COVID Quarantine sparks birth of new Gospel Radio station
Church music pulses through the blood of James W. Wade III.
Confined to his Willoughby Hills for most of the past four months, unable even to visit his ailing father across town, Wade had time to reflect, time to plan, time to act. He did all three and the result was the official launch two days ago of WJWW Radio, the Gospel According to James, and 24/7 gospel music designed to soothe the souls and rekindle the memories of those with an appreciation for gospel music the way the elders took it in before the influence of hip hop altered its sound.
Wade says you can point the browser of your mobile device or computer at wjww.airtime.pro any time of any day and be assured that you the gospel music you hear will be familiar to what your parents or grandparents remember from back in the day.
For many around the world, tuning into WJWW will bring comfort and inspiration, maybe even Unspeakable Joy. Wade describes his station’s offering as old traditional gospel. Listeners are unlikely to hear any music recorded in this century on the station. If gospel can be catalogued like other musical genres, then WJWW’s offerings are classical gospel.
Listeners will find the station’s programming to be reassuringly familiar. Programming segments will be consistent almost regardless of how the time blocks are divided for listing purposes. Two segments will be noted here. Precious Memories, airing daily from 10AM-11AM, concentrates its repertoire on music from 1950-1975. Here you are mostly to find Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, and the Rev. James Cleveland, among others.
The Gospel According to James airs daily from 11AM-3PM and is presently the only time block done live, personally hosted by Wade.
The station combines several themes that have run concurrently throughout Wade’s life. He grew up surrounded by religious music. His father, James W. Wade, Jr., was the longtime minister of music at Temple Baptist Church, 7500 Cedar Ave., where he was one of the city’s better known organists.
After his graduation from JFK HS in 1976, Wade the Third went off to Clark College, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. Later he earned a master’s degree in business from Tulane University. He soon found himself a community fixture, covering church and community events all over town as reporter/photographer for the Call-Post, sharing his talents with many nonprofit organizations.
Wade was also developing his technical chops as he was sought out to produce gospel records for local and national recording artists including Lucretia Bolden, Humbly Submitted, and the Rev. James Moore. Until he suffered a serious health setback, he was also producing some jazz artists.
These threads have all come together at WJWW Radio, which he operates from his apartment in Willoughby Hills. With a low four-figure investment, Wade assembled the necessary equipment, including sound boards and microphones, navigated the requisite FCC filing requirements, and went on the air with a soft launch just ten days ago. One week in, and with the few kinks easily ironed out, WJWW is now going full steam ahead.
Ward speaks of his new enterprise with the faith, confidence of a man who knows what he’s doing and loves it. He has a few advertisers, mostly churches so far, but is more concerned about building a steady audience. He won’t have any analytics for a few weeks and is using social media to promote the station. He has listeners across the county already, including a proud J. W. Wade Jr. in Strongsville.
Wade is open to programming ideas and content, especially any gospel records from the 1960s or earlier. He can be reached at wjww7958ATgmail.com.
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Originally published July 1, 2020 on The Real Deal Press companion site.
