WPWX (92.3
FM) is an
urban contemporary
Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary r ...
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
Hammond, Indiana
Hammond ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. Located along Lake Michigan, it is part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the only city in Indiana to border Chicago. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the Li ...
and serving the
Chicago metropolitan area
The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Midwest, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities. ...
in addition to
Northwest Indiana
Northwest Indiana, nicknamed "The Region" after the Calumet Region, is an unofficial region of Northern Indiana, northern Indiana, United States that is located at the northwestern corner of the state. Though there is no official definition of th ...
, and is owned by Crawford Broadcasting. The station broadcasts from a transmitter a few hundred feet west of the
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
/
Indiana
Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
state line in
Burnham, Illinois
Burnham is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,046 at the 2020 census. Burnham has a Chicago ZIP code (60633) and was named for Telford Burnham, who drew its plat.
There are two sections of Burnham. The wes ...
, with studios on
Calumet Avenue in Hammond.
History
The station began broadcasting in 1949, and held the call sign WJIZ.
The station was owned by South Shore Broadcasting Company.
In 1954, the station's call sign was changed to WJOB-FM, and the station simulcast the programming of its sister station
WJOB 1230.
1958 Broadcasting Yearbook
', Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...
. 1958. p. A-280. Retrieved February 11, 2019. In 1959, the station was sold to
Percy Crawford for $119,000.
The station's call sign was changed to WYCA, standing for "Young People's Church of the Air", and the station began airing a
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 ...
format.
[Ghrist, John R. (1996). ''Valley Voices: A Radio History''. Crossroads Communications. p. 241-247.]
The station switched to an urban contemporary format on March 26, 2001, in an attempt to go head to head with the longtime
urban radio leader in Chicago,
WGCI-FM. The station's call sign was briefly changed to WVJM in April 2001, before being changed to WPWX on May 1, 2001.
WPWX currently is the Chicago home to ''
The Rickey Smiley Morning Show'', and at one time carried both the ''
Doug Banks Morning Show'' and ''
The Tom Joyner Morning Show''.
HD Programming
All Crawford Broadcasting Company radio stations broadcast in digital
HD Radio
HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...
, and all Crawford FMs also broadcast both HD1 & HD2 (digital) audio.
Urban Gospel sister station
WYCA, known as ''Rejoice 102.3'', is simulcast on WPWX-HD2.
References
External links
Power 92*
{{Urban Radio Stations in Indiana
Urban contemporary radio stations in the United States
PWX
Radio stations established in 1949
1949 establishments in Indiana