WASH (97.1
FMIn telecommunications, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency . In analog applications, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal...
) is a
Clear Channel CommunicationsClear Channel Communications is an American media conglomerate company headquartered at 200 East Basse Road in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, who wields considerable influence in radio broadcasting, concert promotion and hosting, and fixed advertising in...
radio stationRadio broadcasting is an audio broadcasting service, broadcast through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common programming, either in syndication or simulcast or both...
located in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
. Known on-air as "Wash-FM", the station has a adult contemporary format. The station also streams its broadcast on the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
WASH has been a soft adult contemporary station in one form or another since the 70s. For a few years in the early 80s, the station attempted to do a Top 40 /
CHRContemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the top 40 music charts...
format (publicized by the station's "WASH with the Stars" TV ad campaign) which had no success and the station later returned to their original
Soft ACSoft rock is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock and roll to compose a softer, more toned-down sound for listening. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships...
format.
WASH (97.1
FMIn telecommunications, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency . In analog applications, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal...
) is a
Clear Channel CommunicationsClear Channel Communications is an American media conglomerate company headquartered at 200 East Basse Road in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, who wields considerable influence in radio broadcasting, concert promotion and hosting, and fixed advertising in...
radio stationRadio broadcasting is an audio broadcasting service, broadcast through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common programming, either in syndication or simulcast or both...
located in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
. Known on-air as "Wash-FM", the station has a adult contemporary format. The station also streams its broadcast on the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
WASH has been a soft adult contemporary station in one form or another since the 70s. For a few years in the early 80s, the station attempted to do a Top 40 /
CHRContemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the top 40 music charts...
format (publicized by the station's "WASH with the Stars" TV ad campaign) which had no success and the station later returned to their original
Soft ACSoft rock is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock and roll to compose a softer, more toned-down sound for listening. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships...
format. On Saturday nights from 7 pm - midnight (Eastern time), the station plays disco music and related songs (mostly 70s Top 40) in a program known as "Jammin' Saturday Night". The station recently began broadcasting two hours of 80s music (from midnight - 2:00 am Eastern time) immediately following "Jammin' Saturday Night".
The station plays exclusively
ChristmasChristmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. The nativity of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini...
music from mid-November through Christmas Day (plus on July 25th for "Christmas in July") and calls itself "Washington's Home for the Holidays" during the season.
WASH-FM Early History
WASH-FM was an early FM station licensed to Washington, DC in 1944. Original owner, Everett L Dillard. WASH-FM and its’ owner, Dillard were early pioneers in FM “networking” and Stereo broadcasting.
Networking
During the 1940s Dillard also headed the Washington-based Continental FM Network, a 52-station network. The Continental Network was Dillard’s & Edwin Howard Armstrong's creation to get some content for Armstrong’s Alpine, NJ, station. Dillard's WASH fed a 15 kHz phone line to Alpine. Some of the content was WASH's evening classical record program. The network “connected” Dillard’s WASH-FM to stations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York (as far west as Buffalo), Connecticut, Massachusetts and ending at Mount Washington, in New Hampshire. Many of the stations picked up the broadcast from the station "down the line" and rebroadcast it, thus allowing the next station "up the line" to pick-up the broadcast and forward it along.
Early Stereo
WASH-FM also conducted early experiments with stereo broadcasts. One system was to broadcast one channel over WASH-FM, and the other channel on another of Dillard’s stations, WDON-AM. (1540 Kc Wheaton, MD)
Dillard Sells WASH-FM
Dillard sold WASH-FM in 1968 to Metromedia, who moved the studios and transmitter from Wheaton, MD to Metromedia’s Wisconsin Ave. headquarters. The transmitter was moved to Metromedia’s WTTG-TV’s transmitter facility and broadcast from the WTTG-TV tower.
$1,000,000 Giveaway
In the 1970s, the station gained notoriety for its million dollar give-away contest, both because of the amount of money involved and because of the difficulty the station encountered in finding a winner who met all of the contest's requirements.
External links