WJES (1200 AM) was an American

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radi ...

licensed to serve the

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, villag ...

of Saluda, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

Saluda County, South Carolina Saluda County is a county in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,862. Its county seat is Saluda. The county was formed from northern and eastern portions of Edgefield County. Saluda County is part of ...

. The station was licensed by the

U.S. Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...

(FCC) to broadcast on 1200 kHz with a power of 10 kW during the day, 6.1 kW 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 ...

, and 4 watts at night. The station, established in 1961, was last owned by Jeff and Angie Roper through their Carolina Broadcast Partners, LLC,

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

Programming

WJES was an adult standards/

oldies music Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as wel ...

radio station, simulcasting

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 ...

WCRS. The station featured programming from

Citadel Media Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which w ...

's "

Timeless Timeless (or atemporal) or timelessness (or atemporality) may refer to: * Agelessness, the condition of being unaffected by the passage of time * Akal (Sikh term), timelessness in Sikhism * Eternity, timeless existence or infinite duration * Immo ...

" satellite feed. Before that, WJES carried an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as wel ...

music format.

History

WJES was first licensed on September 1, 1961. In 2008, the station increased its daytime power to 10 kilowatts, moved frequencies from 1190 to 1200 kHz, and changed its

city of license In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American b ...

from

Johnston, South Carolina Johnston is a town in Edgefield County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 2,362 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Augusta, Georgia, metropolitan area. The town's official welcome sign states that it is "Peach Capital of the Wor ...

, to Saluda. Citing financial difficulties, the station went

dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low l ...

on June 1, 2009, and did not return to the air. Under the terms of the

Telecommunications Act of 1996 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of t ...

, as a matter of law a radio station's

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary ...

is subject to automatic forfeiture and cancellation if they fail to broadcast for one full year. In July 2011, the license was retroactively cancelled by the FCC on June 2, 2010, and the WJES call sign was deleted on the FCC database on July 18, 2011.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , title=Broadcasting Yearbook 1980 , chapter=Directory of Radio Stations in the United States and Canada , publisher=Broadcasting Publications, Inc , location=Washington, DC , year=1980 , page=C-205 {{cite web , publisher=

Media Bureau , work=CDBS Public Access Database , url=http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/call_hist.pl?Facility_id=18655&Callsign=WJES , title=Call Sign History , accessdate=May 1, 2012 {{cite web , publisher=FCC Media Bureau , title=Application Search Details (BP-20061213AES) , url=http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=1164584 , date=May 17, 2007 , accessdate=May 1, 2012 {{cite web , publisher=FCC Media Bureau , title=Application Search Details (BLSTA-20090714ACO) , url=http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=1323326 , date=November 2, 2009 , accessdate=May 1, 2012 {{cite encyclopedia , publisher=

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...

, encyclopedia=The FCC Encyclopedia , title=Silent AM and FM Broadcast Station Lists , url=http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/silent-am-and-fm-broadcast-station-lists , accessdate=May 1, 2012 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108072241/http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/silent-am-and-fm-broadcast-station-lists , archive-date=January 8, 2012 , url-status=dead , df=mdy-all

External links

Facility details for Facility ID 18655 (WJES)
in the FCC Licensing and Management System
FCC History Cards for WJES
(covering 1959-1980) JES Defunct radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1961 Radio stations disestablished in 2011 Saluda County, South Carolina 1961 establishments in South Carolina 2011 disestablishments in South Carolina JES