station of the cross frequency 1460 khz first air date 1925 format religious catholic power 3 700 watts day 5 000 watts night class b callsign meaning holy and immaculate conception former callsigns whec 1925 1972 waxc 1972 1978 wwwg 1978 2003 owner holy family communications website www.thestationofthecross.com whic is a catholic radio station broadcasting from rochester new york . whic is located at 1460 on the am dial . referred to as the station of the cross whic is owned and operated by holy family communications . the station began broadcasting catholic programming on july 1 2003 . broadcasting at 3 700 watts in the daytime and 5 000 watts at night whic s calls represent the holy and immaculate conception to whom this station is dedicated . history edit whic enjoys a legacy in rochester s broadcast history . the station became rochester s second radio operation in 1925 when the hickson electric company launched the station as whec . it was the city s cbs radio network affiliate from the moment the network began operation in 1928 and was acquired by the gannett company publishers of the democrat and chronicle in 1932 . 1 until 1941 the station used a number of broadcast frequencies but had settled on 1430 khz by 1928 operating first with 500 and later with 1000 watts from a transmitter on mt. read boulevard in the northwest portion of rochester . following the north american regional broadcasting agreement narba in 1941 whec was reassigned to 1460 khz and after the war boosted power to 5 000 watts from new transmitting facilities south of the city in brighton new york . in the 1950s and 1960s whec broadcast popular music along with local and cbs news sharing staff and some news content with sister television station whec tv which hit the airwaves in 1953 . gannett placed the station up for sale in the summer of 1971 and found a purchaser in sande broadcasting company a partnership of local investors and broadcast managers . after the sale was finalized in 1972 the new owners rebranded the station waxc waxy and changed format to compete with the top station in the market wbbf by playing top 40 hits . through much of the decade of the 1970s waxc was relatively successful both financially and in popularity as measured by arbitron ratings . but after 7 years of competition toward the end of which fm stations started to cut into the audiences and revenues of both waxc and wbbf the callsign waxc was retired and the station sold to american general media beginning the era of wwwg 3wg . at first the station operated with a full service adult contemporary format reminiscent of the final years of gannett ownership competing directly with clear channel wham . but the station s more limited am signal proved to be a greater liability at a time when suburbanization was spreading out the market s population geographically beyond the station s reliable nighttime pattern and fm competition was growing . so the days of secular contemporary format programming came to an end early in the 1980s . american general media repositioned the station as a religious outlet and announced that the callsign wwwg originally chosen simply as an easily remembered brand name would stand for where we worship god . while most rochester commercial stations had broadcast various church and synagogue services and other religious programming at some point in their history and pat robertson s cbn network had owned a chain of rural fm stations whose signals could be heard in portions of the market wwwg s policy of religious programming around the clock earned it the distinction of being the city of rochester s first full time religious radio station . wwwg offered a mix of evangelical religious programming among other brokered shows . 2 in the summer of 2003 wwwg was purchased by buffalo based holy family communications to become the network s fourth catholic radio venture . holy family created the station of the cross as a network name and rebranded 1460 as whic . officially the calls stand for holy and immaculate conception . however it is likely that holy family wanted to pay homage to the station s heritage calls given their similarity . whic began carrying catholic programming 24 hours a day with much of the content provided by the ewtn catholic radio network . references edit whec rochester sold to gannett newspapers pdf . broadcasting . november 15 1932 . retrieved 6 october 2014 . http www.bostonradio.org stations 6641 boston radio external links edit official website query the fcc s am station database for whic radio locator information on whic query nielsen audio s am station database for whic v t e radio stations in the rochester new york region and western finger lakes by am frequency 850 950 990 1040 1140 1180 1280 1310 1370 1460 1490 1550 1590 by fm frequency 88.1 88.5 89.1 89.3 89.5 89.7 90.1 90.5 91.5 92.5 93.3 94.1 95.1 95.7 96.5 97.1 97.9 98.3 98.9 99.7 100.5 100.9 101.3 102.3 102.7 103.5 103.9 104.3 104.9 105.5 105.7 105.9 106.3 106.7 107.3 107.7 by callsign w265bx w282bq w288bz waio wayo lp wbee fm wber wbsu wbta wbza wcgr wcjw wcmf fm wdcx wdkx wdvi weos wepl lp wfkl wrfz lp wgmc wgsu wham whic whtk whws lp witr wkdl fm wkel wjzr wkgs wlgz fm wlkk wmhn wnbl wokr wpxy fm wrmm fm wroc wrsb wrur fm wuuf wvor wxxi wxxi fm wylf wysl wzne wzny wzxv defunct wdre 1330 am new york radio markets albany schenectady troy binghamton buffalo niagara falls elmira corning hudson valley nassau suffolk long island new york city olean plattsburgh poughkeepsie rochester syracuse utica rome watertown other new york radio regions ithaca jamestown dunkirk north country saratoga see also list of radio stations in new york coordinates 43 06 34 n 77 34 20 w 43.10944 n 77.57222 w 43.10944 ; 77.57222 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title whic & oldid 740982896 categories christian radio stations in the united statescatholic radio stationsradio stations in rochester new yorkradio stations established in 2003hidden categories coordinates on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 24 september 2016 at 16 21 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie 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