WREJ
Encyclopedia
WREJ is a Black Gospel formatted broadcast
radio station
licensed to Richmond, Virginia
, serving Metro Richmond. WREJ is owned and operated by Davidson Media Group
, LLC.
An interesting fact was that the WRGM studios were located directly across the street from the WRFK studio and transmitter site. That site had been the original location of WRNL AM&FM before they moved to a better facility in the West End of Henrico County (WRNL had donated that facility to WRFK's owners, Union Theological Seminary.)
Past winner of the Frank Soden Lifetime Achievement Award Tim Timberlake worked at the station in the very early years.
In 1969 the station attempted to do Richmond's first attempt at an adult contemporary format, adding softer pop records by the Beatles, Petula Clark, Simon & Garfunkle, The Cowsills, and others.
In 1971 the station switched to a Jazz Format which gained the station a "cult audience" for a few years.
In 1973 the station flipped for an Oldies format as "Rock Gold Music". That format proved popular for a few years, but, mostly due to bad management, WRGM fell on hard financial times by 1975.
In 1975, announcer and Big Band enthusiast Les Sand purchased the station and the format went to Big Bands. The format was not successful and WRGM was forced sign off in early 1977.
In late 1977 the station was purchased by a group of local African American businessmen known as 1540 Broadcasting and the station signed back on as R&B/Jazz formatted WKIE. In late 1978, the station briefly switched to an adult contemporary format calling itself "Radio 15", but by the end of 1978, it switched to a straight R&B format. By the mid eighties, WKIE had evolved into mostly Hip Hop & Rap. The "Z-Rock Crew" was a popular feature on the station.
In the late 80s the station switched to an all business news format as WRBN. In the early 90s it became gospel WREJ. 1540 Broadcasting, by then known as Radio 100, sold WREJ to Radio Richmond and then in 2004 the station was sold again to Davidson Media Group.
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
radio station
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...
licensed to Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, serving Metro Richmond. WREJ is owned and operated by Davidson Media Group
Davidson Media Group
The Davidson Media Group is a New York based broadcaster specializing in multi-cultural, community focused formats. In four years the company has grown into a network of 40 stations in a 16 state region...
, LLC.
History
This station originally signed on in May 1964 as WRGM. It was known as " Richmond's Good Music " doing an easy popular music format, commonly called "Middle Of The Road" or MOR playing artists like Frank Sinatra, Henry Mancini , and Tony Bennett. One of the slogans used at the time was "A New Adventure in Listening", which was incorporated in their jingles also. The first owners were somewhat advanced in their thinking in those days as they designed the building to be heated at least partially by the heat given off by their very large transmitter that was located in the same building as the studios and offices. In those days a 10,000 watt transmitter took up a lot of space and gave off unbelievable amount of heat that had to be dealt with in some way. Eventually that system was shut down and disconnected.An interesting fact was that the WRGM studios were located directly across the street from the WRFK studio and transmitter site. That site had been the original location of WRNL AM&FM before they moved to a better facility in the West End of Henrico County (WRNL had donated that facility to WRFK's owners, Union Theological Seminary.)
Past winner of the Frank Soden Lifetime Achievement Award Tim Timberlake worked at the station in the very early years.
In 1969 the station attempted to do Richmond's first attempt at an adult contemporary format, adding softer pop records by the Beatles, Petula Clark, Simon & Garfunkle, The Cowsills, and others.
In 1971 the station switched to a Jazz Format which gained the station a "cult audience" for a few years.
In 1973 the station flipped for an Oldies format as "Rock Gold Music". That format proved popular for a few years, but, mostly due to bad management, WRGM fell on hard financial times by 1975.
In 1975, announcer and Big Band enthusiast Les Sand purchased the station and the format went to Big Bands. The format was not successful and WRGM was forced sign off in early 1977.
In late 1977 the station was purchased by a group of local African American businessmen known as 1540 Broadcasting and the station signed back on as R&B/Jazz formatted WKIE. In late 1978, the station briefly switched to an adult contemporary format calling itself "Radio 15", but by the end of 1978, it switched to a straight R&B format. By the mid eighties, WKIE had evolved into mostly Hip Hop & Rap. The "Z-Rock Crew" was a popular feature on the station.
In the late 80s the station switched to an all business news format as WRBN. In the early 90s it became gospel WREJ. 1540 Broadcasting, by then known as Radio 100, sold WREJ to Radio Richmond and then in 2004 the station was sold again to Davidson Media Group.