The Eastern Shore of Virginia

Delmarva is interesting enough on it's own geographically. but the Eastern Shore of Virginia has some real radio oddities. (It also has some colorful town names like central PA, but that's not a radio thing. )  But why is that shore part of Virginia anyway? It's only connected to Virginia by bridge, by land it's adjacent to Maryland.  Well per the original 1609 land grant Virginia consisted of the North American coast stretching 200 miles north and south of what we now call Hampton, VA. the real question is why does Maryland exist?  An English nobleman, By way of his father George, Cecil Calvert managed to lobby King Charles I to carve a land grant from Virginia in 1642. Anyway, that's all ancient history. It's less strange than what happened to East and West New Jersey. 

Because of the Chesapeake Bay many shoreline stations have unexpectedly large and asymmetrical coverage areas. The local big MSA is #37: Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News, VA–NC, with an estimated 2023 population of 1,787,169. That part of the Delmarva peninsula is broken into two counties: Accomack and Northampton. They are both technically part of the Norfolk MSA, but many of these stations have little coverage in the metro center because of that geography.

But outside of that orbit, many stations serve their communities in the greater bay area. You might try the map in the dxtra.com website visualizing that geography. It you look up the lat/long of the antennas you will also see how rural this area is, with most towers surrounded by farm land. 

88.9 WMVA - The station has no relation to the former WMVA-AM in Martinsville, VA. That was cancelled in 2019.  This one is in Painter, VA and was only first licensed in June of 2023. The original 2021 CP was with Friendship Cathedral who still operate the station today. 

89.1 WHAR - These calls were previously on 105.1 in Havelock, NC from 2018 to 2024 and that station was also broadcasting Air-1 satcast christian music. WHAR signed on in 2005 in Cheriton, VA and in being in Cape Charles, it signal does cross the bay and reach into the metro center. Air-1 generally shuffles call letters often, which complicates the history. But I think it's always been a religious satcaster.   Print sources confirm that 89.1 Cheriton was formerly WWIP. Those calls go back to it's start in 1998. The original CP lists the Delmarva Educational Association which still owns the license today. In April of 2024 they flipped calls to WHAR. If you go looking please remember that from about 1993 - 1998 there was a CHR station with the WWIP calls on 105.9 in Wabash, IN.  Not them.

90.1 WHRX - This 46,000 watt stick is a simulcast of WHRV, out of Nassawadox, and it's coverage doesn't each much further south than Cape Charles. Oddly it's been through several call sign changes. The station was launched as WJCN in 2002, became WHRE in 2010, then WHRJ in 2011 and the WHRX later that same year. I'm not sure why all the shuffling.  But those calls intimate an acquisition, and the tower is Nandua High School intimating a connection, but that was not the case. Prior to 2010 the stick was owned by Positive alternative Radio inc and aired Spirit FM. The original 1998 CP lists only Nassawadox FM Inc. Only in the 2002 Assignment of Authorization does that change to CSN international. Both M Street and VARTV corroborate this [LINK] that CP so it's not an entry error. The corporation was real. It was incorporated in 1998 in Boca Raton, FL. [SOURCE] Radio Business magazine [SOURCE] reported that they sold the CP to CSN Int'l for 80k. It smells like a shell company.  Anyway also read that the WHRO format flip started with an all-Christmas format stunt which is more fun. 

90.7 WZLV - Being situated on the tip of the peninsula, this station penetrates into Norfolk and Virginia Beach. It's a shame the signal is wasted on K-love. The station signed on as WAZP in 1998 owned by Delmarva Educational Association. It changed calls to WZLV only in 2010. The Broadcasting yearbook of 2007 claims the station signed on in 2000 with K-love which confirms. Back then it was the only stick in Cape Charles too. What a waste.

91.5 W218CQ - This is a simulcast of WYFQ, a AM/FM station duo out of Charlotte, NC. That station has no earthly business operating a repeater in the Chesapeake, about 280 miles away... but it does. It's another example of religious satcaster obeying no earthly laws. It's operated by the Bible Broadcasting Network. The FCC lists it as silent today due to a fire on April 7th 2026. Hey, that was last week!

91.9 WHRE - This 4,400 watt stick is a simulcast of WHRV, who's coverage doesn't each much further north than Cape Charles. Per the FCC it signed on in December of 2010 with the call sign WHRJ, then changed to WHRE in January of 2011. This stick broadcasts from the grounds of Northampton High School in Eastville, VA. The original 2007 CP lists the applicant as Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications so I think it's safe to say that this has always been a WHRO/WHRV public radio property.

96.1 WROX - Technically in Exmore, this is basically in Cape Charles. This station signed on in 1986  as WIAV, "Wave 96" with a CHR format. A lightning strike took them off air in 1987 and it was sold to Bishop L.E. Willis and co-owned 1550 WVAB-AM but spinning off the AM stick. By the end of 1988 the calls where changed to WKSV,and in 1989 WXRI with a Christian AC format.  In 1991 they tried an Urban Contemporary format and changed calls to WMYK.  Sinclair  bought the stick in 1993 and flipped the format to rock. then in 1998 it became WROX. In the 1990 Broadcasting yearbook they're listed under Virginia Beach instead of Cape Charles. They had a repeater on 106.1 downtown for years but lost is to the full service WUSH-FM in 2004. But back to WVAB-AM for a moment, they had a very interesting history. 1550 WVAB broadcast from 1954 to 2018, and after an FCC investigation Birach Broadcasting surrendered the license for it and 1450 WBVA-AM. WVAB had been off air since 2008 due to "vandalism" at that time. Birach only bought the station from the very politically connected Kellam family that same year. Hmmmm

96.9 WCCZ - The station signed on in 2005 as WFAJ, in Nassawadox owned by Hispanic Target Media, Inc. They are a well known operator, which currently owns 22 stations, though they've deleted at least another 5 in recent years. Even at at 13,500 watts, this station reaches Newport News but only the very shores of Norfolk; a glancing blow on the metro center. When it was airing the Radio Amigo format it was a huge Reg Mex station. In 2024 it was sold to GSB Media who flipped the format to Classic Hits. 

