WWCA (1270 kHz) is an AM radio station in Gary, Indiana, serving the southwest suburbs of the Chicago metropolitan area. It airs a Catholic Radio format, as part of Relevant Radio's Spanish language network.
WWCA is powered at 1,000 watts, using a directional antenna with a four-tower array. The transmitter is off Chase Street near 50th Street in Gary. Programming is also heard on 100-watt FM translator W268DI at 101.5 MHz in Gary.
History
Early years
WWCA first signed on the air on . It was owned by the Lake Broadcasting Company and had studios in Hotel Gary.
President and founder Dee O. Coe established the station and operated from studios that had housed WIND before that station moved to Chicago. Coe also owned WLOI in LaPorte, IN and other stations throughout the state. Co-owners of WWCA included its chief engineer Vic Voss and the Burns family, operators of a Gary funeral home. Other key personnel included general manager Joseph Haas, news & program director Ted Thorne and Sales Manager Al Evans. The station’s studios were moved from Hotel Gary to the fourth floor of the First Federal Saving and Loan Association building at 545 Broadway. Licensed to the city of Gary, the station's transmitter was located in a then rural area south of the Gary city limits near 49th Avenue and Chase Street. The station's signal was directional, then requiring transmitter operators to hold 1st Class Federal Communications Commission (FCC) operator licenses.
Thorne, though a resident of Michigan City, IN, hosted the mid-day Sound-Off program which had a large following and delivered expanded newscasts at noon and again at 5 PM. Thorne left WWCA for a stint with WGN-TV, Channel 9, in Chicago, but later returned to the Gary station.
1960s and 70s
WWCA experienced its peak in popularity during the 1960s and 1970s, with its community commitment and the popularity of its on-air personalities. Residents of Gary, Merrillville, Crown Point, Hobart and other northwestern Indiana cities and towns depended on WWCA for local news and sports coverage. Area residents tuned to WWCA for live on-the-scene coverage of breaking news events as well as weekly live coverage of high school sports. Broadcasts of basketball tournaments involved most of the on-air personalities broadcasting from multiple locations throughout northwestern Indiana.
Popular daytime programs included Tom Higgins’ morning program, "Sound-Off with Ted Thorne" at noon and Matt Hart in afternoon drive time. Morning news was delivered by Morris Wayne. Thorne and Doug Kullerstrand handled midday news chores. Play-by-play coverage of high school sports was the work of sports director Frank Sauline.
WWCA's nighttime audience belonged to R&B-music disc jockey Jesse Coopwood. The Coopwood show was one of the highest rated evening show in the Chicago area during the 1970s. During that time Coopwood worked with news reporter Tony Rose. Rose was a staple in the news department at WWCA from 1970 through the mid-1980s. After spending most of his career at WWCA, Coopwood was hired away by competitor WLTH in the late 1970s. Coopwood was replaced by a series of soul deejays, none of whom earned the level of listenership Coopwood brought to the station.
Also licensed to Gary, WWCA's primary local radio competitor during the 1960s and 70s was daytimer WLTH 1370 AM. Due to its FCC license, WLTH had to go off the air at sunset.
In the late 1960s, WWCA air personalities joined the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (now SAG-AFTRA). Relationships between station management and personnel remained strained from that time forward. In the years that followed some individuals responsible for unionizing the staff were released from their jobs. A fire set in the early 1970s in the office of News Director Thorne was thought to be in retribution for the firings. The fire was contained in Thorne's office and little damage was done.
Popular personalities
Another WWCA personalities to leave for Chicago and eventually network air work was Frank Reynolds, then a news reporter. Reynolds joined WLS-TV Channel 7 in Chicago and later became a television anchor for ABC News. Emery King, also a reporter and host of the evening "Sound-Off" program in the early 1970s later worked for WBBM-TV Chicago and was White House reporter for NBC News before becoming a television anchor with WDIV Detroit.