WWRL

WWRL (1600 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The station airs an all-news radio format as an affiliate of the Black Information Network (BIN).

Founded in 1926, WWRL originally had a multi-lingual format serving the various ethnic communities of New York City. The station took on a mostly Spanish identity in the 1950s, then became primarily oriented towards African Americans in the mid-1960s, under the direction of news director Dick London, who invited community leaders to voice their concerns publicly on air, as the station became an advocate for legislative change. The music and news advocacy was an integral part of the Black American community. WWRL played R&B music from 1964 to 1982, before changing to urban contemporary gospel music and religious programming from 1982 to 1997.

After a brief return to R&B in the late 1990s, WWRL gradually de-emphasized music in favor of more talk radio programming. In 2006, WWRL replaced 1190 WLIB as the flagship station for the Air America Radio network and retained a progressive talk radio format for seven years.

From 2014 to 2016, WWRL had a regional Mexican music format^[2] before changing to South Asian programming as an affiliate of Radio Zindagi.^[3] Since 2020, the station has served as the New York City outlet for iHeartRadio's Black Information Network service.^[4] Ethel Merman began her career singing on WWRL; notable hosts in WWRL's history include Frankie Crocker, Al Sharpton, Steve Malzberg, Mark Riley, and Richard Bey.