98.3 WHRF - This 6,000 watt stick is a simulcast of WHRO, who's coverage doesn't each much further South than Cape Charles. The original 2009 CP was filed by Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications so very little has changed for this stick in the last 15+ years. 

99.3 WOWZ - Like WCCZ, this is a GSB Media property today. The station was founded in 1987, by Eastern Shore Broadcasting but DBA the Chincoteague Broadcasting Corporation.  That was a Stephen Marks company like The Marks Group. They entered radio in 1983 in a big way acquiring 51% of Thunder Bay Broadcasting. Then it owned only WKBKB-TV in Alpena, MI. But under Marks they went into acquisition mode. In 2022, Marks died and his window began selling off their radio properties. WOWZ signed on in 1990 as WVES, the WOWZ calls only began in 2017, six years before WOWZ was sold to GSB Media. The station has been playing country as far back as I can confirm, at least 20 years.

103.3 WESR - This station signed on in 1068, 10 years after their AM sister station. Initially a simulcast, as a Vernon Baker station it was acquired by Eastern Shore Radio in 1987 and the FM stick split off to broadcast MOR.  More here.

105.7 W289CE - This little translator broadcasts WESR-AM. Both W289CE and 103.3 WESR-FM we're knocked off air recently, April 7th by a transmitter fire. That's surely the same fire that took out W218CQ. In the daytime it's pretty redundant to that AM signal on 1330, but at night WESR-AM powers down from 5,000 watts to 51 so it doubles the coverage area with just 250 watts. I notice the tower is across the street from an Elks Lodge (BPOE 1766). ...A lot of lodges have a bar inside, I'll bet some of the staff are members.

1330 WESR-AM - This is the only AM stick in either Accomack or Northampton county; so that also makes it the only one in the Virginia section of the Delmarva Peninsula. This AM stick is the original local station for the Eastern Shore. They signed on in January of 1958, the product of a meeting between a hotel owner, Charles F. Russell and Vernon Baker, a Virginia tech professor who founded many radio stations. It is audible miles out to sea, and due to it's coverage pattern, it covers parts to both the Washington D.C. market and Norfolk, though more of the former. I listened to it this evening and Coastal Country was Darius Rucker while the FM stick was playing the Pointer Sisters "Neutron Dance." 

A Yugoslavian Radio Archive (Part 2)

Radio NB map from their 2002 site

First, a foot note from Part 1. The radio format "folk" in this region is going to be music most Americans would call Polka. But the usage here is more like ethnic, thought there are multiple ethnicities at play... hence the break-up really.  I will say that the more you listen, the more you can hear other cultural influences that take the music somewhere distinctly different than a Polish Polka. But still.. like Reg Mex... there's a lot of Polka in there. 

As I browse the sites for information I keep finding references to NATO bombings and it's not lost on me how bloody the break up was. This was not an amicable separation. This was a collapse driven by nationalistic rivalries and multiple wars of independence. If you are looking for more in that history I recommend the BBC documentary series The Death of Yugoslavia. It's on Youtube here. 

RADIO LASAREVAC [LINK] The Radio L website was loaded with Flash so it's content is mostly lost. The landing page gives the frequencies 103.6, 89.3 and 648 ST. The about section is blank. According to Streema today the station is based in Lazarevac, Serbia and the station Airs Adult Contemporary and Top 40/Pop music.

RADIO LESKOVAC [LINK] There was a short blurb on this site: "Radio Leskovac broadcasts thirteen hours of programming every day. Only two hours of programming are rebroadcast: Radio Belgrade - "Vesti", "Novosti dana", Radio Free Europe - "Jutarnji dnevnik", Radio B92 - "Dnevnik"." Then it also had 11 hours of it's own local programming. The site stopped updating in 2005.

RADIO MADONA [LINK]  This pop station broadcast on 101.00 and 104.9. It had some connection to a disco of the same name. It's hard to know if that was metaphorical or literal. The website says that it had only two shows: Hit Needle - Saturdays from 3:00 - 9:00 PM and DJ Time & Top 20 - Sundays from 9:00 to Midnight. Their transmitter was on Crni Vrh, a mountain in eastern Serbia between towns of Bor and Žagubica.

 

RADIO MARIJA [LINK] This was a religious station with the motto "God's voice in every house" The name means Radio Maria. It broadcast on 102.9 in Novi Sad. The station signed on in 1987 and is still on air today [LINK]  The new site uses the TLD .cr indicating a home in the modern boarders of Croatia. That modern site explains:

"The Radio Marija Association is a non-profit, non-governmental and non-political civil society organization, founded in Croatia in 1995. The first initiative committee was created within the framework of the Rosary Movement for Conversion and Peace, and on the eve of its foundation, cooperation was established with Radio Maria of Italy. The idea of ​​Radio Marija and the first program originated in 1983 in a parish in Erba in northern Italy."

RADIO MORAVA [LINK] Radio Morava signed on July 1st 1996. on 98.4 broadcasting folk music. It was based in Jagodina in central Serbia. The site information suggests they had live music as well. The .rs TLD of their new site [LINK] indicates their domain is hosted Romania though they are still physically in Jagodina. 

RADIO NB [LINK]  Located in Novi Becej, at the center of Vojvodina, This station was founded in 1998 by the  Novi Bečej Municipal Assembly and broadcast programs in Hungarian and Serbian. It's signal was on 106.1 and the map was cached and pictured at top. These municipal stations seem to be akin to a community station in some ways.

 

RADIONICA [LINK] This is not a radio station but I included it because it's the only website I found which actually addressed the dissolution of the .yu domain. It describes the process for transferring .yu websites which would very messy and bureaucratic "I hope that this whole campaign about the National Internet domain will have some results and as soon as possible, because this current situation is unsustainable and unacceptable.." I think this was a web host.  Radionica means workshop in Croatian but I'm keeping it here for it's ICANN commentary which is lengthy and detailed.

