''For the original WAKY in Louisville, see

WKRD (AM) WKRD (790 AM) is a sports formatted radio station in the Louisville, Kentucky metropolitan area. It is owned by iHeartMedia, and is known as 790 KRD. The station is best known for being a Top 40 powerhouse in the 1960s and 1970s as WAKY. The s ...

.'' WAKY-FM (103.5 FM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

licensed to

Radcliff, Kentucky Radcliff is a home rule-class city in Hardin County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 21,692 at the 2010 census, and in 2019 the estimated population was 22,914. It is included in the Elizabethtown–Fort Knox Metropolitan Are ...

, United States, and serving the

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

area. The station is currently owned by W & B Broadcasting, Inc. The station's studios are located in

Elizabethtown, Kentucky Elizabethtown is a home rule-class city and the county seat of Hardin County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 28,531 at the 2010 census, and was estimated at 30,289 by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2019, making it the 11th-largest city ...

. They are also known to broadcast UK Football and Basketball games during the fall and winter months. WAKY-FM is also

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...

on WAKY-AM (620 AM), and FM

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

s W261CO (100.1 FM) and 106.3 W292FS (106.3 FM) in

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

. 100.1 W261CO serves

inside the Interstate 264 (Watterson/Shawnee Expressway) corridor (along with New Albany, Clarksville, and Jeffersonville in

Southern Indiana Southern Indiana is a region consisting of the southern third of the state of Indiana. The region's history and geography has led to a blend of Northern and Southern culture distinct from the remainder of Indiana. It is often considered to be par ...

), while 106.3 W292FS serves Jeffersontown and Lake Forest.

History

The station went on the air as WUOX on November 1, 1991. On October 30, 1992, the station changed its call sign to WLVK, on July 17, 1995, to WASE, on May 11, 2007, to WAKY, and on December 3, 2014, to the current WAKY-FM. The WAKY calls and oldies format the station airs are an homage to Louisville's WAKY AM 790, a legendary and popular

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "cont ...

music station from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. The original WAKY had its own stint as an oldies station from 1982 to 1986 and is now WKRD. Prior to adopting the WAKY calls, 103.5 FM also played oldies as WASE "Kool 103.5." Since former competitor

WRKA WRKA (103.9 FM) is a commercial urban adult contemporary radio station licensed to serve Louisville, Kentucky. Owned by SummitMedia, the station covers the Louisville metropolitan area. The WRKA studios are located in Downtown Louisville, wh ...

103.1 FM dropped its classic hits format in favor of contemporary

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

, WAKY-FM is now the only rock

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as ...

station in the Louisville market.

References

External links

Tribute site in remembrance of the original WAKY-AM
* AKY-FM AKY-FM Classic hits radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1991 1991 establishments in Kentucky Hardin County, Kentucky {{Kentucky-radio-station-stub