WJNO

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Radio station in West Palm Beach, Florida

title: "WJNO" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["radio-stations-in-florida", "news-and-talk-radio-stations-in-the-united-states", "radio-stations-established-in-1947", "1947-establishments-in-florida", "iheartmedia-radio-stations"] description: "Radio station in West Palm Beach, Florida" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WJNO" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Radio station in West Palm Beach, Florida ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox radio station"]

FieldValue
nameWJNO
cityWest Palm Beach, Florida
countryUS
area
brandingNewsradio 1290 WJNO
airdate
frequency1290 kHz
repeater
formatNews/talk
power
classB
facility_id1917
licensing_authorityFCC
coordinates
callsign_meaningAbbreviation of "John", reference to John R. Beacham, builder of WJNO (1230 AM), now WBZT
former_callsigns
owneriHeartMedia
licenseeiHM Licenses, LLC
sister_stations
webcast
website
affiliations
::

| name = WJNO | logo = | city = West Palm Beach, Florida | country = US | area = | branding = Newsradio 1290 WJNO | airdate = | frequency = 1290 kHz | repeater = | format = News/talk | power = | class = B | facility_id = 1917 | licensing_authority = FCC | coordinates = | callsign_meaning = Abbreviation of "John", reference to John R. Beacham, builder of WJNO (1230 AM), now WBZT | former_callsigns = | owner = iHeartMedia | licensee = iHM Licenses, LLC | sister_stations = | webcast = | website = | affiliations =

WJNO (1290 kHz) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to serve West Palm Beach, Florida, covering Palm Beach County and portions of the Miami metropolitan area. Owned by iHeartMedia, WJNO serves as the local affiliate for: Fox News Radio; The Glenn Beck Program, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The Mark Levin Show, The Dave Ramsey Show and Coast to Coast AM; and syndicated personalities Kim Komando, Ric Edelman and Bill Handel. The WJNO studios are located in West Palm Beach, while the station transmitter resides in nearby Loxahatchee. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WJNO streams online via iHeartRadio.

This station is the second station in the West Palm Beach area—and the third AM station overall—to use the WJNO call sign, which originated on the former WJNO (1230 AM) in 1936; that station is now known as WBZT. WJNO is also notable as being the first station in the market to use the WIRK call sign when it signed on in 1947; it is unrelated to the current WIRK.

History

WIRK

West Palm Beach got its third radio station in 1947 when WIRK began broadcasting at 1290 kHz. Owned by Ken-Sell, Inc., the station broadcast with 1,000 watts and had its transmitter on Military Trail and studios in the basement of the Citizens' Building. Not long after going on air, WIRK affiliated with the Mutual Broadcasting System.

The early 1950s saw several advancements for WIRK. In 1952, ground was broken on a new business building at 711 S. Flagler Drive, on the shores of Lake Worth, to house WIRK and Remington Rand. WIRK increased its power to 5,000 watts in 1953, and September 13 saw the launch of its television adjunct, WIRK-TV (channel 21), the first TV station in the Palm Beaches.

WIRK-TV operated at a financial loss until folding on February 29, 1956. After it closed, one of the partners in Ken-Sell sold his share in the company to WIRK radio-TV sports director Rome Hartman.

In 1965, WIRK launched an FM outlet at 107.9 FM, first bearing the call letters WPBF but changing to WIRK-FM in 1971. While WIRK remained a rock radio station, WIRK-FM became a successful country outlet.

WIRK-AM-FM was sold for the first time in its history in 1983 to Price Communications for $7 million. Price relaunched the AM station, which had in August 1982 flipped from adult contemporary to country, as WPCK "13AM", trying to give it a separate identity from its FM country sister. However, the station's move to big band music accompanying the format change was rolled back in 1985 when WIRK returned to country; the next year, it began simulcasting WIRK-FM. In 1987, WIRK became WPBG, airing the syndicated "Pure Gold" oldies format.

In February 1992, 1290 AM flipped to talk and changed its call letters to WBZT. The new station aired sports programming, including the then-new ESPN Radio, as well as sports play-by-play and talk jocks including Rush Limbaugh. The 1990s saw a series of sales involving WBZT. Price sold WIRK and WBZT to American Radio Systems in 1994.

