WEW

This article is about the radio station. For the wrestling competition, see Women's Extreme Wrestling.

WEW

City of license	St. Louis, Missouri
Broadcast area	Greater St. Louis
Frequency	770 kHz
First air date	1912 (Morse code) 10:05, April 26, 1921 (1921-04-26T10:05) (audio transmission) March 23, 1922 (1922-03-23) (WEW license)
Format	Brokered programming
Power	1,000 watts day only
Class	D
Facility ID	1088
Transmitter coordinates	(NAD83)
Callsign meaning	We Enlighten the World
Former callsigns	9YK (1912–1922)
Former frequencies	760 kHz (1928–1941) 850 kHz (April 1927–1928) 1210 kHz (April 1927) 360m (833.3 kHz, ?–1927) 485m (618.6 kHz, 1922–?)
Owner	Birach Broadcasting
Webcast	HTTP stream (MP3, 24kb/s)
Website	www.wewradio.com

WEW is the oldest broadcast station west of the Mississippi River, and claims to be the second oldest in the United States. It broadcasts on AM at 1000 watts on 770 kHz daytime only. In July 2012, it was granted an U.S. Federal Communications Commission construction permit to raise its daytime power to 10,000 watts and introduce nighttime operation with 200 watts but still protecting clear-channel station WABC (AM) at New York City.

WEW features a brokered ethnic format, except for a midday show which features easy listening Standards and big band music. WEW's daily broadcast schedule consists largely of foreign language programming, mostly targeting area Bosnians, and weekend programming featuring German, Italian Polish, and Spanish.

History

Gordon Sherman, chief engineer of WEW at the controls, 1933

Saint Louis University established the station 9YK around 1912, using Morse code to communicate seismological and weather information. Brother George E. Rueppel, assistant director of the Meteorological Observatory at SLU, worked with 9YK before he founded WEW in 1921. Audio transmissions began at 10:05 a.m. on April 26, 1921; the first voice heard was SLU president Rev. William Robison. The station received radio license #560 to broadcast on 618.6 kHz (wavelength 485 meters) as WEW on March 23, 1922; KSD had been licensed on March 8.

The station has claimed to have broadcast the first quiz show, Question Box Hour, in 1923.

The station later moved to 833 kHz (360 meters). In April 1927, it was changed to 1210 kHz then 850 kHz; and changed in 1928 to 760 kHz, which was moved to 770 kHz on March 29, 1941, when NARBA took effect.

WEW became the first radio station in the St. Louis area to receive a permit for FM broadcasting around 1945, and began work on an FM transmission tower in 1947. The station was housed on the top floor of SLU's Law School (currently O'Neil Hall). The tower, which was located roughly where Pius XII Memorial Library now stands, was torn down in 1954, when Saint Louis University sold WEW to Bruce Barrington, a news director at 630 KXOK. Barrington sold WEW five years later. In 1964, it was bought by Charles Stanley, who moved the station to various locations, including a location in the (original) new Busch Stadium upon completion of the stadium; the only radio station located in a major sports stadium. Charles Stanley, aka, Charlie, and was known for trading merchandise for commercial time.

It was later owned by the Broadcast Center, then by a rich Texan named Gary Acker through his Metropolitan Radio Group, Inc. Metropolitan Radio Group, Inc. transferred the station to Birach Broadcasting Corporation on 6 January 2004.

The station has been located in several places, including "The Hill", Busch Stadium, Soulard, and Clayton.

References

• C KALBO AY POGI

External links

• WEW official website
• "Auble at Large" (circa 1996) — KTVI reporter John Auble reports on WEW's then month-and-a-half old kitchen studio
• "History of WEW St. Louis" — later KTVI 9pm news report with John Brown, discussing Bosnian programming
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WEW
• Radio-Locator Information on WEW
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WEW
• Collection of WEW materials from Saint Louis University Libraries Special Collections