WQQW
Broadcast areaMadison County
Bond County
Clinton County
St. Clair County
Greater St. Louis (limited)
Frequency1510 kHz
Programming
FormatDefunct
Ownership
Owner
  • Entertainment Media Trust
  • (Entertainment Media Trust, Dennis J. Watkins, Trustee)
OperatorInsane Broadcasting Company
KFTK, KQQZ, KZQZ
History
First air date
May 19, 1998 (1998-05-19)
Last air date
March 5, 2019 (2019-03-05)
Former call signs
WBDI (1998–99)
WCBW (1999–2001)
WINU (2001)
WDID (2001–06)
WXOZ (2006–09)
Technical information
Facility ID90598
ClassD
Power1,000 watts (daytime)
Transmitter coordinates
38°44′56″N 89°34′10″W / 38.74889°N 89.56944°W / 38.74889; -89.56944

WQQW was a commercial daytime-only radio station that was licensed to serve Highland, Illinois, at 1510 AM, and broadcast from 1998 to 2019. The station's transmitter site was located in the town of Pierron, Illinois.

The station's license was revoked by the Federal Communications Commission on March 20, 2020, after it was revealed that the principal ownership—Entertainment Media Trust—was set up as a shell company for a convicted felon. This license cancellation also included three other AM stations in the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area owned by the group: KFTK (1490 AM), KQQZ and KZQZ.

History

Originally licensed on May 19, 1998, WINU became WDID on June 14, 2001; WDID changed to WXOZ on May 11, 2006; and finally WXOZ changed to the current WQQW on November 18, 2009.[1]

On March 4, 2019, WQQW went silent, citing a transmitter prone to turning itself off for unknown reasons and issues with the internet delivery of its programming to the transmitter site.[2]

In 2012, Mark Kern challenged the license renewals of WQQW and its sister stations, alleging that Robert Romanik, a convicted felon who is also known as the "Grim Reaper of Radio", was controlling the stations in violation of FCC rules that prohibit felons from owning broadcast stations and had arranged a local marketing agreement for one of them.[3] On June 5, 2019, the Federal Communications Commission designated all four EMT stations' licenses for hearing, finding that Romanik had established EMT and provided all the funding to acquire its stations even though he was not a party to any FCC applications.

The station's license was cancelled on March 20, 2020.[4]

FCC Auction 109

The FCC announced on February 8, 2021, that the former EMT-licensed AM allocations in the St. Louis market, including WQQW's frequency, would go up for auction on July 27, 2021.[5] The day after the auction process started, blank applications for new stations, using the facility ID numbers for WQQW and KFTK, appeared in the FCC database.[6] No bids were received for any of the four frequencies during the eight-day auction.[7]

References

  1. ↑ WQQW's call sign history from the FCC.
  2. ↑ BLSTA-20190305AAG Request for Silent STA — WQQW
  3. ↑ Venta, Lance (2019-06-05). "FCC Sends Four St. Louis Area AMs To License Revocation Hearing". Radio Insight. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  4. ↑ "CDBS Search". Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
  5. ↑ McLane, Paul (8 February 2021). "FCC Schedules Auction of 136 FM CPs". RadioWorld. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  6. ↑ "Daily Digest: Broadcast Applications" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
  7. ↑ "iHeartMedia Nabs Sacramento FM In FCC Auction; Four St. Louis AMs Are Left Unsold". Inside Radio. August 6, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.


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