WFIA (900 AM) 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 ...

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 ...

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

, airing 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, ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

. It is owned by the Word Media Group through its subsidiary Word Broadcasting Network, Inc. WFIA uses 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 ...

system where religious leaders pay for time on the station and may use their programs to seek donations to their ministries. Programs are hosted by

Greg Laurie Greg Laurie (born December 10, 1952) is an American evangelical pastor, evangelist, and Christian author who serves as the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, based in Riverside, California. He also is the founder of Harvest Crusa ...

David Jeremiah David Jeremiah (born February 13, 1941) is an American evangelical Christian author, founder of Turning Point Radio and Television Ministries and senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch in El Cajon, Ca ...

, Jim Daly,

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 ...

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 ...

Charles Stanley Charles Frazier Stanley Jr. (September 25, 1932 – April 18, 2023) was an American Southern Baptist pastor and writer. He was senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta for 49 years and took on ''emeritus'' status in 2020. He founded a ...

, John MacArthur,

J. Vernon McGee John Vernon McGee (June 17, 1904 – December 1, 1988) was an American ordained Presbyterian minister, pastor, Bible teacher, theologian, and radio minister. Biography Childhood, education, and early ministry McGee was born in Hillsboro, Tex ...

and

Alistair Begg Alistair Begg (born May 22, 1952) is an American pastor of Scottish birth. He is the senior pastor of Cleveland's Parkside Church (located in Bainbridge Township, Geauga County, Ohio), a position he has held since 1983. He is the voice behind ...

. By day, WFIA is powered at 930

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

900 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 900 kHz: 900 AM is a Mexican and Canadian clear channel frequency. XEW Mexico City and CKBI Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, share Class A status on 900 kHz. Because 900 kHz is a m ...

is a Mexican clear channel frequency. So at night, to avoid interference, WFIA reduces power to 162 watts. Programming is also heard on

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

W29BV at 107.3

MHz 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 u ...

History

WKYW

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 ...

the air on . The original

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 WKYW. Its initial broadcast was a 25-minute preview of programs before initiating full service the next day. The station's original power was 1,000 watts, broadcasting from a transmitter site off River Road. Because of its location near the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

, the transmitter building was raised on aluminum pontoons. WKYW was a daytime-only outlet, required to be silent at night. One

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Chri ...

, the station recorded its entire programming on tape so all of its employees—save for an engineer—could take the holiday off. In its programming, WKYW emphasized music, with a minimum of talk. WKYW was also noteworthy by the mid-1960s for the use of a helicopter to report traffic conditions.

WFIA

In 1965, the Polaris Corporation, owners of WKYW, opted to relaunch the station as a

Christian radio 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, ...

outlet. It used the call letters WFIA to stand for "With Faith In America." The new call sign went into effect on September 5. Along with the change in call letters, the station ceased to accept beer, wine and tobacco commercials. The traffic helicopter reports moved over to 970

WAVE In physics, mathematics, engineering, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from List of types of equilibrium, equilibrium) of one or more quantities. ''Periodic waves'' oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium ...

. In 1975, WFIA put its first FM

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

on the air, WFIA-FM 103.9. At first, both WFIA and WFIA-FM aired Christian preaching and talk shows with some music. But in the 1980s, the FM station was switched to WXLN, a

Contemporary Christian Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

outlet, while 900 WFIA's programming was exclusively Christian talk and teaching. WFIA and WXLN were sold in 1989 to Jim Kincer for $2.1 million.

Changes in ownership

In the 1990s, the stations changed hands multiple times. When the FM station prepared to flip to a secular music format, its longform religious programming migrated to 900 WFIA. Neon Communications split WFIA and the FM outlet, by that time known as WQLL, by selling them separately in 1994. The buyer for WFIA, paying $500,000, was Regent Broadcasting. Regent was acquired by

Jacor Jacor Communications was a media corporation, existing between 1987 and 1999, which owned many radio stations in the United States. In 1998, Jacor was purchased by Clear Channel Communications, now iHeartMedia, for $2.8 billion. Jacor Communicat ...

in 1996. Under Jacor ownership, Ohio River flooding briefly forced WFIA and its riverside transmitter off the air in March 1997. The

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public university, public research university in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. Chartered in 1798 as the Jefferson Seminary, it became in the 19t ...

allowed the station to temporarily broadcast from an unused tower on its campus.

Salem Media

When Jacor was merged into

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

three years later, the company was required to divest 18 radio stations. That included WFIA, which was sold to Blue Chip Broadcasting. The

Salem Media Group Salem Media Group, Inc. (formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher based in Irving, Texas, targeting audiences interested in Christian values and wh ...

, the largest owner of religious radio stations in the U.S., decided to acquire WFIA in 2001. The price tag was $1.75 million. Salem owned the station for 15 years. On December 22, 2016, Salem announced that it would hand operation of its Louisville radio stations, including WFIA, to Word Broadcasting Network (also known as Word Media Group) under a time brokerage agreement. Programming of WFIA was changed to a

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) ...

of Word's Contemporary Christian station, 88.5

WJIE-FM WJIE-FM (88.5 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a contemporary Christian format. Licensed to Okolona, Kentucky, United States, the station serves the Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixt ...

Word Broadcasting

WFIA carried the WJIE call letters for 10 months in 2017 before reverting to WFIA in October. On February 10, 2020, Word Broadcasting announced that it would take advantage of the option in its agreement to acquire Salem's stations in Louisville, including WFIA, for $4 million. The sale was completed on May 25, 2022. By 2023, WFIA was again carrying Christian preaching programming simulcast with WFIA-FM 94.7. WFIA changed its call sign to WLGK on August 1, 2023. Then on August 10, that call sign was moved to 94.7, with AM 900 again returning to WFIA. The call sign changes were coupled with a format flip at 94.7 to

worship music Contemporary worship music (CWM), also known as praise and worship music, is a distinct genre of Christian music used in contemporary worship. It has evolved over the past 60 years and is stylistically similar to pop music. The songs are of ...

as WLGK. With WLGK now a Christian music station, the talk and teaching programs continue on 900 WFIA and its translator at 107.3 FM.

Translator

WFIA's signal is repeated over

station W297BV on 107.3 MHz, also in Louisville.

References

External links

* * {{Religious Radio Stations in Kentucky FIA Radio stations established in 1947 1947 establishments in Kentucky FIA