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WDAY (AM)

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WDAY (970 kHz "News-Talk 970 AM and 93.1 FM") is North Dakota's oldest radio station, having first signed on in 1922. WDAY is licensedtoFargo, North Dakota and is owned Flag Family Media.

The Forum bought 49 percent of the station in 1935 to become the largest shareholder, and bought the remaining 51 percent interest in 1958.

WDAY's power is 10,000 watts and it uses a three tower directional antenna to protect other stations on 970 kHz. On January 8, 1935, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved increasing WDAY's power to 5000 watts.^[1] In March 2013, the power was increased to 10,000 watts. WDAY's signal covers the eastern half of North Dakota, west central Minnesota, northeastern South Dakota, and southern Manitoba. The transmitter is near 210th Street South in Barnesville, Minnesota and the studios are on 8th Street South in Fargo.^[2]

Most stations west of the Mississippi have call letters which begin with "K." However, WDAY was licensed before the U.S. government changed its assignment of call signs. Prior to 1923, call letters beginning with "W" were generally assigned to stations east of an irregular line forming the western borders of states from North Dakota south to Texas, with calls beginning with "K" going to stations in states west of that line. In 1923, the dividing line was shifted to the Mississippi River.

WDAY's FM translator at 93.1 FM signed on the air Thursday, July 20, 2017.^[3]

Programming

970 WDAY AM and 93.1 FM features local talk shows weekdays hosted by Mike Kapel (also known in the market as "Big Dog"), Hot Mic with Dom Izzo (both on WDAY radio, Inforum.com, and WDAY'z Extra), and Jay Thomas, as well as local news and weather updates and national news updates from ABC News Radio. WDAY radio also airs newscasts simulcast from WDAY-TV. Evenings and weekends feature live sports play-by-play and nationally syndicated programming. Shows include Markley, Van Camp, and Robbins, Ben Shapiro, Jim Bohannon, Red Eye Radio, Kim Komando, Gary Sullivan and Leo Laporte.

Tower collapse and new transmitter

On May 30, 2011, a severe thunderstorm damaged WDAY's AM Radio tower system (which was located on Main Avenue in West Fargo, North Dakota). Of its three towers, one completely collapsed, the second snapped approximately two-thirds of the way up, and the third remained standing but severely mangled, knocking WDAY off the air. WDAY was able to get back on the air several days later with the remaining tower, using the full 5,000 watt non-directional signal during the day, but only 1,200 watts at night, as the two towers which were lost transmitted the directional 5,000 watt signal at night. The FCC granted WDAY a construction permit to make it a 10,000 watt full-time signal from its new transmitter, which began broadcasting at full power in March 2013.^[4]

See also

• Black Building (Fargo, North Dakota): originally built to hold the studios
• WDAY-TV
• WDAZ-TV
• The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead

References

External links

• WDAY website

• WDAY in the FCC AM station database
• WDAYinNielsen Audio's AM station database
• K226CL in the FCC FM station database
• K226CL at FCCdata.org
• FCC History Cards for WDAY

46°38′48″N 96°21′50″W / 46.64667°N 96.36389°W / 46.64667; -96.36389