Entity | WLIB

WLIB (1190 AM) is an urban contemporary gospel radio station licensed to New York City. WLIB is owned by Emmis Communications, along with sister stations WBLS (107.5 FM) and WQHT (97.1 FM). The three stations share studios in the Hudson Square neighborhood of lower Manhattan, and WLIB's transmitter is located in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. The station's origins reach back to December 1941, when WCNW went on the air from Brooklyn. Sharing time with WWRL on 1600kHz, WCNW was granted permission to move down the dial to 1190 kHz. WCNW, which broadcast foreign language programs, was purchased by Elias Godofsky, who was the General Manager of the station, in 1942. It was Godofsky who would change the call letters to the present WLIB. The station's target audience was upper middle-class and wealthy New Yorkers, as evidenced by its format of classical music and popular standards which competed with WQXR. The station was purchased by New York Post publisher Dorothy Schiff in 1944 and regularly ran news updates from the Post's newsroom at various times during the day.