RADIO NOVI SAD [LINK] This station was founded in 1949, possibly the oldest in the set if not the region. It broadcast in Derbian, Hungarian, Slovak, Ruthenian, Romanian, Ukrainian and Romanian. It operated Radio Stotka on 100 Mhz and Radio Novi Sad on UKT 89.5 MHz and 93.7 MHz, St 1485 kHz which operated 13 hours a day. It describes the programming as "The basic purpose of this City Radio service has been reporting from the City Assembly meetings, the government and all the other city authority body. It also means covering the work of public utilities and services under city control." But it was also home to the Tamburitza Orchestra and had robust music programming.

RADIO NOVOSTI [LINK]  Some of the flash survived on this one. Novosti means news, and this is an all news station which broadcast on 104.4 in Begrade, Serbia.  It operated today on 104.7 on a .com TLD. [SOURCE] That news site confirms they signed on in 1993 and today broadcasts with 10 digital channels.

RADIO ORION [LINK] This station signed on April 24th 2001 with a mix if music and news. The menu is broken and parts of the site lost. Today it operates on 91.7 in Romania broadcasting 24 hour a day. When I tuned in today it was pop music. 

RADIO PALIC [LINK]  This station broadcast on 103.0 starting in 1998 from Subotica, Serbia. The site is mostly text. But the a staff list survived. I found a news article which suggested a radio tower in Palic was bombed by NATO in 1999. It may have been destroyed. The station does not exist today. There is another station Radio 103 which seems to occupy the same frequency. [SOURCE]

RADIO PEK [LINK] Pek signed on March 13th 1996 on 93.9 FM broadcasting to Kučevo and the surrounding area of eastern Serbia. The station move3d to 94.0 by 2006 and was broadcasting a mix of folk, pop, dance and rock music with a second signal on 98.3.
 

RADIO PINGVIN [LINK] Pingvin means Penguin.  It signed on November 23rd 1991 broadcasting in Belgrade on 90.9. The description confirms it had several different owners before 2006 and different names but that it's basic policy of no politics and no populists had remained constant. That logo is great and they are still on air today. [LINK]

 RADIO PLANETA [LINK] This station broadcast on 102.2 Mhz in Novi Sad beginning in 2003. Their studio was located in the Planeta Shopping Center. The site makes a point of directing listeners to the Fontana restaurant where the staff hang out. Someone was getting free drinks. 

RADIO POZAREVAC [LINK] This station, founded in 1977,  has a really good history page which I'll quote "The solid roots of Radio Požarevac were established in the early seventies through the so-called "Radio LJ K I", a program that, in cooperation with the Organizing Committee of the Ljubičevo Games, ran every summer before and during this tourist and sports event... The first program of this type was broadcast from the premises of the KPD Zabela, while it was later moved to the premises of the Požarevac Municipal Assembly. The program consisted of news, specialized programs dedicated to the Ljubičevo Games, a news program, music programs, as well as listeners' wishes.In the summer of the same year, the experimental program of Radio Požarevac began, which lasted from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The ceremonial start of the broadcasting of the Radio Požarevac program followed on October 12. The program was broadcast on medium waves of 240 m and ultra-short wave area of 92.1 Mhz.This significant undertaking was started by Bogran Živanović, Jovan Rajković, Ljubiša Dobrosavljević, Siniša Ristić and Zoran Vasić as journalists, Novica Mišić and Radenko Ristić as sound engineers, and Petar Crnobrnja and Gordana Kuzmanović as announcers.  " 

RADIO PULS [LINK] Puls (which means pulse) broadcast news, music, sports and had call in programs from 91.1 FM. I think this is the same station which today broadcasts on 96.0 from Despotovac, Serbia. If so it was founded December 19th 1997. [SOURCE] A 2003 cache tells me the station was founded in September 2002 and their original frequency was 91.1 and that they carry music and information programs. 

RADIO S [LINK]  Radio S had multiple signals 104.7 in Beolgrade, 94.3 in Kragujevac and 96.9 in - Novi Sad. Their stick in Belgrade was the first and signed on August 17th 1994. The had a very fancy site of all flash which was cached.

RADIO SAFIR [LINK] Safir signed on in 1995 and their "about" section brags that they have over 70,000 songs in their library. I think there were two more stations in the group from the line "your Gold 013 FM 106.4 MHz"Their studio was based in Pancevo across the river from Belgrade, Serbia. 

RADIO SECANJ [LINK] The landing page reads "Public Enterprise of Broadcasting Activities" This public station started broadcasting on July 9th 1999 on 96.3.  As of 2005 it employed 13 workers. and planned to launch a cable television channel and establish a local radio and television stations.

RADIO SOMBOR [LINK]  Surely the oldest station in this list, Sombor started broadcasting on July 31st 1972. It reads "On medium and ultra-short waves, the program was broadcast on weekdays from 1 to 6 p.m. Among the first shows were "Chronicle of the Day", "Pop Studio", "Twice Forty" and others. The program was prepared by the journalists of "Somborski novina" and the newly formed editorial staff of Radio Sombor.  Today, Radio Sombor broadcasts its program on two frequencies, 90.9 MHz and 97.5 MHz. On 90.9 MHz, 11 journalists - nine in the Serbian-language newsroom and two in the Hungarian-language newsroom prepare a daily program that lasts 24 hours."

RADIO SPEKTAR [LINK] The Spektar group was founded on November 11th 1995. The station broadcast on 107.7 from Pancevo 24 hours a day with a mix of news, education and music programming. Their about section emphasized a number of local programs:" The Businessman's Club, Every Word, Evergreen Club, Danube flows into Tamis, Top Kiss, a Quiz show, a Nostalgia program and Happy Turnips (Veseli repici) which purports to be about pets... Google thinks the name is Slovenian.

