WULM
| City | Springfield, Ohio |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Springfield, Dayton and Miami Valley area |
| Slogan | A Christian Voice In Your Home |
| Frequency | 1600 kHz |
| First air date | April 1947 (as WJEL) |
| Format | Christian radio |
| Power | 1,000 watts daytime 34 watts nighttime |
| Class | D |
| Callsign meaning |
Urban Light Ministries (former owner 2002-2008) We're Under (Our) Lady's Mantle (2008-present) |
| Former callsigns | WJEL (1946-1954) WBLY (1954-2002) |
| Owner | Radio Maria Inc. |
| Sister stations |
W277A0 (FM translator) 103.3 mHz in Enon |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | radiomaria.us |
WULM "Radio Maria" 1600 AM (for "Under (Our) Lady's Mantle") is an American non-commercial AM radio station licensed in Springfield, Ohio serving the Springfield and Dayton area with Catholic inspirational programming. It operates at 1600 kHz with a power output of 1,000 watts daytime and with a reduced power of 34 watts nighttime. It is a repeater of KJMJ 580 kHz in Alexandria, Louisiana, the originating English-language station of Radio Maria USA.
WULM's history dates back to 1946 when it was founded as commercial daytime station WJEL. At the time of its founding, the station was licensed in nearby Dayton, Ohio. Country music singer Donnie Bowser (Bowshier), a Springfield resident performed frequently on WJEL's live Saturday night program. In 1954, the station was moved to Springfield and was given new call letters: WBLY, which previously had been used by the present-day WIMA in Lima, Ohio. The BLY in WBLY stood for Bailey, Lucas and Yontz. The Initials of the Three principal owners. The stations move was nearly coincidental with the move of Springfield station WWSO to Dayton, where it became WAVI (now known as the AM incarnation of WDAO formerly at 107.7 FM). WBLY's studios were first located in the Chamber of Commerce building at the corner of Spring and High streets in the early 1950s then moving to a more modern facility at 1711 West Main Street along with sister WBLY-FM which would later become WAZU (formerly WJEM, the FM sister to the original WJEL.)
The station used the call letters WBLY from 1954 to 2002. It was owned and operated by Champion City Broadcasting which in the mid-1980s moved its studios to the restored (original) city building located downtown along with WAZU-FM prior to being sold off in the 1990s leaving WBLY without an FM. Bob Yontz sold the remaining AM station to son Ronald- hence Champion City Broadcasting became RAY (Ronald A. Yontz) Broadcasting operated by Jerry Staggs as part of a local marketing agreement with WIZE which he briefly owned and moving the WBLY studios to the WIZE site until 2002 when it was sold to Urban Light Ministries, a local non-denominational Christian charity in April 2002 which adopted the WULM call letters in August of that same year. Urban Light's purchase of the station kept it a locally owned and operated community citizen and was intended to help provide operating funds and a medium for the local ministry to reach out to pre-believers and to families in need. WULM remained the last locally owned/operated commercial radio station licensed by the FCC to Springfield still operating with studios and offices in Springfield until May 31, 2008.
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