040. Effective July 2, 2018, WCHR and sister stations WNJE and 94.5 WPST were sold to Townsquare Media for $17.3 million.

References

External links

* Flemington, New Jersey CHR Townsquare Media radio stations Radio stations established in 1998 1998 establishments in New Jersey Religious radio stations in the United States {{NewJersey-radio-station-stub