 

RADIO STARA CARSIJA [LINK]  This station broadcast ion 99.1 from Cuprija Serbia. There's not much info on the programming but it says that "According to some of our internal research, conducted in Cuprija, Radio Stara Carsi is mainly listened to by the intellectual class of the population." They're still broadcasting today [LINK]

RADIO SUBOTIKA [LINK] This website was available in Magyar, Croatian and Serbian. The station was founded by the Subotica Municipal Assembly on November 29th 1968, and was broadcasting on 91.5 in 2006. Their history notes that broadcasting on Medium wave was interrupted by NATO
bombing on May 22nd 1999.  [SOURCE]  The station broadcast programs in Serbian and Hungarian for six hours a day, and in Croatian for one hour. They actually have a Wikipedia page which reports they launched a German program in 1998, which is the first radio show in German since 1944... ahem. 

 RADIO TOCAK [LINK] Instead of an about page they post a mission where they report that Radio "Točak" was the first Roma electronic media in the region of Western Serbia broadcasting on 104.2 FM. The station broadcast news and educational programs for Roma minority groups. The station was founded April 28th 2003 and served an ethnic minority of 40,000 Roma. Točak means wheel in English

RADIO TREND [LINK] This station was based in Baèka Topola in Vojvodina, 65 miles from Novi Sad. The community had about 15,000 citizens consisting mostly of Serbs, Hungarians, Slovaks and Ruthenians. The station broadcast on 95.2 FM. A 2018 report listed them as one of a handful of stations broadcasting Hungarian programming. [SOURCE]

RADIO X [LINK] Broadcasting from Požarevac on 100.5 this station broadcast folk music. Not just folk, it clarifies "folk music - songs from the 60s, 70s, 80s and early 90s" So that's the Adult AC of Folk. Their signal covered Pozarevac and the entire Branicevski district, Smederevo and surrounding towns. Their biggest program was Željoteka Live which inenglish means disco with live folk music groups.

RADIO ZENIT [LINK]  This station covered the municipalities of Kula and Vrbas and broadcast 24 hours a day mostly in Bosnian. The site has a great animated .gif of the coverage area. Their name translates to Radio Zenith. The station was founded on December 26th, 1998, and broadcasts on 100.7.  The station is still on air today. [LINK] Their new site has a .ba TLD for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

RADIO ZVEZDARA [LINK] The cache is very fragmented. Zvezdara is a city in Belgrade, presumably it's locality. This station broadcast on 106.2, information only preserved in page title. The station still exists today [SOURCE] on the same frequency.

VOICE OF AMERICA, SERBIAN SERVICE [LINK]  The history on this site has nothing specific to Yugoslavia, not even in 1999. It's very generic info that describes the whole global VOA network. Locally it was called Glas Amerike, this service was started in 1942 during WWII. All programming originates in the USA, but if broadcast 24/7, 365. It purports to be objective and accurate but it's Western propaganda initially created to combat Nazi propaganda. But it's still on air today and depending on where you live, it might be a better news source than you have otherwise. The cache goes back to 1998. It's still operating in Serbia and Macedonia today of course. [LINK] and [LINK] They ended their Croatia service in 2011. More here and here.

A Yugoslavian Radio Archive (Part 1)

Yugoslavia [LINK] is no more. Yugoslavia only existed from existed from 1918 to 1992 and in many ways it was Josip Broz Tito though force of will, (and every other kind of force) which allowed it to survive that long. Slobodan Milosevic was able to get more sovereignty for Serbia at the cost of unity and without that majority stake, the states separated. But let's move on from the big political story to our side quest.

As an unexpected side-effect, this break up led ICANN to retire the .yu top level domain (TLD) in March of 2010. [SOURCE] (This is well explained by Jacob Filipp.) [SOURCE] So in 2010, the majority of Yugoslavian websites dissapeared, or migrated to other TLDs, including every radio station website. That would be the end of it, nothing but human memory and magnetic decay. Except that the Wayback Machine exists... 

With thanks to the miracle of the Wayback Machine, we have cached copies of many of these radio stations websites just as they were prior to 2010, though many ceased updates as early as 2002. There were lots of animated .gifs. This is not a complete list of radio sites of course, Yugoslvia was almost 99k square miles in size. That's about the size of Wyoming in American terms. Consider this a highlight reel.

RADIO 106 [LINK] - Radio 016 began operating on March 29, 1993. It was the first radio station in southern Serbia and the third in Serbia after Radio "PINGVIN from Belgrade and Radio 34 from Kragujevac). It operated on the frequency 101.60 MHz and with a 250 watt transmitter.

RADIO 021 [LINK] The earliest capture is from 1999 and mysteriously reports  "On Thursday, March 25, the Federal Ministry of Telecommunications temporarily confiscated the transmitter of Radio 021, which has not yet been returned." They appear to have returned to broadcasting and the website continued to be updated through early 2007 referring to a new domain outside of Yugoslavia [LINK] perhaps not feeling very confident about the future of the new local TLDs.

 

RADIO 101 [LINK]  Music Radio 101 claimed to be the first and oldest music radio in the country, but only began broadcasting on May 3, 1989. So this is about 30 years too late for that to be true. It broadcast on 101.4 and 98.5 MHz. Though the resume of EIC Zarko Obradović I found the station came from the Radio Belgrade "EKO Program" in the 1980s. This may trace back earlier. This source confirms Radio 101 stopped broadcasting in 2006. [SOURCE]

RADIO 103 [LINK] Radio 103 is a radio station located in Subotica, and covers the area of ​​North Backa and part of the area of ​​West Banat in Serbia near the Hungarian border. It first signed on in 1989 and had been on air for 17 years when the website ceased updates. 

