WNIV (970 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 ...

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

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 ...

licensed to

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. It is one of three

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 ...

-owned stations in the

Atlanta metropolitan area Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell metropolitan statistical area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the sixt ...

carrying 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, ...

. AM 590

WDWD WDWD (590 AM; "Faith Talk 590") is a Christian radio station in Atlanta, Georgia. It is owned by the Salem Media Group and it airs a brokered Christian talk and teaching radio format. The studios are in Buckhead Center on Peachtree Road N ...

carries a different schedule of national and local religious leaders, while AM 1400 WLTA in

Alpharetta, Georgia Alpharetta is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia, United States, and part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Alpharetta's population was 65,818; in 2010, the population had been 57,551. History In the 1830s, ...

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) ...

s WNIV's programming for Atlanta's northern suburbs. WNIV broadcasts with 5,000

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 of power during daytime hours. But to protect other stations on AM 970, it drops to 39 watts during nighttime hours, rendering it all but unlistenable even in much of Atlanta; WLTA serves mainly to fill in the gaps in WNIV's nighttime signal. WNIV uses a

non-directional antenna In radio communication, an omnidirectional antenna is a class of antenna which radiates equal radio power in all directions perpendicular to an axis (azimuthal directions), with power varying with angle to the axis (elevation angle), declining t ...

day and night. WNIV's single transmitting tower is shared by WAFS (previously under common ownership) using an antenna diplexing system. 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 ...

considers WNIV to be a Class D AM facility.

Programming

WNIV and WLTA air national and local religious leaders, including David Jeremiah, Jim Daly, Alistair Begg,

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 ...

and

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 ...

. Many of the same shows are also heard on co-owned FaithTalk 590 WDWD, but at different times. Salem sells blocks of

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 ...

time to hosts, who in turn, may appeal for donations to the radio ministries. SRN News begins some hours of the day.

History

The radio station, which is the current WNIV, has had a long history in the Atlanta radio market. The station first signed on in Decatur in 1949 with 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 ...

WGLS. It was owned by the DeKalb Broadcasting Company and a 1,000-

daytimer A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross ...

, required to go off the air at night. It later picked up the call sign WTAM when the

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

station that had used those call letters changed to KYW. In the 1960s, it changed to WIIN.Jeffrey Leachman - Atlanta, Georgia AM Radio Directory
/ref>Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Home Page
/ref> In 1968, WIIN flipped to a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

format. During the early 1970s WIIN changed format to

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

under new local owner Blake Hawkins. WIIN was, for a while, Atlanta's only progressive rock station and quickly became known for introducing new rock music to the Atlanta market. Under Program Directors John Parker and Brent Alberts, WIIN featured morning talent Skinny Bobby Harper who was consistently in the top 5 in Atlanta morning ratings.The Brent Alberts US Tour 1968-??
/ref> WIIN became an

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 ...

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

station in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, the station changed its call letters to WKLS and format to

album rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM broadcasting, FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of Rock music, rock albums and is currently associated ...

, as a simulcast of 96.1 WKLS-FM (now

WWPW WWPW (105.3 FM, "Power 105-3") is an Atlanta contemporary hit radio station. The station's transmitter is located in Newnan, Georgia and targets metro Atlanta, also covering its city of license of Bowdon, Georgia. It is owned by iHeartMedia ...

). The simulcast lasted until 1988 when the station was sold. The new owner, Salem Communications, changed the call letters to the current WNIV. The station adopted

programming. Former Georgia Congressman Pat Swindall hosted a daily talk show on WNIV for several years, after serving a federal prison sentence.

References

External links

*
FCC History Cards for WNIV
{{Salem Communications Talk radio stations in the United States Moody Radio affiliate stations Radio stations established in 1967 Salem Media Group radio stations NIV