WDAY (970 kHz "News-Talk 970 AM and 93.1 FM") is

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

's oldest

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 ...

, having first signed on in 1922. WDAY is licensed to

Fargo, North Dakota Fargo is the List of cities in North Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, Cass County. The population was 125,990 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, which was e ...

, owned and operated by Flag Family Media alongside WZFG. The transmitter site is near 210th Street South in Barnesville, Minnesota, and studios are on 8th Street South in Fargo. WDAY's power is 10,000

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, and its transmitter site has three towers. Two towers are used for the daytime

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 ...

, and all three at night, in order to protect other stations on 970 kHz from interference. WDAY's daytime signal covers the eastern half of North Dakota, west central Minnesota, northeastern South Dakota, and southern

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

Programming

WDAY features local talk shows weekdays hosted by Bonnie Amistadi, Steve Hallstrom, Ronnie Lee, Janae White, and Jay Thomas, as well as local news and weather updates and national news updates from

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 ...

. WDAY radio also airs newscasts

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) ...

from Valley News Live. Until 2025 it simulcasted newscasts from

WDAY-TV WDAY-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Fargo, North Dakota, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship television property of locally based Forum Communications ...

everyday, featured live sports play-by-play, and nationally syndicated programming. Shows include Markley, Van Camp, and Robbins,

Ben Shapiro Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative political commentator, media host, and attorney. He writes columns for Creators Syndicate, ''Newsweek'', and ''Ami Magazine'', an ...

, Red Eye Radio, Kim Komando, Gary Sullivan and Leo Laporte. From 1953 to 2025 through its co-ownership with WDAY-TV, the radio station has the capability to simulcast on WDAY-TV in the event of an emergency during WDAY-TV's typical off air hours. This occurred in 2009 during the Red River floods. This ended when the previous owner, Forum Communications, sold the station.

History

Effective December 1, 1921, the Department of Commerce, which regulated radio at this time, adopted regulations setting aside two wavelengths for use by broadcasting stations: 360 meters (833 kHz) for "entertainment" programs, and 485 meters (619 kHz) for "market and weather" reports. On May 23, 1922, WDAY's first license, as North Dakota's first radio station, was issued to Kenneth M. Hance at 117 Broadway in Fargo for operation on both wavelengths, although station publicity has traditionally reported that broadcasting began on the previous day. The WDAY call sign was randomly assigned from a sequential list of available

call letters 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 Identifier, unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be fo ...

. Currently most stations west of the Mississippi River have call letters beginning with "K". However, WDAY was licensed before the government changed the dividing line between W and K call signs. Prior to the January 1923 establishment of the Mississippi River as the boundary, call letters beginning with "W" were generally assigned to stations east of an irregular line formed by the western state borders from North Dakota south to Texas, with calls beginning with "K" going only to stations in states west of that line. In July, WDAY's schedule on 360 meters was reported to be musical programs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday plus baseball scores and general news daily at 7:30 p.m. except Sunday, and, on 485 meters, weather reports daily at 7:30 p.m., both by voice and by

Morse Code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...

. In 1923 ownership was changed to Fargo Radio Service (Kenneth N. Hance), which later became the Radio Equipment Corporation. On November 11, 1928, under the provisions of the

Federal Radio Commission The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by ...

's General Order 40, WDAY was assigned to 1280 kHz on a timeshare basis with

WEBC WEBC (560 Hertz, kHz) is a commercial radio, commercial AM broadcasting, AM radio station in Duluth, Minnesota, and serving the Duluth-Superior media market, radio market. It is owned by Townsquare Media and it airs a sports radio, sports rad ...

, then in Superior, Wisconsin. The next year WDAY moved to 940 kHz, now with unlimited hours of operation. On January 8, 1935, the

U.S. 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 ju ...

(FCC) approved increasing WDAY's power to 5,000 watts. The ''Fargo Forum'' newspaper obtained a minority interest in the station in 1935, and gained controlling interest of WDAY and WDAY-TV in 1960. On March 29, 1941, stations on 940 kHz moved to 970 kHz, with the implementation of the

North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, ; ) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations. These agreements also addressed how frequency assignments were d ...

. On May 30, 2011, a severe

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...

badly damaged WDAY's radio towers located on Main Avenue in West Fargo, North Dakota, knocking the station off the air. Of the three towers, one completely collapsed, a second snapped approximately two-thirds of the way up, and the third remained standing but severely mangled. WDAY was able to get back on the air several days later using the remaining tower, with the full 5,000 watt non-directional signal during the day, but only 1,200 watts at night, as the two towers which were lost were used for the directional 5,000 watt nighttime signal. The FCC granted WDAY a

construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...

to make it a 10,000 watt full-time signal from a new transmitter, which began broadcasting at full power in March 2013. An FM translator at 93.1 FM signed on the air Thursday, July 20, 2017. In 2020, Forum Communications Company entered into a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...

with Bakken Beacon Media, giving Flag Family Media full programming control of AM 970 and 93.1 FM."Local Marketing Agreement
November 6, 2020

References

External links

WDAY website
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FCC History Cards for WDAY
(covering 1927-1981) {{Coord, 46, 38, 48, N, 96, 21, 50, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title Radio stations in Fargo, North Dakota Forum Communications Company News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1922 Radio stations in Moorhead, Minnesota 1922 establishments in North Dakota

Programming

History

See also

References

External links