FM Technical Profile: WRNO

[ Home | Statewide: AM | FM | LPFM | Translators | TV | LPTV | LDTV ]
[ Metros: Birmingham | Mobile | Montgomery | Huntsville | Columbus, GA | Dothan | Tuscaloosa | The Shoals ]

Station Name:

News Talk 99.5

Frequency:

99.5

Format:

Talk, News

Transmitter Location:

[map] [street view] On LA-43 (Paris Road) east of New Orleans, about 3 miles south of the intersection of Chef Menteur Highway and I-510 in New Orleans East. Co-located with WFFX and WNOE-FM.

Power (ERP):

100 kW

Antenna:

Omnidirectional

Antenna HAAT:

1004 feet

Other Information:

60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.

HD-2 - Classic Hip-Hop
"Throwback 96.3"
// K242CE, Meraux, LA

inactive :

PS-99.5WRNO
Time-unknown
Text-unknown
PTY-[?]
TMC-Metro Traffic
PI-WRNO-FM

AUX: 12.3 kW @ 722 feet. 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.

More Information:

[FCC]

[FCCdata]

[Radio-Locator]

[Wikipedia]

[Facebook]

[Studio] Street View imagery of the Clear Channel New Orleans facility on Howard Avenue.

Owner:

iHeartMedia

History:

99.5 started out as WRNO (Westbank Radio New Orleans), a rocker known as "The Rock of New Orleans". The station consistently always rocked, but wandered over the years from top 40 to AoR to oldies-leaning top 40 to classic rock. The innovative owner (Joe Costello) even put on a WRNO shortwave station to rock the entire world and advertise Levi's to 100 countries. Station briefly tried calling itself "The River 99.5" around 1997, but has returned to its original identity.  About that time the shortwave went to brokered religious programming, then just went away.

 

WRNO was the second station in New Orleans to carry Howard Stern.

 

WRNO flipped to the Fox News Radio talk format sometime (possibly a long time) after the hurricane. An exact date is not available.  With the addition of the Clear Channel syndicated conservative talk shows, the station dropped its old slogan, "The Voice of New Orleans" to become "Rush Radio" in April of 2008.  That ended in September 2014 when the station changed slogans to "News Talk 99.5", distancing itself from the conservative talker.  Like most iHeart stations in the US, the station added an HD digital system early on; prior to 2016 the format was classic alternative.  In 2016 the format changed to rock when it was paired with a 250 watt translator licensed to Meraux and became "Rock 96.3".  As WRNO was known in its heydey, the translator is marketed as "The Rock of New Orleans".  That lasted until mid-January 2017 when the translator/HD-2 combo flipped again to classic hip-hop as "Throwback 96.3", aimed at flanking iHeart's top rated urban and urban AC stations in the market.

The station was knocked off the air for a few days by Hurricane Ida in late August 2021.