WDON (AM)

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WDON
CityWheaton, Maryland
Frequency1540 kHz
BrandingVida en Abundancia Radio
Programming
Language(s)Spanish
FormatCatholic radio
Ownership
OwnerRenovación Media Group
History
First air date
December 1953[1]
Former call signs
WDON (1953–1981)
WMDO (1981–1997)
WACA (1997–2021)
Call sign meaning
Originally named for the son of its founder, Don Dillard
Technical information
Facility ID38439
ClassD
Power5,000 watts day
1,000 watts critical hours
Transmitter coordinates
39°0′50.00″N 77°1′46.00″W / 39.0138889°N 77.0294444°W / 39.0138889; -77.0294444
Links
Websitewww.vidaenabundancia.net

WDON (1540 AM) is a radio station broadcasting on 1540 kHz in the medium wave AM band, airing Spanish-language Catholic programming known as Radio Vida en Abundancia (Life in Abundance Radio). Its transmitter is located in Wheaton, Maryland, and it serves the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. WDON has a daytime transmitter power of 5,000 watts, reaching as far north as Frederick County in Maryland and as far south as Stafford and Prince William Counties in Virginia.[2]

History[]

1540 began as WDON, originally a rock and roll station in the 1950s which morphed to country music in the early 1960s with the move of Stan Karas who had been at WARL in Arlington, a country station named for the son of its then-owner, Don Dillard.[3] In the 1970s, it was an oldies station, and then briefly "Disco D-O-N". After that, it converted to Spanish, first as WMDO "Radio Mundo",[4] which was later co-owned by Los Cerezos Television Company with the Washington market's first Univision television station (which is now WMDO-CD).

In 1997, Alejandro Carrasco leased the station; the call letters changed to WACA. A native of the Dominican Republic, he came to the United States in the 1970s. While attending Montgomery College in 1979, he worked as a DJ at student parties and master of ceremonies at weddings. The news staff at 1540 AM (then Radio Mundo, WMDO) discovered him at a wedding, and hired him as an anchor in 1983. Carrasco later moved to Radio Borinquen (900 AM in Laurel), rising to be general manager, and then returned to WACA to begin a 30-minute morning show, Spanish: Calentando la Mañana (Heating Up the Morning), in 1987. Carrasco leased WACA and its transmitter in 1997 and then bought the station when the lease expired in 2000, naming it "Radio América".[5]

In 2019, Carrasco purchased the 900 kHz facility and moved Radio América programming there. 1540 kHz was leased out that January and switched to Spanish-language Christian programming as Vida en Abundancia. In 2021, Renovación Media Group, headed by Father Roberto Cortés Campos, purchased the station for $700,000;[6] the WACA call letters moved to 900 upon the consummation of the sale, and the WDON call letters returned to Wheaton for the first time in 40 years.

References[]

  1. ^ "FCC History Cards for WDON". CDBS Public Access Database. FCC Media Bureau. Retrieved June 3, 2018.
  2. ^ "Wellness Through Media". Archived from the original on 3 October 2006. Retrieved 17 February 2007.
  3. ^ "Washington DC/Baltimore Area AM Radio". Archived from the original on 3 February 2007. Retrieved 17 February 2007.
  4. ^ "Washington, D.C. AM Station History". Retrieved 17 February 2007.
  5. ^ Williams, Krissah; Farhi, Paul (3 July 2006). "Spanish-Language Radio's Big Voice". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 February 2007.
  6. ^ Venta, Lance (January 15, 2021). "Station Sales Week Of 1/15". RadioInsight. Retrieved July 25, 2021.

External links[]


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