The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 95

Thursday, March 21, 1991 The Philadelphia Inquirer 19-BR BUSINESS Decades later, preparation pays off with radio By Frank Brown Special to The Inquirer For 40 years, John Farina has dreamed of building a powerful AM radio station in South Jersey. For the last 20 years, Farina has conducted tests and surveys, trying to figure out the best place for that station. Now, 11 years after filing an application with the FCC for a PembertonMount Holly station, Farina is scheduled to begin construction this summer on what will be the most powerful AM radio station licensed to New Jersey. "It has been my ambition to get a top radio station all my life," Farina said last week from Albany, N.Y., where he owns a small AM station. "If you really don't have an obsession, you can't do this sort of thing.

It takes perseverance beyond belief." The WWJZ, operating at 640 AM, may begin broadcasting "nostalgic" music, traffic reports and South Jersey news as early as next year, said Farina, 64, who plans to move to the area soon. During the day, WWJZ's signal will easily cover South Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania, said Ted Schoeber, a Haddon Heights radio engineer working for Farina. Because of limitations on the FCC license, WWJZ will drop at dusk from 50,000 to 1,000 watts so as not to interfere with other stations on the same frequency. "It will have very respectable coverage at night, just not the absolute monster that goes out to Harrisburg and down to Cape May," Schoeber said. Farina looked over five Burlington County sites for the four 280-foot towers before settling on a site near Route 206 in Pemberton Township.

WWJZ will have studios in Mount Holly and Pemberton Township and eventually employ about 35 people, Farina said. Farina has been in the radio business since 1951, when he began working as a page for NBC in New York City, and since 1971 he has owned a AM station in Albany. But Farina said he has dreamed of operating a station in New Jersey since he was a high school student in Newark. When an FCC policy change opened up several AM frequencies, Farina, after years of research, pounced on 640 AM in Burlington County. "It seemed to me some 20 years ago that it would be possible to utilize 640 in New Jersey," said Farina.

"The Agriculture group seeks new members With more than 100,000 acres of the state's farmland disappearing in the last five years, the New Jersey Agricultural Society is looking for new members to help spread the word that "Agriculture Keeps New Jersey The group's main goal is to educate the public about the importance of New Jersey farming and to help to solve the many problems faced by farmers. To become a member, write to the New Jersey Agricultural Society at CN 331, Trenton, N.J. 08625. whole story is that ered to examine this day I still can't one could see this delphia-New Jersey Farina said his and preparation the only applicant ATLANTIC nobody ever both- opened the frequency. To "The believe that no you have void in the Phila- 1979," years of research only helped make him to duplicate for the just- might frequency in New Jersey.

commission required that a site be granted a and I had gotten a site in Farina said. "So they three or four months the work. Anyone who have thought about filing probably could not have solved the sent a windfall for problems in the time the commission licenses. gave them to file." Farina said a Because it is usually much more of the resale value expensive to buy an existing radio WWJZ-AM in the station than it is to obtain a license "in excess of $10 for an open frequency and build the he said, about $1.5 station, such open frequencies repre- WWJZ on the air. BERGEN BURLINGTON CAMDEN CAPE MAY CUMBERLAND ESSEX GLOUCESTER HUDSON HUNTERDON Two Great Homeowners Loans Under One Roof.

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