 

Radio 31 [LINK] Radio 31 broadcast from Uzice in what is now Western Serbia. It began operating on April 1, 1993. It was block formatted in that era, playing pop and rock but with robust new programming. It seems to be primarily folk  music now. They exist today as Radio 31+ which an internet-only station on a Russian TLD. [LINK]

RADIO 5 [LINK] Radio 5 had a fun anthropomorphic bio. It described itself as a Leo born on August 10, 2001 in Novi Sad. It first broadcast on 107.5 MHz and signed on formally on 20 at 11.55 AM. 

RADIO 90 [LINK] Radio 90 is still using the same yunord email they had on their site in 2005. They are still on air and have been broadcasting since August 11, 2000. 

RADIO ADA [LINK] Their 2009 site was just a .pls file an an animated gif. Earlier versions had a little more information. The station was based on Vojvodina on 107.7. They are still on air but have no website that I can fine. 

RADIO ANTENA [LINK]  In Novi Sad on 106.0 Mhz this station described it self as "folk radio." Older versions have little info aside from broadcast schedules. The images show kids which made me think it was a college station.

RADIO AS [LINK]  This station broadcast on 101.2 starting on October 26th 2000 in Novi Sad. It mised music and talk radio programming. Their coverage map confirms they also broadcast on 101.6 in Subotica with some signal clearly receivable in Hungary.

RADIO BARAJEVO [LINK] Broadcasting from 105.9 this station broadcast from Barajevo in Belgrade, Serbia. It appears to be some kind of municipal service. The site was taken down before 2003 and had not been updated since 1999.

RADIO BEOGRAD [LINK] This was also known as Radio Yugoslavia. Versions of the page exist from 2007 which reveal a third draft of the site. Another cache exists on a .com domain here. No cache of Beograde 2 survives. The station still exists today operating 8 channels: Radio Belgrade 1, Radio Belgrade 2, Radio Belgrade 3, Radio Belgrade 202, Radio (RTS) Vrteshka, Radio (RTS) Rockenroller, Radio (RTS) Jukebox, and Radio (RTS) Pletenica. Vrteška, Rokenroler, Jukebox and Pletenica only signed on in 2019. 

RADIO BISER [LINK] Radio Biser was a folk station operating on 105.8 first signing on 05-08-1995 in Orovnik in what is now Macedonia.  In 1998 they added Biser Plus on 87.9 Mhz and starting in 2002 UHF channel 53 as Television Biser. The site stopped updating around 2002.

RADIO BIS [LINK] Radio Bis was another folk music station. In 2005 boat that it aired original national music "devoid of kitsch and Islamization." Oh my. Their motto was "Sumadija radio for generations from two to one hundred and two years old" Sumadija was presumably it's city of license, probably near it's capital, Kragujevac in Serbia.

RADIO BUBA MARA [LINK]  This cache is mostly a history of broken gifs. There is one bright yellow incarnation from 2004 which mysteriously says to click on the Ladybug. All links beyond are broken. The station still exists on 105.2. They are self-described as Macedonia's favorite online radio station.[LINK]  The new site has a history page which traces the station back to April 1994 as the most listened to station in Skopje.

 

RADIO BRAVO [LINK]  Very little of this site was cached. It broadcast on 103.5 from Pokrivamo Croatia. The motto "good music lovers club" implies it was a music station. 

RADIO BUM [LINK] The page was constructed entirely of gifs carefully positioned. One cache from 2002 yielded the below logo. A 2007 cache yielded a station history. It signed on April 26th 2001. broadcasting music and news from Boljevac, Timocka Krajina, Serbia.

RADIO BUCA [LINK] Radio Buca was founded on November 20, 2000 as a folk music station. It was on 89.0 Mhz broadcasting out of Novi Sad.  

RADIO BUS [LINK] Bus appears to be a community station of some kind.  The history gives no start date but reports "The main mission of BUS radio is to inform, entertain and educate the target group of citizens in the wide area where BUS can be heard."  They broadcast on 94.1 in Novi Sad.

RADIO B92 [LINK] This station was the leading independent pro-democracy station in Yugoslavia. It was shut down by the Serbian government in April 1999.  The site moved freeb92.net by 2000. That year their about section became mostly about their survival. " Information and contributions from a number of associates will also be published on the Free B92 site. These will throw more light on the bombing of Yugoslavia and the consequences of this. The common aim of these projects is to preserve the spirit of professionalism which has been stripped from everyday communication in Yugoslavia through the Belgrade regime’s banning and takeover of Radio B92."

RADIO CITY [LINK] This site was built in flash so most of the content was lost. From the one surviving line of text I gather is was a news station. There are multiple stations with that brand today in the region. It appears that They expended into TV based on their current site. [LINK]  But way back in 2004 Dragan Belajac, an engineer at Radio City posted on a forum:  

"I see that you are talking about radio here, I happen to be the owner of a local radio station and I deal with the production and assembly of broadcast and studio equipment. At the moment, there is general madness in our country on radio frequencies, you don't know who drinks and who pays and it is very difficult to find a so-called free frequency, because today people think that if you have a radio, you will be successful like Zeljko Mitrovic with Pink. As for the music on the radio, it must be on original Wav discs, which will be sent to your address as soon as you sign a contract with one of the productions, free of charge, because this is the material that you need to present to the listeners. As for broadcast equipment (excavator, amplifier, stereo encoder), I personally make it, but when the new law comes out, each device will have to have a certificate, but for now, nothing, so just start a company and enjoy your work. I could talk about this until tomorrow because I've been doing this since I was 10 years old..."

RADIO DAK [LINK] Another folk station. This one was 9 years old in 2006 meaning it was founded around 1997.  The station broadcast on 106.3 from Ćuprija. Their logo includes what is surely an unlicensed image of Daffy duck so I'm not going to post it. This may be a pun.  Dak does not mean duck, it means station. These are english letters in a nation which mostly uses Cyrillic letter. So Radio Dak means radio station. (радио дак is Duck Radio)

RADIO DELFIN [LINK] According to the website Radio Delfin is the most listened to radio station in Uzice. It plays all commercial music except folk, which might be a relief by now. It also has no news. Their signal covered an area which included Ovčar Banja and Zlatibor in Serbia.

