WRYT (1080 AM) is a

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 ...

broadcasting out of

Edwardsville, Illinois Edwardsville is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The population was 26,808 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city was named in honor of Ninian Edwards, former governor of the Illinois Te ...

, with a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

format. It is part of the

Covenant Network The Covenant Network is a network of Catholic radio stations in the Midwestern United States. Covenant maintains 15 full-power radio stations and a further 25 dependent translators in Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma ...

. Because WRYT shares the same frequency as " clear channel" station KRLD in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, the station broadcast during the daytime hours only until April 9, 2014. WRYT's studios are located on Hampton Avenue in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

, while its transmitter is located near Edwardsville.

History

WRYT went on the air November 9, 1987, but while the station promoted itself as WRYT in local media, its

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 ...

was legally WHRC (standing for original owners Horizon Radio Corporation) until February 4, 1988, when it exchanged call letters with TV channel 46 in Norwell, Massachusetts, which founder Bob Howe also owned. As a commercial station, WRYT broadcast

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 ...

music and news programming aimed at listeners in Edwardsville and

Madison County, Illinois Madison County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a part of the Metro East in southern Illinois. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 264,776, making it the eighth-most populous county in ...

. The station was sold in 1992 to the Hometown Broadcasting Company, owned by Tom Lauher, of

Creve Coeur, Missouri Creve Coeur is a city located in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States, a part of Greater St. Louis. Its population was 18,834 at the 2020 census. Creve Coeur borders and shares a ZIP code (63141) with the neighboring city of Town and Co ...

. Five years later, he sold the station to Covenant founder Tony Holman, whom he found "more serious and interested and less on a fishing expedition".
Continued

began operating WRYT, its first station on May 1, 1997.

Translator

References

External links

The Covenant NetworkWRYT / KHOJ Programming Schedule
Catholic radio stations RYT Radio stations established in 1987 1987 establishments in Illinois Edwardsville, Illinois {{Catholic-radio-station-stub