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WRNJ (1510 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 ...
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 ...
in
Hackettstown, New Jersey Hackettstown is a Town (New Jersey), town in Warren County, New Jersey, Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is perhaps best known as the home to the US headquarters of Mars Inc., Mars, Inc.. As of the 2020 United States census, t ...
. It broadcasts an
adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
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, ...
and is owned locally by WRNJ Radio, Inc. The studios and offices are on U.S. Route 46 in Hackettstown. By day, WRNJ is powered at 2,000
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. But because AM 1510 is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A
WLAC WLAC (1510 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts a talk radio radio format, format. The radio studio, studios are in Nashvill ...
in
Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
, WRNJ must reduce power at night to 230 watts. Programming is also heard on
FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...
s on 92.7, 104.7 and 105.7
MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...
.


History


AM 1000 in Dover

WRNJ began operation on AM 1000 on .''Broadcasting Yearbook 1978'' page C-137. Retrieved Dec. 16, 2024.
/ref> It was a daytime only station with no pre-sunrise or post-sunset authorization, except for local emergencies. The original
city of license In U.S., 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 broadcast ...
was
Dover, New Jersey Dover is a town in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Located on the Rockaway River, Dover is about west of New York City and about west of Newark, New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 18,4 ...
. WRNJ employed a full-service adult contemporary format with an emphasis on local news, with national news supplied by the
Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Golden Age of Radio, ...
. WRNJ also had local talk shows featuring local leaders and volunteers. Larry Tighe originally owned the radio station. For many years WRNJ was not profitable. By the early 1980s, there were rumors that the station may even go
dark Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...
. At that point, Norman Worth, who was the only person selling a substantial amount of advertising, became sales manager. Months later the station began turning a profit. By the late 1980s, Worth became part owner of the station and took over as General Manager and eventually as Chief Operating Officer.


Move to 1510 Hacketstown

In 1992, Worth was awarded an FM license on 107.1 FM. That station became WRNJ-FM and aired a
country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
format. In 1996, WRNJ was given permission to move to 1510 kHz.
Westinghouse Broadcasting The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndi ...
wanted to remove WRNJ from its AM 1000 home because it owned a station one dial position away, on 1010 AM. With WRNJ switching to 1510, that allowed Westinghouse to improve the signal of its New York City AM station, WINS at 1010 kHz. That year, WRNJ moved from AM 1000 to 1510. It kept its Full Service Adult Contemporary format initially. It also began operating from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. In 1997, engineers determined that the station's
towers A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...
could not transmit the correct nighttime patterns. WRNJ reverted to daytime-only operation. The current music also was phased out and the station evolved to more of an
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 ...
format. By 1998, it was known as "Oldies 1510 WRNJ". The station still continued to be profitable despite the daytime-only operation. At the same time, management sold the FM station at 107.1 MHz to Big City Radio. Today the FM station is
WWYY WWYY (107.1 FM broadcasting, FM) is a List of broadcast station classes, class A radio station licensed to Belvidere, New Jersey. It serves The Poconos and Lehigh Valley regions. The station is currently owned by Cumulus Media, through licensee ...
, licensed to Belvidere but broadcasting from Stroudsburg. It
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 country station
WCTO WCTO (96.1 FM broadcasting, FM, "Cat Country 96 & 107") is a radio station licensed to Easton, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and serves the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Cat Country 96.1 is simulcast on 107.1 WWYY-FM ...
in
Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in and the county seat of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River and the Delawa ...
.


24 hour operation

In 1999, Oldies 1510 WRNJ began a 24 hour schedule after fixing its tower pattern. It aired satellite-delivered oldies programming for much of the day. But WRNJ retained its morning show, specialty shows, local news, and local talk shows. In 2004, WRNJ dropped satellite programming. It aired a full-service format that plays adult contemporary music with some talk shows also featured. The sale of WRNJ-FM in 1998 excluded the FM translators on 92.7 in Washington Township and on 104.7 in Hackettstown. WRNJ's owners retained these to rebroadcast the AM signal for listeners who prefer FM's sound quality. In 2009, the oldies sound evolved to a classic hits format focusing on 1970s and '80s hits. In 2014, the station returned to a mix of adult contemporary and classic hits, with the slogan "Today's Hits and Yesterday's Favorites." The
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. ...
is mostly from the '80s, '90s, and 2000s, but with a few titles from the '60s and '70s.


FM translators

In addition to its main signal on 1510 AM, WRNJ broadcasts on the following FM translators:


Notable former personalities

* Bernie Wagenblast


References


External links


WRNJ Radio homepage
{{Adult Contemporary Radio Stations in New Jersey Radio stations established in 1976 1976 establishments in New Jersey Hackettstown, New Jersey RNJ Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States