RADIO DOINA [LINK]  Radio D 96 actually had an English version. This station was based hear the Romanian border in Grabovica, Serbia.They had little information posted but a small pology for their home brew HTML page " We have not abandoned the updating of the presentation, but at the moment the connection to the Internet is quite bad, so a lot of effort is put into updating it." There are three station with that brand now in the region but none on 96. 

RADIO DUGA [LINK] This station operated on 100.2 in Pozarevac in the Braničevo District in eastern Serbia. They were the third private station in Serbia and broadcast live in the style of Radio Luxembourg. It began broadcasting April 28th 1992. This site was last updated in 2006.

RADIO DUNAV [LINK] Dunav broadcast on 98.8 in Novi sad and 99.5 in Belgrade. The website had no info beyond that and the heart-like logo. A station with that brand operated today on 101.5 [LINK]  It purports to have been using the brand since May 18th, 1998 from Vukovar in Croatia. It also reports that over the years they have broadcast locla programs in the languages of "Hungarian, Ukrainian and Ruthenian national minorities."  That's only the second time I've ever read the word Ruthenian but we will get to Dorothy Thompson another time. It describes the music mix as  (50% folk-folk , 25% local pop-rock and 25% foreign music). That's how Canada does it right? 

RADIO DZENARIKA [LINK] This station broadcast on 103.8. Dzenzarika just means plum.  Modern streaming sites describe it as a Serbian folk station. It signed on in 1992 and is based in Cack, Serbia. [SOURCE] 

RADIO GAGA [LINK]  Radio GAGA was the first private radio station in the Jablaničko Okrug, which started broadcasting in 1994. It operated on 105.0 Mhz broadcasting mostly news. 

RADIO GALEB [LINK]  Broadcasting on 104.6 this station covered the municipalities of Veliko Gradište, Golubac, Požarevac and parts of the municipalities of Smederevo, Majdanpek, Petrovac na Mlavi, Kucevo, Bela Crkva, Vršac, Kovin, Žagubic. They first began broadcasting on February 14th 1995. Their motto means "Fly On Wings of Radio - The Seagull"

RADIO HORREUM MARGI [LINK] Aka Radio Margi, this station broadcast from Ćuprija, on  95.1 MHz. It signed on in 1992 as the first local radio station in the city.  It added a second signal on 100.3 as a simulcast. They advertised a 100 km coverage area. The Romans founded the town as a fort Horreum Margi, and the station is named for it.  (It means Marava River Granary) 

 

RADIO INDEX [LINK] This website cache is covered in news blurbs from 2001. There is an English version of the page with a history! [LINK]  It was founded in June of 1992 as a college radio station by Nenad Cekic and a group of enthusiastic Belgrade University students, over the years Radio Index grew into a major player on 99.8 FM in Serbia's media landscape. Their media coverage included protests against Milosevic. The station was banned by Milosevic in 1998, and it's EIC Nenad Cekic arrested. After NATO bombing ended in 1999, Radio Index returned after 9 months of silence. 

RADIO JAT [LINK] Radio Jat was established on March 21st, 1999 on 95.7 MHz in the Belgrade area. It aired a mix of popular music and news. Station manager Momcilo Kostic might be the same one who teaches engineering at U. of Sarajevo today.

RADIO KNEZ [LINK]  Every cache version of this site is all broken image links. A couple Top 10s survive. There is no information online. The word Knez means Duke or Prince in both Serbian and Croatian. A DX log from 2001 confirms the station was real and on 91.2. [SOURCE]  It may have been located in Knez Selo, Serbia. KNEZ in Lompoc, CA has no relation of course.

RADIO KULA [LINK] Radio Kula broadcast on UKT 89.2 Mhz for 6-24 hours and programs are in broadcast in three languages: Serbian, Hungarian and Ruthenian. They operated out of the Information and Propaganda Center KULA (IPC Kula) and printed a newspaper called the Kula Commune. It appears to have been liquidated in 2007. [SOURCE]

RADIO KRAJINA [LINK]  - No info here, just links to other sites. The incomplete site was retired before it was finished. The station is still around today on a new domain.[LINK]  Unfortunately the new station about section has no history. But their new site dopes have a 24/7 folk music stream. Krajina is a quasi city-state in Croatia, with little other information I believe this was a station in that area which no longer exists. 

XE2MH

I found this (above) nicely designed QSL card on eBay. [SOURCE]  The image was very eye catching so I wanted to look into it. It confirms a radio reception window between February 12th, 1947 to the following March 12th. It gives the frequency as 3.5 megacycles and noted 569 CW. CW is continuous Wave. But that "569 "is RST signal reporting code for Readability, Signal Strength and Tone. Suffice it to say reception was quite good. [SOURCE]  The writer closes with 73 which is “Best Regards." But cursive being cursive, I can't read the signature very well. More here.

Enrique Lobo y Lobo Jr.

Thankfully there are many resources for identifying old ham radio calls. The Summer 1946 Radio Amateur Callbook links the calls on the back to Enrique Lobo y Lobo, 8816 Morelos Ave in Monterrey, N.L Mexico. That Nuevo León address appears to be a clothing store now.  That's when I noticed the address in the Callbook doesn't match the QSL card. It gives the address as 870 Abasolo in Monterrey NL which is now a restaurant called Trece Lunas. [LINK] That turns out not to be important but the restaurant looks like my kind of joint. 

 

Samuel Pang Barajas

In 1947 Enrique Lobo y Lobo appears in the 1947 816 Morelos. I found a obituary that reports his daughter, Josefina Lobo Quiroga died in 2020 at the age of 94. She founded the Girl Guides of Mexico. It looks something like the girl scouts. [SOURCE]. Enrique compiled a family history in 1972. (The blog as it stands, seems to be incomplete.) [LINK] My first good source is when Enrique won a DX contest in 1952 from which we finally see an image. [SOURCE] I suspect he is Enrique Jr. because there is no way this is a picture of a man who had a daughter 25 years earlier. Josefina has to be his mother, an Aunt or a much older sibling. 

