WDIA

WDIA
City Memphis, Tennessee
Broadcast area Memphis, Tennessee
Branding AM 1070 WDIA
Slogan The Heart and Soul of Memphis
Frequency 1070 kHz
KJMS 101.1 FM HD-2 (simulcast)
First air date June 7, 1947
Format Urban Oldies/Classic Soul
Power 50,000 watts daytime
5,000 watts nighttime
Class B
Facility ID 69569
Callsign meaning DIAne, name of original owner's daughter
We Did It Again (when owners also launched similar station in Jackson, Mississippi, after World War II)
Owner iHeartMedia, Inc.
(CC Licenses, LLC)
Sister stations KJMS, WEGR, WHAL-FM, WHRK, WREC
Under LMA: KWAM
Webcast Listen Live
Website http://www.mywdia.com/main.html

WDIA is a radio station based in Memphis, Tennessee. Active since 1947, it soon became the first radio station in America that was programmed entirely for African Americans.[1] It featured black radio personalities; its success in building an audience attracted radio advertisers suddenly aware of a "new" market among black listeners. The station had a strong influence on music, hiring musicians early in their careers, and playing their music to an audience that reached through the Mississippi Delta to the Gulf Coast.

The station started the WDIA Goodwill Fund to help and empower black communities. Owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., the station's studios are located in Southeast Memphis, and the transmitter site is in North Memphis.

History

WDIA went on the air June 7, 1947,[2] from studios on Union Avenue. The owners, John Pepper and Dick Ferguson, were both white, and the format was a mix of country and western and light pop. The station did not do well.[3]

Nat D. Williams, a syndicated columnist and high-school teacher, started Tan Town Jubilee in October 1948. This was the first radio program in the United States to appeal to black listeners, and WDIA soon became the number-2 station in Memphis. After a switch to all-black programming, WDIA became the city's top station.[4] In June 1954 WDIA was licensed to increase its power to 50,000 watts. Its powerful signal reached the Mississippi Delta’s dense African-American population and was heard from the Missouri Bootheel to the Gulf Coast. WDIA reached 10% of the African-American population in United States.[3][5]

Future WJLB strong jock, Martha Jean “The Queen” Steinberg became known as "Princess Premium Stuff." Ernest Brazzell gave crop advice, and Robert Thomas became a DJ named “Honeyboy” after he won a city-wide amateur competition. Among other notable personalities were Maurice "Hot Rod" Hulbert, Theo "Bless My Bones" Wade, and Ford Nelson, who continued as of 2013 as an active gospel DJ on WDIA.[3]

WDIA is known for its community efforts throughout the years. A.C. Williams, a former disc jockey for the station, helped create the Goodwill Fund in 1954. Originally, the fund provided transportation to school for disabled black children. Later the fund expanded to include college scholarships, establish boy clubs, provide 125 Little League Teams to Memphis and neighboring communities, and help provide low cost supplemental housing (Wilson). "We have raised over $900,000 over the years," A.C. Williams says.[6]

Many music legends got their start by working at WDIA, including B.B. King and Rufus Thomas.[7] Elvis Presley was greatly influenced by the station. B.B. King joined WDIA in early 1949. He had a daily 15-minute show, promoting first a patent medicine called Pep-Ti-Kon, and later Lucky Strike cigarettes, the first major advertiser for the station. The next year he took a DJ position on an afternoon show previously hosted by Maurice "Hot Rod" Hulbert.[8] King credits his days on the station for building his audience and launching his career, describing the station as providing a sense of freedom.[7]

Williams ended his show in 1972 following a stroke. Thomas continued to work at WDIA until he died in 2001. Bobby O'Jay became a popular host. The station's management had been mostly white. In 1972 Chuck Scruggs became its first black general manager and vice president, serving for 12 years. Scruggs played a major role in organizing the foundation and raising money to preserve the Lorraine Motel and found the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.[9] In addition, he contributed to the redevelopment of Beale Street and Soulsville, USA.-->

In the 1970s and 1980s the owners of WDIA also owned KDIA, a similarly formatted station in the San Francisco Bay Area. This callsign, however, is now assigned to an unrelated Christian-programmed station. In 1996 Clear Channel Communications bought WDIA.

References

  1. ↑ "WDIA". Africana: the encyclopedia of the African and African American experience. Vol. 5 (2nd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. 2005. ISBN 9780195170559.
  2. ↑ "WDIA, Sixth Memphis Station, Is Launched" (PDF). Broadcasting. June 16, 1947. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 "Celebrating 65 Years of Goodwill & Good Times. The History of WDIA". mywdia.com. Retrieved 2013-03-13.
  4. ↑ Radio Center: A Landmark of American Music. 2008. Retrieved on 2009/03/12.
  5. ↑ Cantor, Louis. Wheelin' on Beale: How WDIA-Memphis Became the Nation's First All-Black Radio Station and Created the Sound that Changed America, Pharos Books, 1992, 264 pages, ISBN 0-88687-633-8, ISBN 978-0-88687-633-3.
  6. ↑ "Celebrating 65 Years of Goodwill & Good Times." 1070 WDIA, N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013
  7. 1 2 Fisher, Marc. Something in the Air. Random House. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-375-50907-0.
  8. ↑ Kostelanetz, Richard, ed. (2005). The B.B. King Reader: 6 Decades of Commentary. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 5–6. ISBN 9780634099274.
  9. ↑ "TV host 'Mr Chuck' Scruggs Passes Away". Memphis: WHBQ-TV/Fox 13. 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2013-13-13. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)

Further reading

External links

Coordinates: 35°16′05″N 90°01′03″W / 35.26806°N 90.01750°W / 35.26806; -90.01750

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