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WJIV (101.9 FM broadcasting "Victory 101.9") is a commercial radio station licensed to Cherry Valley, New York, and serving the Mohawk Valley. The radio format is primarily Christian radio along with some Southern gospel music. WJIV has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 11,500 watts. The transmitter is about 3 miles (5 km) east of Cherry Valley village. The signal gives secondary coverage to Capital District, including Albany and Schenectady, as well as Oneonta and Utica/Rome.
A call sign change to WRRC was made in 1953 to reinforce the station's "Rural Radio" identity. The Rural Radio Network survived until 1960, dropping most of the farm related programming in favor of an over-the-air simulcast of classical music station 96.3 WQXR-FM New York City, along with live weather reports for each of the stations in the network every hour.
On February 1, 1960, the network was purchased by the Ivy Broadcasting Company, a corporation headed by Woody Erdman. In April 1966, Ivy sold WJIV and the other four FM stations to Chenango and Unadilla Communications, a small upstate New York telephone company. In 1968, C&U was acquired by Contel, however FCC regulations prohibited control of broadcast licenses by large phone companies - so Continental was forced to divest WJIV.
Televangelist Pat Robertson acquired the five-station network as a tax-deductible gift. Mr. Robertson was already operating Channel 27 WGNT and FM station WNOH in Virginia Beach, and incorporated the five upstate New York stations into his Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) on January 1, 1969. CBN programmed mostly Christian Contemporary music with some religious instructional shows also heard.
Floyd Dykeman purchased WJIV from CBN on March 30, 1981, and kept the religious format. Dykeman increased the station's power to its current level in 1984, then sold the station to Detroit-based religious broadcaster Midwest Broadcasting in 2000.
The call sign WJIV had previously been assigned to the E.D. Rivers, Jr., station on 900 kHz in Savannah, Georgia (later known as WJLG). Midwest Broadcasting changed its name to Christian Broadcasting system in 2003 [1].
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