WVOA (1540 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 a

Christian radio 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, ...

format. Licensed to

East Syracuse, New York East Syracuse is an incorporated village and a suburb of the City of Syracuse in eastern Onondaga County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,078. It is located immediately east of Syracuse, in the town of De ...

, United States, the station serves the Syracuse area. The station is owned by Cram Communications LLC, a company majority-owned by Craig Fox. WVOA also transmits programming via 106.3 FM translator W292EY. According to the FCC database, the station's nighttime tower is just 10 meters tall (18 degrees at 1540kHz) making it the shortest broadcast AM tower in the United States.

History

The Wide Water Broadcasting Company received a construction permit to build a new radio station on 1540 kHz in East Syracuse on May 12, 1965. ( Guide to reading History Cards) The company, consisting of local residents, built studios in the former Canada Dry Building on Erie Boulevard, Broadcasts began on December 6, 1965, with a full-service format. The station would adopt a full-time country music format in 1967. Bruce A. Houston bought WPAW in 1969, but his future in Syracuse broadcasting would be frustrated when his bid to buy classical-formatted WONO-FM (now WWHT) was successfully blocked by a citizen's group. In 1973, he tried selling the station to Mars Hill Broadcasting Co., owner of Christian radio station WMHR, but the sale was dismissed months after it was proposed. WPAW was instead sold to Richard T. Crawford the next year, but the result was the same: WPAW took on a Christian format and adopted the callsign WYRD, going by "The Word". Crawford also relocated the transmitter to a site at Fremont and Myers roads in Syracuse, adjacent to the

New York State Thruway The New York State Thruway (officially the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway and colloquially "the Thruway") is a system of controlled-access toll roads spanning within the U.S. state of New York. It is operated by the New York State Thruway ...

. Surof Communications, a subsidiary of Forus Communications, purchased WYRD in 1979. The call letters were changed to WSIV in 1981, after Forus acquired the FM station in DeRuyter, WOIV (105.1 FM), which had been owned by the

Christian Broadcasting Network The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is an American Christian media production and distribution organization. Founded in 1960 by Pat Robertson, it produces the long-running TV series ''The 700 Club'', co-produces the ongoing ''Superbook (198 ...

along with a string of other stations that had been previously owned by (and named for) the Ivy Broadcasting Company. WSIV and WOIV began simulcasting on November 2, 1981. The simulcast ended in January 1989, when low ratings prompted Forus to flip WOIV to classical music as WVOA; WSIV continued with its religious programs. Cram Communications, a company owned by Craig Fox, bought WSIV and WVOA in 1996 for $900,000. WVOA would become WCIS-FM later in its life. On July 13, 2021, WSIV began carrying the programming previously heard on sister station WVOA-LP ( 87.7 FM).WVOA-LP sign-off
/ref> On May 12, 2025, WSIV changed its call sign to WVOA, as WVOA-LD changed its call sign to WQSE-LD the same day.

References

External links

{{Syracuse Radio SIV SIV Radio stations established in 1965 1965 establishments in New York (state)