| WLUV | |
| City: | Loves Park, Illinois |
| Area: | Rockford metropolitan area, Illinois |
| Frequency: | 1520 kHz |
| Airdate: | September 29, 1962 |
| Format: | Conservative Christian radio |
| Power: | 500 watts day 13 watts night |
| Class: | D |
| Facility Id: | 2255 |
| Coordinates: | 42.33°N -89.0828°W |
| Callsign Meaning: | Its city of license of Loves Park, and held to prevent use by competitor network K-LOVE |
| Owner: | VCY America |
| Licensee: | VCY America, Inc. |
| Licensing Authority: | FCC |
| Webcast: | Listen Live |
| Website: | vcyamerica.org |
WLUV (1520 AM) is a radio station licensed to Loves Park, Illinois, United States, the station serves the Rockford area with a non-directional signal. The station airs a Conservative Christian format, and is an owned and operated affiliate of VCY America.
1520 AM is a United States clear-channel frequency, on which WWKB in Buffalo, New York and KOKC in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma share Class A status. WLUV must drastically reduce nighttime power in order to protect the nighttime skywave signals of the Class A stations.
The station began broadcasting on September 29, 1962.[1] [2] [3] Originally a daytime-only license, WLUV now operates with reduced power at night.[2] The station originally aired a country music format, and was the first country station in the Rockford market.[1] [3] The station was owned by Joe Salvi.[1] [2]
A sister station (broadcast from a different transmission tower), WLUV-FM began broadcasting March 25, 1964 and operated at 96.7 MHz.[1] For many years it simulcast much of WLUV's programming.[1] It was sold and now holds the call sign WKGL-FM and is under the ownership of Townsquare Media.[4] [5] The sale to Townsquare was completed on November 14, 2013.[6]
In August 2021, Christian broadcaster VCY America entered into an agreement to purchase WLUV and translator W287BY for $400,000, and applied to the FCC to convert the stations to non-commercial status.[7] [8] The sale was consummated on November 30, 2021.[3]
In addition to the main AM station, WLUV is relayed by an FM translator to provide stereo with improved sound and wider nighttime coverage.