Enrique also appears in the book Breve Historia de La Radioafición Mexicana or A Brief History of Mexican Amateur Radio by Pablo A. Mooser XE1SR.  [SOURCE] That book confirms there was a Jr. and Sr. It has an image of Sr. at XE2W in 1937. Mr. Mooser was the president of the Liga Mexicao de Radio Experimentores. [SOURCE] That was not his only book on radio. He also wrote Apuntes Sobre La Historia De La Radio Aficion En Mexico or  Notes on the History of Amateur Radio in Mexico. in 2021.  I would love to find copies of either of these, physical or virtual.

Ralph Held (L), Mooser at center and Leland Smith (R) from World Radio 1987

But then in 1949 the XE2MH calls are assigned to someone else, Samuel Pang Barajas. He's at 301 Linares Pte, in Monterey NL. The current Google maps image (2022) is from a less than glamorous moment. The building is being renovated and a toilet sits on the sidewalk.  There is also no obvious connection between Lobo y Lobo and Barajas. But working in the same area, with the same hobby they probably at least knew of each other. 

Anyway, Pang holds onto those calls until 1953 and then they stop appearing... until 1989. I did find his obituary [LINK] and from that we know he died in 2004 at the age of 87. Mr. Barajas was a real true radio man, not just a hobbyist. He was a radio engineer at XEW and founder of XER. He was also an engineering professor at the University of Nuevo Leon. [SOURCE] I translated his obituary below.

Born in Linares on April 29, 1917, he was the son of Samuel Pang Lim—of Chinese descent—and Ines Barajas, a native of Galeana. He pursued his university studies at the IPN (National Polytechnic Institute) in Mexico City, earning a degree in Electrical Communications Engineering. He worked at station XEW, and later at *Radio Programas de México*, a broadcasting enterprise owned by Clemente Serna Martínez. In Linares, he established station XER—among other stations located throughout the Mexican Republic. On April 28, 1954, he married Alma Gallardo Cázarez, with whom he raised a family; their children were Alma, Leticia, Cristina, and Samuel. He was a member of the founding faculty at Preparatoria 4 (High School No. 4) in Linares, where he taught Physics. It is worth noting that during the high school's early years, none of the teachers received any remuneration for their services. He was the proprietor of the *La Estrella* bakery. In Linares, he also installed the city's first Christmas lighting display, its first ice factory, and its first electric power plant; furthermore, he was the individual responsible for installing the first electric power plant for the Villaseca Fair. Samuel Pang and his family resided in Linares until 1965, when they relocated to Monterrey, where he passed away on November 31, 2004.

In 1989 the XE2MH calls reappear in the hands of Jose Simeon Ramirez Solis in Tamulipas and he held it until at least 1997.  The funny thing I never figured out about the post card is that there's a Mexico City PO box on the front of the card. It was preprinted with two different calls, and two different addresses. That's 900 miles away from Monterrey. At first the connection was unclear. So let's get back to that signature.

It looks like Juan Lobo y Lobo, not Enrique. I think it's safe to assume they are relatives. I did eventually find Juan Lobo y Lobo. He too turns out to be very accomplished radio man. In 1957 he's listed in CQ magazine as Juan Lobo y Lobo, Rodriguez Saro 308, Mexico but the call sign is XE1A. Eureka! I had misread the call sign on the front of the QST card because of the graphic; the A isn't just decorative. It's the last letter of the call sign. 

Juan Lobo y Lobo appears regularly in the Radio Amateur Callbook for decades usually with the PO Box, 339 Mexico D.F.  He's often in the same issues as Enrique. It may have been competitive. In Radio magazine of January 1940 Juan wrote in to let readers know that his 5-meter transmitter and HF100s were moving to Mexico City. It notes two call signs: XE1A and XE2N. Sure enough, when I found him in an earlier 1934 issue of Radio Amateur Callbook he was listed at 188 Bolivar in Monterrey NL. 

But it turns out that Juan Lobo y Lobo is an all-time  DX record holder. He appears in an Amperex Electronics ad like a celebrity endorsement in a 1937 issue of QST magazine.  [SOURCE]. I would guess Juan is a brother to Enrique and Uncle to Enrique Jr.  He also appears in the May 1937 issue [SOURCE] a member of a very accomplished radio family. 

In 1937 Juan got his WAC, a certificate which confirmed he had already Worked All Continents. He set a DX record as XE2N, with 566 QSOs and 39 multipliers on 1.7, 3.9, 14 and 28 MHz. He operated for 50 hours and 50 minutes. A November 1948 issue of QST notes Top CW score among contestants outside W/VE has been made each year since 1938 by Juan Lobo y Lobo of Mexico under the calls XE1A, XE2N or XF1A. 

"...And each year his total has grown greater. Juan’s 41-QSOs-per-hour record of last year seemed like all it was humanly possible for one operator to accomplish. Imagine our amazement when XFlA’s 1948 log showed 55.5 QSOs/hour — an even 3000 QSOs, multiplier of 85 and final score of 765,000 points in 54 hours of operation!! Juan’s most successful hour brought contacts with 70 stations and his best minute of operation resulted in 4 QSOs! His multiplier of 85 also set a new record, topping last year’s high figure by 10 points. Working on 3.5, 7, 14, 27 and 28 Me., XF1A missed only VE5 on 3.5 Me., VE8 on 3.5, 7, 27 and 28, to fall 5 points short of the perfect multiplier. We again salute you, Juan, on as commendable a demonstration of operating ability as it has ever been our pleasure to acknowledge!"

There were literally still Hams talking about his accomplishments in issues of World Radio in the 1980s. [SOURCE] To my knowledge his record QSO record still stands. In 1956 he came back and QST magazine reported that "Juan Lobo y Lobo has probably established more firsts in ARRL DX contests than anyone. He was an enthusiastic regular under the calls XElA, XFlA or XE2N from the thirties until 1950."

