The Final Blessing of EWTN's Shortwave Station WEWN

Some radio stations end quietly. WEWN's ending carries a bit more weight than most — not least because of how the station began.

EWTN Global Catholic Network's shortwave radio station WEWN shut down operations on 31st October, after 34 years on the air. Earlier this year, friars from the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word paid their annual visit to the WEWN transmitter site atop Vandiver Mountain, on 13th August, continuing a tradition of blessing the facility alongside EWTN's warehouse and catalogue buildings.

A Station Born of Faith

Raymond Arroyo, biographer of EWTN's foundress Mother Angelica, wrote in a 1996 article for Crisis Magazine that she felt inspired to build a shortwave radio network capable of reaching the entire world. According to Arroyo, Mother Angelica recounted an appearance of St. Michael the Archangel on the mountain in 1991 — and that experience is what led EWTN to erect its shortwave antennas there.

Arroyo noted that shortwave antennas are usually sited in flat, open fields, which made Mother Angelica's decision to place hers on a mountaintop all the more unusual. He went on to describe something almost mystical about the resulting signal, writing that against the odds, the antennas reached millions of listeners a day — a result he said even the BBC had sent a team of experts to try to understand.

The Technical Side

Broadcasting from its transmitter site in Shelby County, Alabama, WEWN operated on 12050 kHz and 15610 kHz, running 250 kW ERP through four Continental 420C transmitters, each capable of 500 kW, according to the Alabama Broadcast Media page. In its final period, WEWN had been broadcasting on a reduced schedule.

Why It Closed

EWTN Chairman of the Board and CEO Michael Warsaw said in a release that operating costs at WEWN had grown high relative to shortwave's declining listener base, and that the ageing facility needed significant, expensive repairs — repairs he said would not represent "prudent stewardship" of the network's resources.

According to Radio World's own research, WEWN — licensed to Vandiver, Alabama — was one of just 12 independent US shortwave stations still broadcasting before its closure.

A Pioneering Legacy

WEWN launched on 28th December 1992 as EWTN's very first radio service, bringing Catholic programming to listeners in parts of the world where access to other media was often limited. EWTN Radio continues to syndicate programming across roughly 600 AM and FM affiliate stations worldwide, along with satellite and streaming platforms — so while WEWN's shortwave chapter has closed, the network's broader radio presence carries on.

A fitting end for a station whose origin story was never quite like any other on the shortwave dial.