WLIB (1190 AM) is an urban contemporary gospel radio station licensed to New York, New York. WLIB is owned by Emmis Communications, along with sister stations WBLS (107.5 FM) and WQHT (97.1 FM). The three stations share studios in the Hudson Square neighborhood of lower Manhattan, and WLIB's transmitter is located in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.
History
WLIB's origins reach back to 1926, when the station, originally WBKN, went on the air from Brooklyn. In 1928, the call letters were changed to WCLB, reflecting its new location in the City of Long Beach. In 1930, the new call sign of WMIL was adopted, which was changed to WCNW in 1933, and to WLIB in 1942.
Sharing time with WWRL on 1600 kHz, WCNW was granted permission to move down the dial to 1190 kHz. The station, which broadcast foreign language programs, was purchased by Elias Godofsky, who was its general manager, in 1942. Godofsky changed the call letters to WLIB. The station's target audience was upper middle-class and wealthy New Yorkers, as evidenced by its format of classical music and popular standards which competed with WQXR. The station was purchased by New York Post publisher Dorothy Schiff in 1944 and regularly ran news updates from the Posts newsroom at various times during the day.
In 1949 WLIB was purchased by the New Broadcasting Company. The firm was headed by former WNYC executive Morris S. Novik and his brother, garment executive Harry Novik. Upon taking control of the station the Novik brothers turned WLIB into a station which served ethnic audiences, with large amounts of programming targeting the city's Jewish, and African American communities. The station eventually became the leading voice of New York's black residents and established a presence in the community's epicenter with studios at "Harlem Radio Center" in the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. During the mid-to-late 1950s its airstaff included pioneering black radio disc jockey Hal Jackson, actor William Marshall, and Victor Bozeman, who would later become a Los Angeles-based staff announcer for NBC television. Journalists Bill McCreary, and Gil Noble also got their start in WLIB's news department, before each made the leap to television in the mid-1960s.
In the 1960s WLIB was one of several commercial jazz stations in New York, among its disc jockeys was Billy Taylor. During much of this period WLIB's primary competition came from WWRL, another station which programmed to Black audiences.
WLIB became Black-owned in the 1970s after activists picketed the station and demanded African Americans be given a chance to purchase it. Many felt the station's series of white owners didn't care about broadcasting with community concerns in mind. Percy Sutton, Malcolm X’s former attorney and then-Manhattan borough president, formed the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (ICBC) with the backing of a group of Black investors (including Hal Jackson and Billy Taylor), and purchased WLIB from the Novik brothers in 1972. The station's first talk shows featured Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, and Dr. Carlos Russell, a noted former college professor who taught some of the Black and Latino students who later founded the Young Lords.
Increased signal power
The station's nighttime power was increased to 30,000 watts in the early 2000s, in a swap with WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which also broadcasts on 1190 AM. Prior to the power increase, WLIB was classified as a "limited time" station operating during daytime hours (NYC sunrise until sunset at Fort Wayne) only, deferring at night to WOWO's 50,000-watt clear-channel signal. Inner City Broadcasting purchased the Fort Wayne station in 1994 for the sole purpose of lowering its power in order to increase WLIB's, setting the stage for WLIB to eventually begin broadcasting around the clock. After gaining Federal Communications Commission approval for 24-hour broadcasting, it would still be a few years before WLIB would actually begin nighttime programming. In the meantime Inner City sold WOWO, whose nighttime signal is now greatly reduced.
Politics
Since becoming Black-owned the station has broadcast political, Afrocentric, and health-centered programming aimed at New York's Caribbean American community. WLIB's advocacy strength was credited with getting out the vote for David Dinkins in 1989 as he ran to become New York City's first black mayor.