As we reported, EWTN Global Catholic Network‘s shortwave radio station WEWN shut down its operations on Oct. 31 after 34 years.
The Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word shared photos with Radio World of the friars’ annual visit to the WEWN transmitter site atop Vandiver Mountain on Aug. 13 this year.
Friars and employees of the EWTN facilities warehouse, religious catalogue building and the shortwave radio station went there earlier this year for annual blessings.
Fr. Leonard Mary led the blessings and processions.
Raymond Arroyo is the biographer of EWTN’s foundress, Mother Angelica. According to Arroyo’s 1996 article in Crisis Magazine, she felt inspired to build a shortwave radio network capable of reaching the world.
On the mountain in 1991, Mother Angelica recounted the appearance of St. Michael the Archangel, and that is where EWTN would decide to erect the shortwave antennas.
“It is customary to place shortwave antennae in flat open fields, making it all the more peculiar that Mother Angelica should decide to place her antennae on a mountain top,” Arroyo wrote.
Arroyo described a seemingly mystical quality to WEWN’s signal: “Flying in the face of all the experts, the antennae reach millions a day,” he wrote. “But no one can explain just how. Even the British Broadcasting Company has sent a team of experts to try to unearth the reason.”
From its Shelby County, Ala., transmitter site, WEWN operated on 12050 kHZ and 15610 kHz, using 250 kW ERP. It used four Continental 420C transmitters capable of 500 kW each, according to the Alabama Broadcast Media page. WEWN had been on the air with a reduced operating schedule.
Operating costs at WEWN had been high relative to the declining number of shortwave listeners, EWTN Chairman of the Board and CEO Michael Warsaw said in a release, and the aging facility was in need of significant and expensive repairs, which he said would not be a “prudent stewardship of our resources.”
According to Radio World research, WEWN, licensed to Vandiver, Ala., was one of 12 independent U.S. shortwave stations still broadcasting.
Launched on Dec. 28, 1992, WEWN was EWTN’s first radio service, offering Catholic programming to listeners in regions where access to other forms of media was often limited. EWTN Radio syndicates programming across approximately 600 AM and FM affiliate stations worldwide, as well as on satellite and streaming platforms.
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