WFJS (1260 AM) is a

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

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

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, ...

, focusing on the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and carrying

EWTN The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) is an American basic cable television network which presents around-the-clock Catholic programming. It is the largest Catholic television network in America, and is purported to be "the world's larges ...

Radio Network programs. The station is owned by the Domestic Church Media Foundation, a Catholic-based organization in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County. It was the federal capital, capital of the United States from November 1 until D ...

. Programming is

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) ...

on WFJS-FM (89.3) in Freehold, New Jersey, as well as

WGYM WGYM (1580 Hertz, kHz) is a non-commercial AM broadcasting, AM radio station broadcasting a Religious broadcasting, religious radio format, format aimed at Catholic Church, Catholic listeners. The station is City of license, licensed to Hammonton ...

(1580 AM) in the

Atlantic City Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of the Atlantic City- Hammonton metropolitan sta ...

area and WSMJ (91.9 FM) in North Wildwood. By day, WFJS is powered at 5,900

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. To protect other stations on

1260 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1260 kHz: There are 55 stations in the United States which broadcast on 1260 AM; the Federal Communications Commission classifies 1260 AM as a regional frequency. Because 1260 kHz is a ...

from interference, at night it reduces power to 2,500 watts. It uses a

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 four-

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 ...

. 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 on Ewingville Road in

Ewing Township, New Jersey Ewing Township is a township in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township falls within the Trenton- Princeton metropolitan statistical area (which includes all of Mercer County), which is part of the New York combined sta ...

History

Early years

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 January 20, 1947, as WBUD. Carrying During an

NBC Radio The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it wa ...

during the early days. It was licensed to Morrisville, Pennsylvania, broadcasting at 1490 kHz. In 1952, WBUD moved to its current frequency of 1260 kHz as a Trenton-licensed station. During a period in the late 1970s, the station held the

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 ...

WTRT. On May 29, 1980, the station adopted the call letters WKXW. It reverted to the original call sign WBUD on September 1, 1981, and kept those call letters until 2008. In the early 1970s, WBUD broadcast a Top 40 format. In 1975, the station became an all-news outlet, carrying the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

News and Information Service. When that service was discontinued in 1977, WBUD returned to music programming. By the late 1990s, WBUD was airing

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

music as "Great Gold Radio".

Standards and sports

In February 2006, WBUD switched to ABC Radio's "

Unforgettable Favorites Unforgettable Favorites (also known as Memories) was a satellite driven format distributed by ABC Radio Networks (through The Walt Disney Company). ''Unforgettable Favorites'' was a middle-of-the-road station and featured music from The Carpenter ...

" satellite feed, airing a soft

adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...

format. Despite Unforgettable merging with the " Timeless" Radio Network, WBUD maintained its nostalgia

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

for two years. On March 31, 2008, the station switched to a

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

format, becoming a

network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an Radio in the United States, American Sports radio, sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports ...

. The station aired Fox Sports all day except in afternoons, when it aired

Premiere A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance, musical composition, or even a performer in that work. History Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the ...

's '' Jim Rome Show'' and local programming.

Catholic radio

The Millennium Radio Group, then WBUD's owner, announced on July 25, 2008, that the station would be sold. The buyer was the Domestic Church Media Foundation, founded by New Jersey native, Jim Manfredonia. The station would drop Fox Sports Radio, switching to Catholic religious programming, mainly from

. The sale was completed on September 10, 2008. On September 14, 2008, WBUD had its final day of broadcasting, featuring the station's automated "Great Gold" oldies format, as well as Jack Pinto's ''Sunday Sinatra'' program, live in the studio. The station returned to Fox Sports at 2p.m. after playing its final song, " Yesterday's Gone", by

Chad & Jeremy Chad & Jeremy were a British musical duo consisting of Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde, who began working in 1962 and had their first hit song in the UK with " Yesterday's Gone" (1963). That song became a hit in the United States in the following ...

. On September 15, 2008, WBUD officially flipped to a Catholic-based religious format, as "Domestic Church Catholic Radio". On September 22, 2008, the station changed its call letters to WFJS, named after Fulton J. Sheen, an

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

who had used broadcasting (particularly

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

) to deliver the message about the Catholic faith. The station's studios were also renamed as "The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Center for Media Evangelization".

Power increase

In August 2012, WFJS was granted a construction permit by 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 ...

to increase its daytime power to 5,900 watts. It also added a fourth tower to its array to modify its daytime directional pattern. The

sign-off A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonwealth countries exce ...

of station WNWK in

Newark, Delaware Newark ( )Not as in Newark, New Jersey. is a city in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. It is located west-southwest of Wilmington. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 31,454. The University of Delaware is ...

, which also broadcast on 1260 AM, freed WFJS from an obligation to minimize interference to that station. The new directional pattern improves WFJS's daytime signal to the south and southwest. No change was made to the station's nighttime power or pattern.

Simulcasts

In May 2011, the Domestic Church Media Foundation was granted a license for WFJS-FM on 89.3 FM in Freehold, New Jersey.Application Search Details
fcc.gov. Accessed February 7, 2015 The station simulcasts 1260 WFJS.

References

External links

WFJS official website
{{Religious Radio Stations in New Jersey Radio stations established in 1947 Catholic radio stations 1947 establishments in New Jersey FJS Trenton, New Jersey