WEIC

WEIC
City Charleston, Illinois
Broadcast area Charleston/Mattoon, Illinois
Slogan Your #1 source for local news and agriculture information! When you need to know, DEPEND on us!
Frequency 1270 kHz
Translator(s) W241BU/96.1 MHz
First air date December 12, 1954
Format Silent
Language(s) English
Power 1,000 watts day
500 watts night[1]
Class B
Facility ID 12485
Transmitter coordinates 39°30′18″N 88°12′54″W / 39.50500°N 88.21500°W / 39.50500; -88.21500
Former callsigns WEIC (1954-January 4, 2012)
WRJM (January 4, 2012-November 29, 2013)[2]
Affiliations CBS Radio News, Chicago Cubs Radio Network
Owner Miller Media Group
(Kaskaskia Broadcasting, Inc.[1])

WEIC (1270 AM) was a radio station licensed to Charleston, Illinois, USA.[1] The station signed on for the first time December 12, 1954 as WEIC, built by Charleston resident Jack Owens, who took a disability settlement from an injury suffered while working for the railroad, and used it to build the radio station. The station signed on with 1,000 watts of power on 1270 kilocycles operating during daytime hours only, from studios, transmitter and towers located at the same place they are today—2560 West State Street (on what was formerly Illinois Route 16, now Illinois Route 316) on Charleston's northwest side.

Owens' family was involved in the operation of the station as well. Owens owned the station thru the 1960s, and they also began the work to file an application with the Federal Communications Commission to add nighttime service with 500 watts and 3 additional towers.

WEIC-FM/92.1 signed on the air in 1968, providing the first FM radio station in Charleston.

In 1972, under the ownership of John Hurlbut and Rusty Russell who was also the general manager at the time, WEIC finally received authority to transmit on 1270 full-time. By that time, the station had established a "Top 40" music format, similar to the format heard at the time on WLS and WCFL in Chicago. The station was extremely popular with the students at Eastern Illinois University, also located in Charleston.

WEIC was purchased by Jim Withers in 1979, Steve Garman in 1984, and Gary Lee in early January 1995.[3] WEIC-FM was sold to the Cromwell Group, Inc., which owns stations in Mattoon and Effingham, Illinois, in 1993.

Under Lee's ownership, WEIC began a Southern Gospel music format, which was heard on 1270 from November 26, 1994 until October 7, 2011.[3] While airing the Southern Gospel format, it was a reporting station to the Singing News magazine's top 80 chart.[3] Lee died in 2003, and his son Brad inherited the station and operated it until he sold the station to the Miller Media Group's Kaskaskia Broadcasting, Inc. of Taylorville, Illinois, on October 7, 2011.[3][4] Miller immediately took the station off the air to re-tool and re-program for its new News-Talk and agriculture format which premiered October 19, 2011.

Miller changed the call letters of the station to WRJM at the FCC on January 4, 2012;[2] the call letters officially were changed on the air on February 1, 2012.[5]

The News-talk format featured a live and local morning show with expanded local newscasts and 3 local interview shows each day.[6] Hourly local news updates aired 24/7 at 30 minutes past each hour.[6] WRJM featured over 6 hours a day of agriculture programming, including programming from the RFD Radio Network, and the AgriTalk Radio Network.[6]

Sunday's programming line-up on WRJM included the long-running Gospel Sing Time with Brad Lee from 7 to 11am.[6]

WRJM's logo from 2011 to 2013

WRJM programming was also heard on a new FM repeater covering Coles County and surrounding area at 107.1 FM, which went on the air December 5, 2011.[5] The repeater moved to 96.1 FM as W241BU on July 24, 2013.[7]

WRJM local programming was also streamed on-line on its web site, WRJMdailynews.com since February 1, 2012. The station began streaming on October 22, 2012, and available on iPhones and smartphones through tunein.com, as of October 26, 2012.

WRJM obtained the rights to Chicago Cubs baseball on April 9, 2012 and aired games in the 2012 and 2013 season. WRJM was the flagship station for Eastern Illinois Panthers football, in 2012 and 2013.[5]

Charleston High School sports broadcasts moved from Eastern Illinois University's WEIU to WRJM on September 28, 2012. The NCAA, which regulates college athletics, issued a rule in August 2012, that high school sports could not be broadcast on a college station for fear the broadcasts would unduly influence recruiting at that university. WRJM broadcast the remainder of the 2012 Charleston High School football season, as well as all boys' and girls' basketball games, and a "Game of the Week" featuring Charleston baseball and softball.

WEIC celebrated its 57th anniversary on the air with a 5-hour interview show on Saturday, December 10, 2011.

WEIC ceased operations at 12:01am January 1, 2014.[5] The studio location was sold and turned into farmland. WEIC's FM repeater at 96.1 was sold to Bud Walters, owner of the Cromwell Group of radio stations in Mattoon.[5]

Translator

Broadcast translators of WEIC
Call sign Frequency
(MHz) 		City of license Facility
ID 		ERP
W 		Height
m (ft) 		Class Transmitter coordinates FCC info Notes
W241BU 96.1 Charleston, Illinois 146836 250 122 m (400 ft) D 39°23′16″N 88°17′20″W / 39.38778°N 88.28889°W / 39.38778; -88.28889 FCC To be sold upon the closure of WEIC.

References

  1. 1 2 3 WEIC fcc.gov. Accessed January 1, 2014
  2. 1 2 Call Sign History fcc.gov. Accessed January 1, 2014
  3. 1 2 3 4 About Us. weic1270.org. Internet Archive. July 28, 2011. Accessed January 1, 2014
  4. ↑ Application Search Details fcc.gov. Accessed January 1, 2014
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 WRJM Announces January 1 Sign-Off Date WRJM Daily News.com. December 2, 2013. Accessed January 1, 2014
  6. 1 2 3 4 WRJM Program Schedule WRJM Daily News.com. December 2, 2013. Accessed January 1, 2014
  7. ↑ Application Search Details fcc.gov. Accessed January 1, 2014
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