WJNO comes to 1290

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/WJNO_NewsRadio1290_logo.png" caption="Former logo"] ::

In January 2000, Clear Channel Communications swapped the intellectual units of WJNO (1230 AM) and WBZT, resulting in WJNO—the oldest radio station in West Palm Beach{{cite news |title=WJNO, Launched in 1936, County's First Radio Station |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43604761/ |page=20B |work=Palm Beach Post |date=March 29, 2000 |author=Eliot Kleinberg |author-link=Eliot Kleinberg |access-date=February 4, 2020

Rhodes moved to New York City in March 2004 to join the new Air America Radio liberal talk network, with her syndicated show continuing to air on WJNO. After her dismissal from Air America due to remarks made at a fund-raiser for KKGN deriding Hillary Clinton as a "whore" as part of a comedy routine, Rhodes returned to producing the show from WJNO.; Nova M Radio became Rhodes's new syndicator. Except for a three-month break related to a contract dispute with Nova M—at which time Clear Channel-owned Premiere Radio Networks took over syndication duties—Rhodes remained on WJNO until she ended her program in 2014.

Programming

WJNO personalities Brian Mudd and Joel Malkin host the local morning show; The Glenn Beck Program, (via Premiere Networks) and Financial Exchange with Barry Armstrong both air in late mornings. The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show and The Sean Hannity Show, (both via Premiere) air in middays and afternoons, while The Mark Levin Show (via Westwood One) and The Dave Ramsey Show air in the evenings. Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis and Coast to Coast AM (both via Premiere) air in late evenings and overnights. Weekend hosts include Kim Komando, Bill Handel and Ric Edelman.

After having moved from New York City to Florida, Rush Limbaugh hosted his syndicated program from a home studio in Palm Beach County, unofficially making WJNO a "home station" for the show.

References

References

  1. Price, Paul. "Business Looks Great to Radio Industry in County". Palm Beach Post.
  2. Diskin, Alan. (October 2002). "2002: Alan Diskin Explains... Why Do WJNO, WBZT, and WJNA Keep Switching Frequencies?".
  3. (July 7, 1947). "WIRK on Air".
  4. (July 21, 1947). "Third Palm Beach Station On Air". Miami Herald.
  5. "History Cards for WIRK". [[Federal Communications Commission]]}} ([[Wikipedia:WikiProject Radio Stations/History Cards.
  6. (May 27, 1947). "WIRK May Start Programs Soon". Palm Beach Post.
  7. (September 14, 1947). "WIRK To Join MBS". Palm Beach Post-Times.
  8. (August 3, 1952). "Work Starts On Flagler Dr. Business building". Palm Beach Post-Times.
  9. (April 23, 1953). "5,000 Watts For Wirk OKd". Miami Herald.
  10. Kalajian, Douglas. (September 13, 2000). "When 'The Box' Came to Palm Beach County". Palm Beach Post.
  11. (August 1, 1965). "On The Air TODAY!!". Fort Lauderdale News.
  12. "History Cards for WEAT". [[Federal Communications Commission]]}} ([[Wikipedia:WikiProject Radio Stations/History Cards.
  13. (June 18, 1983). "WIRK Radio Stations Sold". Palm Beach Post.
  14. Michals, Bob. (December 20, 1983). "Networks Try Out 'Split 30' TV Ads". Palm Beach Post.
  15. Benarde, Scott. (July 8, 1987). "WIRK-AM turning off country music, on rock, pop oldies". Palm Beach Post.
  16. Smith, Thom. (February 10, 1992). "Willets, Smith stories receive 'Playboy' touch". Palm Beach Post.
  17. McKenney, Mitch. (June 14, 1994). "WIRK-FM, WBZT-AM won't change formats, buyer says". Palm Beach Post.
  18. George Bennett. (January 15, 2000). "Longtime talk-show host Cole fired by WJNO". Palm Beach Post.
  19. Cohen, Fred. (January 15, 2000). "Station dumps longtime host". Palm Beach Daily News.
  20. Thom Smith. (March 3, 2004). "Rhodes Show Still On WJNO". Palm Beach Post.
  21. Passy, Charles. (April 14, 2008). "Radio host Rhodes returns to West Palm".
  22. (April 11, 2008). "News Radio 1290 WJNO Randi Rhodes Press Release". WJNO.
  23. Chafets, Zev. (July 6, 2008). "Late-Period Limbaugh". New York Times Magazine.
  24. (March 30, 2009). "El Rushbo to New York: Drop Dead". RushLimbaugh.com.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

radio-stations-in-floridanews-and-talk-radio-stations-in-the-united-statesradio-stations-established-in-19471947-establishments-in-floridaiheartmedia-radio-stations