WWCA
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| City | Gary, Indiana |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Chicago market |
| Branding | "Relevant Radio" |
| Slogan | "Bridging The Gap Between Faith and Everyday Life" |
| Frequency | 1270 kHz |
| First air date | December 7, 1949 |
| Format | Christian radio |
| Power | 1,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 41332 |
| Callsign meaning | "Working With the Calumet Area" |
| Affiliations | Relevant Radio |
| Owner |
Starboard Broadcasting (Starboard Media Foundation, Inc.) |
| Sister stations | WKBM |
| Webcast | Relevant Radio Live Feed |
WWCA (1270 AM) is a radio station in Gary, Indiana. It is part of the Relevant Radio Christian network.
Radio station WWCA, an ABC Radio affiliate in Gary, experienced its peak in popularity during the 1960s and 1970s primarily because of its community commitment and the popularity of its on-air personalities. Residents of Gary, Merrillville, Crown Point, Hobart and other northwestern Indiana cities and towns depended on WWCA for local news and sports coverage. Area residents tuned to WWCA for live on-the-scene coverage of breaking news events as well as weekly live coverage of high school sports. Broadcasts of basketball tournaments involved most of the on-air personalities broadcasting from multiple locations throughout northwestern Indiana.
Popular daytime programs included Tom Higgins’ morning program, Sound-Off at noon with Ted Thorne, and afternoons with Matt Hart. Morning news was delivered by Morris Wayne. Ted Thorne and Doug Kullerstrand handled mid-day news chores. Play-by-play coverage of high school sports was the work of sports director Frank Sauline.
WWCA's nighttime audience belonged to jazz/soul-music deejay Jesse Coopwood. The Coopwood show was the highest rated evening show in the Chicago area during the 1970s. During that time Coopwood worked with news reporter Tony Rose. Rose was a staple in the news department at WWCA from 1970 through the mid-1980s. After spending most of his career at WWCA, Coopwood was hired away by competitor WLTH in the late 1970s. Coopwood was replaced by a series of soul deejays, none of whom earned the level of listenership Coopwood brought to the station.
WWCA was owned by Lake Broadcasting, Inc. President and founder Dee O. Coe established the station in 1949 and operated studios that had housed WIND before that station moved to Chicago. WWCA operated then out of the old Hotel Gary. Coe also owned WLOI in LaPorte, IN and other stations throughout the state. Co-owners of WWCA included its chief engineer Vic Voss and the Burns family, operators of a Gary funeral home. Other key personnel included general manager Joseph Haas, news & program director Ted Thorne and Sales Manager Al Evans. The station’s studios were moved from Hotel Gary to the fourth floor of the First Federal Saving and Loan Association building at 545 Broadway. Licensed to the city of Gary, the station's transmitter was located in a then rural area south of the Gary city limits near 49th Avenue and Chase Street. The station's signal was directional, then requiring transmitter operators to hold 1st Class Federal Communications Commission (FCC) operator licenses.
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