WKDM (1380 AM) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

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

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. The station is owned by

Multicultural Broadcasting Multicultural Broadcasting is a media company based in New York City founded by Chinese-American businessman Arthur Liu. It caters mostly to the Asian American community and owns television and radio stations in several of the top markets in mult ...

and broadcasts on weekdays in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

. Most shows are

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 comm ...

, where the host pays for the time and may sell commercials to support the broadcasts. On weekends, programming switches to

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

Christian radio Christian radio is a Christian media radio format that focus on programming with a Christian message. Many such broadcasters play contemporary Christian music, though many programs include sermons, radio dramas, as well as news and talk prog ...

. WKDM operates at 5,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of 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 quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s by day, using a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performan ...

to protect other stations on

1380 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1380 kHz: 1380 AM is a Regional broadcast frequency, on which Class B and Class D stations broadcast. Argentina * LRI231 in Necochea, Buenos Aires Canada * CKPC in Brantford, Ontario ...

. After being granted a

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 ...

(FCC)

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to increase night power, it operates at 13,000 watts after sunset, using a different directional pattern. The station's

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...

is located in

Carlstadt, New Jersey Carlstadt is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 6,127,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 unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...

reflecting the station's location in the borough of

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

. One of the station's first permanent homes was inside Starlight Park, an

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

located on the east bank of the

Bronx River The Bronx River (), approximately long, flows through southeast New York in the United States and drains an area of . It is named after colonial settler Jonas Bronck. Besides the Hutchinson River, the Bronx River is the only fresh water river i ...

just south of East 177th Street. This tenancy lasted until 1932, when the Great Depression forced the park's closure, which then led to the station's eviction from its studios. WBNX changed frequencies several times during its early years, eventually finding a permanent home on 1380 kHz, sharing time on the frequency with religious broadcaster WAWZ in central New Jersey. It operated 18 hours a day with general entertainment and brokered programming. In 1960 WBNX was sold to United Broadcasting. By the mid-1960s, WBNX was airing a Spanish contemporary music format during most of its hours, with some

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

-oriented and Italian-language programming on weekends. In 1984 the station changed the call letters to WKDM and became a full-time operation as United paid WAWZ owner Pillar of Fire to give up its portion of the time-share (WAWZ continued to operate on FM). It remained successful until the advent of a full-time

format on WSKQ-FM in 1989, which pulled away listeners. As a result, in the early 1990s the station began to carry more leased-access/brokered shows. In 1992 it went completely brokered, and was sold to Multicultural in 1994. In 1999 Multicultural transferred WKDM to Mega Communications in exchange for cash and various Washington D.C. area stations. Mega changed the call letters to WNNY and instituted an all news Spanish format (Noticas 1380). Eventually, the all-news evolved into a news/talk format. This format was not successful, and by 2002 Mega had changed the call letters to WLXE and the format to Mexican pop music as "X-1380". A few months later, Multicultural bought the station back and reinstated the WKDM call sign and the brokered programming policy. Since 2007, WKDM has broadcast in Mandarin Chinese 24 hours a day Monday through Friday, featuring drama, popular music, talk shows, news program, children’s programs and sports, as well as programs from China and Taiwan.MRBI official site
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References

External links

FCC History Cards for WKDMWKDM AM1380 Mandarin Chinese website
{{Multicultural Broadcasting KDM Radio stations established in 1926 Multicultural Broadcasting stations