The First Female DJ in Los Angeles

In the November 12th, 1977 issue of Billboard you will find the feature "Women Emerging as Format DJs." It's an important reference article in the history of radio, and one of those rare occasions where women DJs get multiple pages of ink in a trade magazine. Unfortunately it's author is unaccredited. 

"At one point in the history of modern radio a female air personality was almost unheard of, and this is quite an interesting psychological aspect of the medium since early radio featured some excellent female entertainers such as Jinx Falkenberg, Jane Ace, Jane Webb, Harriet Nelson, June Foray, Janet Waldo, Molly Jordan (of Fibber McGee & Molly fame) Lillian Randolph, and Alice Reinhart for example." 

This week I'm looking into just one of those DJs histories. Cherie Sannes worked as a registered nurse for six years before she went into broadcasting. None of these primary sources cite her original surname. Originally from Ohio, she got the surname Sannes from her first husband, a doctor at Carmel Community Hospital where she worked as a nurse. In 1975 she began hosting a weekend public-service interview show on 101.7 KLRB-FM. More here.

Monterey Peninsula Herald - August 1974

KLRB (FM102) was a progressive, free-form FM station in the same vein as 106.7 KPPC in Pasadena and 106.9 KMPX-FM in San Francisco. The station originally signed on in 1971. The Monterey Peninsula Herald reported that Cherie joined the staff in October 1973, as "a registered nurse with no broadcasting background."  In May 1983 it flipped to country and the call letters changed...to KWST but Cherie was already long gone. Several of the staffers went on to work at KMBY, like Cherie.

Cherie moved to the Top-40 station 1240 KMBY-AM in 1975 and there she became “Cherie the Midnight Lady” where she worked overnights. One of her listeners was Sonny Melendez of KMPC. He invited her up to Los Angeles to audition on his show. The Billboard article confuses this story a bit but she did not get an offer from 710 KMPC-AM. But perhaps it gave her higher aspirations. When she was told that KFMB in San Diego was looking for a new female voice she flew down to do a live audition for B-100 Program Director Bobby Rich. Cherie became their first female DJ. [SOURCE]

 

100.7 KFMB-FM had only dropped it's Easy Listening format in 1975. In the late 1960s their slogan was"Music Only For A Woman."  [I can't imagine actually saying that into a microphone.]  Suffice it to say that it's Rock format was a huge change. KFMB was competing directly with 1170 KCBQ-AM. In 1975 the B100 original line up was Rob Landree, Dave Conley, Rocketman (aka Scott Wright), Willie B Goode, Jimi Fox, Gary Kelley, Kevin Anderson, Phil Flowers and Billy Martin. Terri Lynn was the news person and the only woman on the air staff. A year later Fox departed taking some staff with him and the playlist was reformulated with more Top-40.  When Cherie was hired about then and the new line up was Gene Knight, Gary Kelley, Danny Wilde, Christopher Lance, Cherie Sannes, Jimmy Rogers, Glen McCartney and Uncle Fred Stemen. [SOURCE] 

In the Fall 1977 Arbitron ratings, KFMB became the first FM station to be number 1 in a major market. At the time of that "Women Emerging" Billboard article in 1977, Cherie was doing a 2:00 - 6:00 weekday shift and a 7-11 shift on Saturdays. The article also made a point to say she was the oldest DJ on the station at 30 years old. So we know she was born around 1977 and is around 79 today. [The authors need to reveal this detail is how I the piece was written by a man.] 

 

Less than a year later, in 1978 Cherie joined Brian Berne and Brother John Rydgren at 101.1 KRTH (K-Earth) in Los Angeles as their first female jock. R&R announced it in their December 8 issue [SOURCE] with one economical sentence: "Cherie Sannes has joined the staff at KRTH/Los Angeles from B100/San Diego."  Their she worked nights and hosted Spotlight, a celebrity interview program. Air staff at the time included Shotgun Tom Kelley who also tenured at KFMB. She stayed with K-Earth for five years, her longest run at any one station. (Alex Cosper lists Cherie at KHJ in 1979 - 1982. This is because 101.1 KRTH was KHJ-FM from 1943–1972.) [SOURCE]

 

The peak of her popularity was probably at KRTH. Ed Harrison wrote a half-page feature on her for Billboard in June of 1981. In an interview quoted in that article she considered the importance of her role as a feminist trailblazer. she said: 

"Things have changed today to a certain degree, and women deejays are much less of a novelty. My KLRB experience was an exciting opportunity to change attitudes about women disk jockeys. ... Five years ago, we had few female role models and therefore many women, including myself, found it frustrating, but rewarding, to be the so-called 'pioneers' in a traditionally male-dominated field..."

According to most sources, Cherie left KRTH in about 1982. The Carmel Pine Cone [SOURCE] describes her moving directly to "Power 106" KPWR but this is not exactly accurate. Omitted is her short tenure at KOST doing weekends. This is noted in the Dec 4th, 1982 issue of Billboard. Cherie also was at 105.9 before it was KPWR, when it was still KMGG (Magic 106). Billboard reports in February of 1983 that she was working weekends and performing additional duties as their promotion director.

Power 106 didn't exist until 1986 when KMGG flipped from traditional Top-40 to a very 80s dance-forward, almost proto-CHR format complete with with shock jocks. Their playlist concluded disco, dance, urban and Top-40 hits and their new calls were KPWR. The station is still KPWR today but Cherie left the station around that time, probably as part of a staffing shake up. 

After KMGG Cherie left radio to work in healthcare management. She had been the first female DJ in two metros and at least 3 different stations. How does anyone follow up an iconic career like that? She became Cherie Stock when she remarried in 2008. Her husband Bob Stock was a former news anchor at KSBW-TV. She retired in 2009 and took up painting. Good for her. More here and here.