WNJR (AM) - History - WNJR

WNJR was a commercial station first located at 91 Halsey Street in Newark, with a transmitter power output (TPO) of 5000 watts. In 1946, The Newark Sunday Call purchased WBYN from the FCC. At the time, the The Newark Sunday Call was being purchased by the Newark Evening News. In 1947, the station changed its callsign to WNJR and its ownership to North Jersey Radio. Ahead of its time, it first aired an unsuccessful all-news format. The station diversified its programming, running Jazz blocks, R & B music, talk shows, and Latin music. The Newark Evening News owned WNJR until 1953, when Rollins Broadcasting bought the station. As Newark's population became increasingly African-American in the 1960s, WNJR evolved into an R&B Music format full-time. Some of the jocks included Hal Wade, Danny Stiles, Bobby Jay, Hal Jackson, and others. In 1967, Rollins Broadcasting, after a dispute with its airstaff, restructured into Continental Broadcasting.During the 1950s and 1960s the station featured some of the earliest rock and roll programming in the New York area, including the first claim to airing Alan Freed in that region. Despite claiming to be based in Newark, from the late 1950s through the 1970s the station broadcast from a studio at 1700 Union Avenue in Union. The station's two 344-foot (105 m) guyed broadcast towers were well-known to residents of the newly-developed College Estates section of Union. WNJR suffered from poor nighttime signal coverage and co-channel interference.

As Newark (its home city) became predominantly African-American during the 1970s, WNJR switched to a black-oriented music and news format. In 1973, it became the flagship station of Unity Broadcasting's National Black Network (NBN).