| WDON | |
| City: | Wheaton, Maryland |
| Area: | Washington metropolitan area |
| Branding: | Spanish; Castilian: Vida en Abundancia Radio |
| Frequency: | 1540 kHz |
| Format: | Catholic radio |
| Language: | Spanish |
| Class: | D |
| Facility Id: | 38439 |
| Coordinates: | 39.0139°N -77.0294°W |
| Callsign Meaning: | Don Dillard, son of original station owner Everett Dillard |
| Owner: | Renovación Media Group |
| Licensing Authority: | FCC |
WDON (1540 AM) is a daytimer radio station licensed to Wheaton, Maryland, and serving the Washington metropolitan area. It airs Spanish-language Catholic religious radio programming and is known as Spanish; Castilian: Radio Vida en Abundancia (Life in Abundance Radio). It is owned by the Renovación Media Group.
By day, WDON is powered at 5,000 watts, using a non-directional antenna. Its signal can be heard as far north as Frederick County in Maryland and as far south as Stafford and Prince William Counties in Virginia.[1] During critical hours, it reduces power to 1,000 watts. Because 1540 AM is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A stations KXEL in Waterloo, Iowa, and ZNS-1 in Nassau, Bahamas, WDON must go off the air at night to avoid interference. The transmitter is on Sligo Creek Boulevard, near the Capital Beltway (Interstate 495), in Wheaton.Radio-Locator.com/WDON
WDON first signed on the air on December 4, 1953. It was a daytimer powered at 250-watts.[2] The station was founded by Everett L. Dillard, who previously built and signed-on Washington's second FM station, WASH (97.1 FM), in 1945.[3] He chose the call letters for his son Don, who was also a DJ at the station.[4] [5] Don Dillard is credited for introducing rock and roll to Washington radio and also played rhythm and blues, doo-wop, and rockabilly on his shows; he was popular among white teenagers in Northwest Washington and suburbs in neighboring Montgomery County, Maryland.[4] [6]
By the early 1960s, WDON shifted its format to country music.[7] Following a two-year construction permit, WDON increased its power to 1,000 watts in 1962.[2] In 1974, Dillard sold to Horizon Communications Corporation. The station switched to oldies and then briefly disco as "Disco D-O-N".[8] By 1981, it was broadcasting religious programming.[9] Nearly two weeks later on September 24, California-based Lotus Communications purchased WMDO.[2] [11]
In 2019, Carrasco purchased the 900 kHz facility and moved Spanish; Castilian: Radio América programming there. WACA was leased out that January and switched to Spanish-language Christian programming as Spanish; Castilian: Vida en Abundancia. In 2021, Renovación Media Group, headed by Father Roberto Cortés Campos, purchased the station for $700,000;[13] the WACA call letters moved to 900 upon the consummation of the sale, and the WDON call letters returned to Wheaton for the first time in 40 years.
. Carl Bernstein. Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom. New York. Henry Holt and Company. 2022. 59, 115. 978-1-627-79150-2. 1282172535. ...Don Dillard, the disc jockey revered by teenagers from Rockville to Takoma Park and even around Coolidge High on the D.C. side of the line..
WDON changed its call sign to WMDO on September 8, 1981.[9]
In 1997, Alejandro Carrasco leased the station; the call letters changed to WACA. A native of the Dominican Republic, he came to the United States in the 1970s. While attending Montgomery College in 1979, he worked as a DJ at student parties and master of ceremonies at weddings. The news staff at 1540 AM (then Radio Mundo, WMDO) discovered him at a wedding, and hired him as a news anchor in 1983. Carrasco later moved to Radio Borinquen (900 AM in Laurel), rising to be general manager, and then returned to WACA to begin a 30-minute morning show, Spanish; Castilian: Calentando la Mañana (Heating Up the Morning), in 1987. Carrasco leased WACA and its transmitter in 1997 and then bought the station when the lease expired in 2000, naming it "Spanish; Castilian: Radio América".[11]