WGNU

For the radio station in Granite City, Illinois, formerly known as WGNU-FM, see WARH.

WGNU
City	Granite City, Illinois
Broadcast area	Greater St. Louis
Branding	WGNU 920 AM
Slogan	"The Talk of St. Louis"
Frequency	920 kHz
First air date	December 1, 1961
Format	Business Talk
Power	450 watts (day) 500 watts (night)
Class	B
Facility ID	49042
Transmitter coordinates	38°45′33.2″N 90°3′0.4″W / 38.759222°N 90.050111°W / 38.759222; -90.050111Coordinates: 38°45′33.2″N 90°3′0.4″W / 38.759222°N 90.050111°W / 38.759222; -90.050111 (NAD 83)
Callsign meaning	Good NUs (reference to "good news", in homage to gospel music format)
Affiliations	Business Talk Radio Network
Owner	Radio Property Ventures (920 AM, LLC)
Sister stations	KXEN
Website	wgnu920am.com

WGNU (920 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Granite City, Illinois, and serving the Greater St. Louis media market. The station is owned by Radio Property Ventures and broadcasts a Business Talk radio format, some of it from the Business Talk Radio Network. Some hours are paid brokered programming.

WGNU's studios and offices are located on Hampton Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri, while its transmitter is located near the Interstate 255/Illinois Route 255/Interstate 270 interchange, off Chain of Rocks Road in Edwardsville, Illinois.^[1]

History

On December 1, 1961, WGNU first signed on the air.^[2] Founded by Chuck Norman and owned by him for the rest of his life, it was held in trust after his 2004 death. Norman also put an FM sister station on the air on November 24, 1965, 106.5 WGNU-FM, which today is WARH.

WGNU was sold to Radio Property Ventures, owners of 1010 KXEN, on September 26, 2007 and switched to a gospel music format.^[3]^[4] Initially, WGNU was a Top 40 station, then changed to country music and eventually talk, primarily aimed at the African-American community.^[4]^[5]

Former KFNS host Tim McKernan and his company, InsideSTL Enterprises, bought the weekday air time on WGNU, and the station switched its weekday programming to sports talk on August 1, 2013. The weekday schedule consisted of 11 hours of local shows, as well as programming from CBS Sports Radio. The Urban Talk format continued to air on weekends.^[6] This lease agreement ended in September 2016, when insideSTL Enterprises took over the operations of KFNS and moved its programming onto that station.

The station briefly made national headlines when former St. Louis Cardinals player Jack Clark, who cohosted "The King and the Ripper" with longtime St. Louis radio personality Kevin "the King" Slaten, claimed Los Angeles Angels slugger Albert Pujols had performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) while Pujols was with the Cardinals. Clark had been the Cardinals' hitting coach during the early part of Pujols' 12-year tenure in St. Louis. Clark had said that he talked to Pujols' former personal trainer and said that "I know for a fact he was" using PEDs.^[7] Pujols responded by threatening Clark and WGNU with a defamation lawsuit, and vehemently denied that he had ever used PEDs. The trainer added that he hadn't even talked to Clark in over ten years. InsideSTL cut ties with Clark and Slaten after only seven shows.^[7]^[8]^[9] It also issued an apology to Pujols.^[10]

References

↑ http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/patg?id=WGNU-AM&h=N
↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1977 page C-63
↑ Garrison, Chad (2007-09-27). "WGNU Sale Finalized; Station to Go Gospel". STLog. Village Voice Media. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
1 2 Hinman, Kristen (April 27, 2005). "The old Chuckaroo". Riverfront Times. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
↑ http://www.stlmediahistory.com/index.php/Radio/RadioArticles/norman-knew-what-was-gnu
↑ https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/84003/wgnu-st-louis-to-flip-to-sports/
1 2 http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/23082071/former-mlber-jack-clark-accuses-albert-pujols-of-using-peds
↑ http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9553275/albert-pujols-says-sue-jack-clark-false-accusations
↑ http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9556488
↑ "Albert Pujols sues Jack Clark".

External links

Query the FCC's AM station database for WGNU

Radio-Locator Information on WGNU

Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WGNU

Radio broadcasting in the St. Louis market

by AM frequency	550 590 630 690 730 770 850 880 920 1010 1080 1120 1190 1260 1280 1320 1350 1380 1400 1430 1460 1490 1570 1600

by FM frequency	88.1 88.7 89.1 89.5 89.5 89.7 89.7 89.9 89.9 90.3 90.7 91.5 92.3 93.3 93.7 94.1 94.7 95.5 96.3 97.1 97.7 98.1 98.5 99.1 99.9 100.3 100.7 101.1 101.7 101.9 102.5 103.3 104.1 104.5 104.9 105.7 106.5 107.3 107.7

NOAA Weather Radio frequency	162.450 162.550

by callsign	K270BW K297BI KATZ KCFV KCLC KDHX KDO89 KEZK KFAV KFNS KFNS-FM KFTK KFTK-FM KFUO KGNA KGNX KHOJ KHZR KJFF KLJY KLLT KLOU KMJM-FM KMOX KNLH KNOU KPNT KPVR KQQX KQQZ KRAP KSD KSHE KSIV KSIV-FM KSLQ KSLZ KSTL KTJJ KTRS KWMU KWRE KWUL KWUR KXEN KXFN KXI70 KYFI KYKY KYRO KZQZ WARH WBGZ WCBW-FM WEW WFUN-FM WGNU WHHL WIJR WIL WLCA WRYT WSDZ WSIE WXOS

Defunct, now internet-only	KFUO-FM

Satellite radio local traffic/weather XM Channel 217 Sirius Channel 151 Nearby radio markets Cape Girardeau Columbia-Jefferson City Hannibal/Quincy Marion–Carbondale Mount Vernon Springfield, IL See also List of radio stations in Missouri List of radio stations in Illinois

News/talk radio stations in the state of Illinois

All-news	WBBM – Chicago WCFS – Elmwood Park

News and talk	KFTK – East St. Louis KQQZ – Fairview Heights WAIK – Galesburg WBBA-FM – Pittsfield WBEL – South Beloit WBIG – Aurora WBGZ – Alton WCIL – Carbondale WCMY – Ottawa WCPT – Willow Springs WCRA – Effingham WCSJ – Morris WDAN – Danville WDWS – Champaign WFIW – Fairfield WGEM – Quincy WGFA – Watseka WGIL – Galesburg WGN – Chicago WGNU – Granite City WHOW – Clinton WIND – Chicago WJBC – Bloomington WJBM – Jerseyville WJOL – Joliet WJPF – Herrin WKAN – Kankakee WKEI – Kewanee WKYX – Golconda WLBK – DeKalb WLMD - Bushnell WLS – Chicago WMAY – Springfield WMIX – Mount Vernon WRHL – Rochelle WRMN – Elgin WROK – Rockford WRPW – Colfax WSDR – Sterling WSDZ – Belleville WSOY – Decatur WTAD – Quincy WTAX – Springfield WTIM – Assumption WTRH – Ramsey WZOE – Princeton WZUS – Macon

See also adult contemporary classic hits college country news/talk NPR oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in Illinois

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