WJOS (1540 AM) was 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 ...

broadcasting a Southern gospel format, licensed to

Elkin, North Carolina Elkin is a town in Surry and Wilkes counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina, along the Yadkin River. Elkin shares its name with the surrounding township of Elkin Township. The population was 4,083 at the 2020 census. Geography Elkin is ...

History

Al Hinshaw signed on WIFM-FM in Elkin in 1949, and added an AM station several years later. Both stations had difficulties but they survived. James Childress bought the stations in 1954. WIFM-AM was a daytime-only station, but the FM station aired programming at night. The AM and FM stations aired the same programming (the AM went off the air at night) until

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...

rules prohibited this more than a few hours a day. By this time, enough people had FM radios that separate programming became possible. In the mid-70s, Leon Reece's "Good Morning Show" and "Open Mike" aired on both stations. The AM aired pop/

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

. In the early 80s the FM studio moved and the AM station took over the former FM studio. WIFM-AM later became WJOS (for Jonesville, where the station moved) and its format was Southern gospel from the late 80s until 1995. John Wishon was station manager and morning host most of those years.

External links

Defunct radio stations in the United States Defunct religious radio stations in the United States Radio stations disestablished in 1995 1995 disestablishments in North Carolina JOS JOS {{NorthCarolina-radio-station-stub