History
The station first signed on the air on December 13, 1938. The original call sign was WJHL, jointly owned by Hanes Lancaster, Sr. and J. W. Birdwell, both from Chattanooga. [3] It was the second radio station in the Tri-Cities and the first in Johnson City. It began broadcasting at only 250 watts. During 1940, Birdwell was no longer a partner in the new station.
The station's original frequency was 1200 kHz. In December 1940, WJHL moved to 880 kHz with 1,000 watts, utilizing a directional three-tower pattern at night. With the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement coming into force on March 29, 1941, the station was required to move to 910 kHz due to the adoption of the new international radio treaty.
In 1942, WJHL got a power boost to its current 5,000 watts by day, 1,000 watts at night. It became an affiliate of the NBC Blue Network, later ABC. By 1956, WJHL joined CBS, an affiliation that lasted five decades. Under Hanes Lancaster, Sr and son Hanes Jr., WJHL added 100.7 WJHL-FM in 1948 (now 101.5 WQUT) and in 1953 added WJHL-TV Channel 11. Because the AM station carried CBS programming, WJHL-TV became a CBS-TV affiliate.
In 1960, the radio stations were sold to Tri-Cities Broadcasting, [4] owned by James C. Wilson (son of the founder of the area's first radio station, WOPI in Bristol) [5] Channel 11 kept the WJHL-TV callsign, while AM 910 was renamed WJCW after Wilson's initials and continued to program an middle of the road, full service format. In the early 1970s, the station switched to a country music format.
Notable announcers included:
- Eddie Cowell
- Dr. Herb Howard: Announcer, who went on to be Dean/Professor at the University of Tennessee College of Communication & Information after a stint as staff announcer at WJHL-TV.
- Professor Kingfish (Bill Marrs) and Little Richard (Dick Ellis), weekdays 6:30-7AM. During the 60s and 70s the show had a large listenership due to the light-hearted banter between the two. Due to health challenges, Bill Marrs would do the show from home, while Dick Ellis was at the studios.
- Dick Ellis (Little Richard): Morning Drive, News Director, Sports Director, and sports play-by-play. Dick originally served as news and sports anchor for both WJHL radio and television. In 1960 when the station was purchased and changed to WJCW, he chose to stay with radio. In 1973, Dick (Richard F. Ellis) became the General Manager of WETS-FM, the public/NPR station owned by East Tennessee State University. Dick retired from WETS in 1991. In 1993, a few weeks before his death, the new WETS studios were dedicated in his honor.
- Charlie B (Philip Beale): Program Director, Middays, and Afternoon Drive
- Bill Cramer: Nighttime announcer. In the 60s and 70s, WJCW's music would shift from MOR to Rock at 7PM. After WJCW changed to a country format, Cramer was also a well-known talent on sister-station WQUT
- Larry Hinkle
- Dave Hogan: Morning Drive
- Bill Williams
- Yankee Dave: Middays
- Tom Phillips: Afternoon Drive
- Art Countiss: News Director
- Red Pitcher: News/Sports Director
Jim Wilson/Tri-Cities Broadcasting sold WJCW and WQUT to Bloomington Broadcasting in 1981.
The original studios were located in downtown Johnson City. The transmitter site was on Princeton Road in North Johnson City. In 1977, new studios and transmitter site were built in Gray, Tennessee. The new location allowed the station's signal to cover a larger area, especially north of Johnson City, plus delivering a better signal to Kingsport.
In the 1980s, listeners began shifting to FM radio for music, so in 1990, WJCW became the Tri-Cities' first news/talk station.
In 2000, the station was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, a forerunner of Cumulus. [6]