WNWI
Encyclopedia
WNWI is a radio station
broadcasting an ethnic radio format. Licensed to Oak Lawn, Illinois
, USA, it serves the Chicago
area. The station is currently owned by the Birach Broadcasting Corporation
.
WNWI's calls stand for "Northwestern Indiana", a reference to the station's former city of license of Valparaiso, Indiana
. The station broadcast a full-service adult contemporary music format from Valparaiso from its sign-on in 1965 until the spring of 1998, when it officially moved into the Chicago market by changing its city of license to Oak Lawn and relocating its transmitter to Riverdale
.
The bulk of WNWI's programming is Polish language
music, news, and talk programming. Other weekday programming includes Serbian Radio Chicago, a one-hour radio show hosted by Milorad Ravasi which incorporates news, music, and interviews from Serbian
culture. On weekends, programming blocks variously target the German, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Polish communities.
. The FCC delayed the application process for nearly two years, when competitor WAKE AM was allowed to go on the air first. The ownership of WNWI sued the FCC because its application for a community AM radio station was already "in process" before WAKE's. The FCC ceded the hold on the license process and approved it immediately, which put two AM stations on the air at the same time in the small community in 1965.
The ownership applied for 1,080 kHz because of its strategic location in the center of the AM band (hence its second moniker "The Center of The Dial", which extended to promos for news, weather and the like as your "news center", "weather center", etc., the station's main moniker "Your Live Leader" was used almost from its inception.) The AM band extended, at that time, from 540 to 1600 kHz, and the theory that an antenna built on the campus of the historic Valparaiso Technical Institute would have better radiation characteristics for a 250-watt daytime station at that frequency was a planned, engineering gamble which resulted in a 312-foot omni-directional antenna system. Their expertise in electrical engineering of the site bore out this theory when the FCC issued the first permits for pre-sunrise operation at 9.7 watts. And two decades later, in 1984, the FCC issued a post-sunset license to the station for the same power level and omini-directional pattern. The radiation pattern was so efficient with 9.7 watts, that the signal from the 5/8-wavelength radiator could be heard as far away as Michigan City, Indiana
and Merrillville, Indiana
at night.
The station's format remained nearly unchanged for nearly 30 years until music license fees and finances forced the station to adopt a more talk-oriented format by the mid-1990s with limited music play. In the 1970s, WGN engineers studied the studio design at WNWI inside the Valpo Tech main hall to see how the audio and electrical engineers at the school built the studios with super-large plate-glass windows while maintaining excellent acoustics in the studios at that time. The studio design at WNWI was the inspiration for the large plate-glass window studios seen today for WGN radio on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. WBBM-TV even used the over-engineered tower structure at WNWI as a TV antenna relay for a brief period in the 1960s to improve TV service to Northwest Indiana until the Sears Tower was built and the CBS affiliate could move its transmitter and antenna to the top of the new building. After that, the antenna relay was disassembled and all that remained of the support structure for the antenna were cross-arms, which can be seen on the original tower structure in Valparaiso, Indiana to this day.
The station was sold in 1995 to Birach Broadcasting, who eventually moved the tower and transmitter location to Oak Lawn, Illinois and applied to the FCC for a dramatic power increase.
The husband-wife Hershman family team that operated the station died a short time later from medical conditions that they had been battling for years.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
broadcasting an ethnic radio format. Licensed to Oak Lawn, Illinois
Oak Lawn, Illinois
Oak Lawn is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 55,245 at the 2000 census.Oak Lawn is a suburb of the city of Chicago, located southwest of the city...
, USA, it serves the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
area. The station is currently owned by the Birach Broadcasting Corporation
Birach Broadcasting Corporation
Birach Broadcasting Corporation is a Southfield, Michigan-based company that owns several AM radio stations and one low-power television station in the US....
.
