WULT

WCLM

Highland Springs, Virginia
Broadcast area	Richmond
Frequency	1450 kHz
Programming
Format	Variety and Classic R&B
Ownership
Owner	World Media Broadcast Company
History
Former call signs	WENZ, WRGF
Technical information
Class	C
Power	960 Watts
Transmitter coordinates	37°32′39″N 77°20′47″W
Links
Website	http://www.wclmradio.com

WCLM (1450 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Varieyand Classic R&B format. Licensed to Highland Springs, Virginia, USA, it serves the Richmond area. The station is currently owned by World Media Broadcast Company.

History

1450 originally had been known as WENZ. Signing on in May of 1959. The ststion operated from a two room cinder block building tacked on to the side of a beauty shop in Highland Springs. But the transmiter was located a couple of miles farther south very close to several homes. It had a very short tower, and operated with only 250 watts of power. WENZ was the first station to play top 40 that operated 24 hours in the Greater Richmond market, which eventualy forced the others to do so. Baron Radio Inc bought the station in 1965 and increased the power to 1000 watts. The station carried that Top 40 music format until 1966, when it became an R&B music station. Local legend Kirby Carmicheal's first job in Richmond radio was on WENZ. Other popular WENZ personalities included Jim Minor, and Willie "Meatball" Poe. Hardy Jay Lang, who later became a popular on air host at both WPLZ & WCDX, along with hosting a local TV music show, was also with WENZ. The station did well with R&B in the 1960s and 70s, but with the arrival of more powerful FM competitor WPLZ, the station's ratings plummetted and WENZ switched to an all news format in 1982.The station , in advance of the format change, ran commercials for FM competitor WPLZ .

In the mid eighties the station attempted a return to R&B Music, using automation and TM/Century's Alpha One package, which had been disregarded by Urban leader WPLZ for a live locally programmed format, but it was not successful. In the late 80s, the calls were changed to WRGF and the station tried doing Oldies, but that format also failed. In 1989, the calls were changed to WCLM and an R&B/Jazz hybrid was attempted. In the nineties the station adopted a sattlite delivered classic soul format, but eventually broke off of the sattllite occasionally for a variety of of programming, mostly bartered, including religion, oldies, alternative rock, sports,southern soul, live local talk and even country. In the last rating Dec.2007 WCLM was the number 1 station listened to in the African American community on the AM dial.WCLM has remained in the top 25 stations in the market for the year 2007 including both FM & AM.In May 2007 WHAP/1340 in Hopewell was purchased making WCLM/WHAP the largest locally owned African American owned station in Richmond. ( See WHAP )

External links

• official website
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