WPJL-AM 1240 History


On March 29th, 1939, Raleigh attorney Alfred James "A.J." Fletcher brought Raleigh's second-oldest continuous radio station, WRAL, to life with 250-watts at 1210 on the dial from studios on Salisbury Street downtown. The sign-on of this little radio station marked the beginnings of Capitol Broadcasting Company. Fletcher's son Fred was station manager and well-known for his morning show, "Tempus Fugit" (Latin for "Time Flies"), where he read fairy tales with added sound effects to young listeners and even reported local "speed traps" to motorists. In 1941, the NARBA realignment of America's radio frequencies resulted in WRAL moving a few spots up the dial to 1240 AM. WRAL was Raleigh's affiliate for the Mutual Broadcasting Network in the network days of radio. WRAL brought FM radio to the area in 1947 with the sign-on of WRAL-FM 95.3 WRAL-FM, which became only the second FM station in the state with its sign-on, soon made a frequency switch of its own to 101.5 FM. In the 1950s, television came on the scene, with Raleigh getting a plum VHF assignment for channel five. Capitol Broadcasting challenged the much larger Durham Life Broadcasting, the owners of cross-town WPTF and WPTF-FM, for a license to build a TV station on channel five. Capitol was victorious, and WRAL-TV signed on December 15th, 1956. Capitol Broadcasting still owns WRAL-TV and WRAL-FM to this day, but parted ways with WRAL-AM in the 1950s. After it's sale, AM 1240 became WRNC with a Top 40 format. In the early 1970s, WRNC was a country station. During this time, a local pastor reportedly approached WRNC about buying time for a ministry program and was turned down. He subsequently began circling the station claiming it for God in prayer. In June of 1974, a group of investors bought WRNC and helped answer the reverend's prayers by converting it into a Christian formatted station. The call letters were changed to WPJL ("We Proclaim Jesus Lord")in 1978 to reflect this new direction for AM 1240.

WPJL-AM 1240 Gallery

  • A 1972 aircheck of WRNC
  • A photo of the WPJL studios and landmark radio tower from Fybush.com's "Tower Site of the Week" in 2003.
  • A closeup of the WPJL tower.
  • Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

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