WNWI's calls stand for "Northwestern Indiana", a reference to the station's former city of license of Valparaiso, Indiana
Valparaiso, Indiana
Valparaiso is a city in and the county seat of Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 31,730 at the 2010 census, making it the 2nd largest city in Porter County.-History:...
. The station broadcast a full-service adult contemporary music format from Valparaiso from its sign-on in 1965 until the spring of 1998, when it officially moved into the Chicago market by changing its city of license to Oak Lawn and relocating its transmitter to Riverdale
Riverdale, Illinois
Riverdale is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 15,055 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Riverdale is located at ....
.
The bulk of WNWI's programming is Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
music, news, and talk programming. Other weekday programming includes Serbian Radio Chicago, a one-hour radio show hosted by Milorad Ravasi which incorporates news, music, and interviews from Serbian
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
culture. On weekends, programming blocks variously target the German, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Polish communities.
History
WNWI applied for its original license in 1962 when it was originally owned by the Hershman family in Valparaiso, IndianaValparaiso, Indiana
Valparaiso is a city in and the county seat of Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 31,730 at the 2010 census, making it the 2nd largest city in Porter County.-History:...
. The FCC delayed the application process for nearly two years, when competitor WAKE AM was allowed to go on the air first. The ownership of WNWI sued the FCC because its application for a community AM radio station was already "in process" before WAKE's. The FCC ceded the hold on the license process and approved it immediately, which put two AM stations on the air at the same time in the small community in 1965.
The ownership applied for 1,080 kHz because of its strategic location in the center of the AM band (hence its second moniker "The Center of The Dial", which extended to promos for news, weather and the like as your "news center", "weather center", etc., the station's main moniker "Your Live Leader" was used almost from its inception.) The AM band extended, at that time, from 540 to 1600 kHz, and the theory that an antenna built on the campus of the historic Valparaiso Technical Institute would have better radiation characteristics for a 250-watt daytime station at that frequency was a planned, engineering gamble which resulted in a 312-foot omni-directional antenna system. Their expertise in electrical engineering of the site bore out this theory when the FCC issued the first permits for pre-sunrise operation at 9.7 watts. And two decades later, in 1984, the FCC issued a post-sunset license to the station for the same power level and omini-directional pattern. The radiation pattern was so efficient with 9.7 watts, that the signal from the 5/8-wavelength radiator could be heard as far away as Michigan City, Indiana
Michigan City, Indiana
Michigan City's origins date to 1830, when the land for the city was first purchased by Isaac C. Elston. Elston Middle School, formerly Elston High School, located at 317 Detroit St., is named after the founder....
and Merrillville, Indiana
Merrillville, Indiana
Merrillville is a town in Ross Township, Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 35,246 at the 2010 census. Merrillville is located in the east-central portion of Lake County.-Geography:Merrillville is located at ....
at night.
The station's format remained nearly unchanged for nearly 30 years until music license fees and finances forced the station to adopt a more talk-oriented format by the mid-1990s with limited music play. In the 1970s, WGN engineers studied the studio design at WNWI inside the Valpo Tech main hall to see how the audio and electrical engineers at the school built the studios with super-large plate-glass windows while maintaining excellent acoustics in the studios at that time. The studio design at WNWI was the inspiration for the large plate-glass window studios seen today for WGN radio on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. WBBM-TV even used the over-engineered tower structure at WNWI as a TV antenna relay for a brief period in the 1960s to improve TV service to Northwest Indiana until the Sears Tower was built and the CBS affiliate could move its transmitter and antenna to the top of the new building. After that, the antenna relay was disassembled and all that remained of the support structure for the antenna were cross-arms, which can be seen on the original tower structure in Valparaiso, Indiana to this day.
The station was sold in 1995 to Birach Broadcasting, who eventually moved the tower and transmitter location to Oak Lawn, Illinois and applied to the FCC for a dramatic power increase.
The husband-wife Hershman family team that operated the station died a short time later from medical conditions that they had been battling for years.