WNVU (FM)
WNVU (93.5 FM) is a radio station licensed to New Rochelle, New York and serving the New York metropolitan area. WNVU is owned by Houston, Texas-based Hope Media Group and broadcasts a Spanish language Christian music format known as Vida Unida. WNVU's transmitter is located in the Bronx, New York, on the campus of Montefiore Medical Center.
| |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | New York City |
| Frequency | 93.5 MHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | Vida Unida |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | Spanish |
| Format | Christian music |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Hope Media Group[1] |
| History | |
First air date | September 13, 1948 (75 years ago)[2] |
Former call signs |
|
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 28023 |
| Class | A |
| ERP | 1,750 watts |
| HAAT | 132 meters (433 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 40°52′48″N 73°52′39″W / 40.88000°N 73.87750°W |
| Links | |
Public license information |
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| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | vidaunida |
History edit
For much of its history, the 93.5 FM facility in New Rochelle was operated as an adjunct to 1460 AM (currently WVOX). 93.5 signed-on in September 1948 as WGNR-FM, under original owner New Rochelle Broadcasting Service, Inc.[2], followed two years later by the launch of WGNR.
New Rochelle Broadcasting Service, however, went bankrupt in 1952, signing the station off on August 1; after the appointment of a receiver, Radio New Rochelle, Inc., owned by the Iodice Family, acquired the stations and changed 93.5 FM's call sign to WNRC-FM.[4][5] WNRC-FM returned to the air in October 1953; it retained that call sign through a transfer of control to the Daniels family in 1955.[4]
WNRC-FM became WWES-FM on December 10, 1958, as both stations were sold to Radio Westchester for $225,000. The Radio Westchester sale made it a sister to the original WVIP (1310 AM, now WRVP) in Mount Kisco, serving lower Westchester County.[6] On February 26, 1959, the station would adopt the WVOX-FM call sign.
WVOX-AM-FM joined a growing radio operation owned by the New York Herald-Tribune newspaper. By 1962, after John Hay Whitney bought the Herald-Tribune the year before, the paper's radio division included WVOX-AM-FM, WVIP, WGHQ at Kingston and WFYI (now WJDM) in Mineola.[7] With the Herald-Tribune closed, Whitney Communications sold WVOX-AM-FM and WGHQ-AM-FM in 1968 to Hudson-Westchester Radio in an $800,000 acquisition.[8] Hudson-Westchester was led by William O'Shaughnessy, a former account executive with the Herald-Tribune Radio Network who had been WVOX's general manager since 1965.[9]
Under O'Shaughnessy's ownership, the WVOX stations became a community-oriented talk outlet, and in 1973 moved into modern facilities in New Rochelle, known as One Broadcast Forum.[10][11] WVOX-FM would begin operating independently of WVOX around 1977, changing its call sign to WRTN. 93.5 FM would undergo several musical format changes over the next 30 years; by the mid-2000s, the station, which changed its call sign to WVIP in 2006 (flip-flopping with WRTN for a two-month period between August and October 2006) had settled on a brokered format primarily consisting of music and informational programming for the local Afro-Caribbean community.
Sale to Hope Media Group edit
On July 3, 2023, over a year after the death of Whitney Global Media (parent of Hudson-Westchester Radio) owner William O'Shaughnessy, his estate announced that WVIP would be sold to Houston-based Hope Media Group (formerly known as WAY-FM), a nonprofit Christian radio broadcaster. Hope Media later announced that it would install its Spanish-language music format Vida Unida on the station upon its takeover.[12] The sale announcement was met with both shock and disappointment amongst WVIP's programmers and audience.[13] Two months later, it was announced that WVOX would be divested in a donation/sale,[14] ending the O'Shaughnessy family's involvement in radio after nearly six decades.
The sale of 93.5 FM was approved by the Federal Communications Commission in mid-August 2023 and consummated on August 31, 2023. Hope Media began operating the station on September 1, 2023 with the new format, and a call sign change to WNVU.
References edit
- ^ says, Maria Santiago (June 30, 2023). "Hope Media Group Acquires WVIP In New York's Suburbs - RadioInsight".
- ^ a b Gross, Ben (September 6, 1948). "Looking & Listening". New York Daily News. p. 40. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WNVU". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ a b FCC History Cards for WVOX
- ^ "Call Letters Assigned" (PDF). Broadcasting. August 24, 1953. p. 102. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ^ "At Deadline" (PDF). Broadcasting. October 13, 1958. p. 9. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ^ "The 'Trib' uses tv to reverse a trend" (PDF). Broadcasting. May 14, 1962. pp. 30, 32. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ^ "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting. May 6, 1968. pp. 62–63. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ^ "Ex-Valleyite To Buy 4 Radio Stations". Star-Gazette. October 24, 1967. p. 13. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ^ "WVOX building new home". The Standard-Star. New Rochelle, NY. April 9, 1973. p. 13. Retrieved August 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Adams, Val (October 14, 1973). "Radio Roundup". New York Daily News. p. 19. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ^ "Hope Media Group Buys William O'Shaughnessy's WVIP New Rochelle, NY". Insideradio.com. July 5, 2023.
- ^ "Shock as NY radio station WVIP 93.5 FM is sold". jamaica-gleaner.com. July 4, 2023.
- ^ Jacobson, Adam (August 26, 2023). "Following O'Shaughnessy's Death, WVOX Is Donated | Radio & Television Business Report".
External links edit
- WNVU in the FCC FM station database
- WNVU in Nielsen Audio's FM station database
- FCC History Cards for WNVU The record is incomplete due to FCC error, starting in 1974.
- vidaunida
.com