[2] WLKW began official broadcasting on April 12, 1961, as Rhode Island's only 50 kW radio station during daylight hours only.
[1] The WALE callsign was held for some 25 or so years by a different company[vague] operating WHTB out of the basement of an abandoned theater in Fall River, Massachusetts.
When Francis Battaglia's North American Broadcasting Company bought WEAN, they attempted to program a talk format.
WALE nearly lost its FCC license[citation needed] when, on July 9, 1991, it broadcast that Steve White had been shot and killed during his afternoon talk show.
WALE was also the home of Rick Adams, a follower of Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby, who aired discussions promoting Holocaust denial.
Cumbre also attempted to change WALE's call letters to WMAX, which was impossible due to an existing AM station in Bay City, Michigan already holding the callsign.
Cumbre Communications declared bankruptcy themselves in 2004 to try to avoid completing their purchase of the station after they learned the transmitter site had serious environmental issues.