WKLU (101.9 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 radio ...

licensed to

Brownsburg, Indiana Brownsburg is a town in Hendricks County, Indiana, United States. The population was recorded to be 21,285 residents at the 2010 Census, an increase from the 14,520 residents in 2000. the estimated population was recorded to be 27,001 residents. ...

, and serving the

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

metropolitan area. The station is owned by the

Educational Media Foundation Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's largest ...

and carries its K-LOVE network, playing

Contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music, also known as CCM, Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith and s ...

. While the K-LOVE format is national, the station broadcasts public affairs programming for Brownsburg and Hendricks County on select Sunday nights. In addition, the WKLU studios are used for the K-LOVE morning show which is heard nationwide.

History

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, the station

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

the air as WQFE. It used a 300 foot

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

, located in Hendricks County. The station played

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

music. In September

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, WQFE changed to an

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 we ...

format that was not successful. In

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, Bruce "The Radio Pirate" Quinn took over his family owned station. The call letters were changed to WKLU and branded as ''"The New Kool 101.9"''. The format evolved to a loose variant of

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

specializing in titles that most Indianapolis radio stations didn't play, including songs from

jam bands A jam band is a musical group whose concerts (and live albums) are characterized by lengthy improvisational " jams." These include extended musical improvisation over rhythmic grooves and chord patterns, and long sets of music which often c ...

. In

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

the Quinns sold the station to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

radio entrepreneur Russ Oasis, who moved the tower to its current location and reformatted the station to a more commercially viable

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 we ...

format. At midnight on December 4, 2007, WKLU began playing the hits of the 1960s and 1970s as ''"The New Oldies 101.9"''. On July 15, 2009, WKLU was sold by Russ Oasis to the

. The station switched to the K-LOVE network of

on September 15, 2009, at 6 p.m. Before the switch, a goodbye show was held by the staff and DJs of Oldies 101.9. The last song on Oldies was "

Thank You for Being a Friend "Thank You for Being a Friend" is a song written by Andrew Gold. It was recorded for Gold's third album, ''All This and Heaven Too''. The song reached number 25 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in 1978. Whitburn, Joel (2004). ''The Billboard ...

" by

Andrew Gold Andrew Maurice Gold (August 2, 1951 – June 3, 2011) was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who influenced much of the Los Angeles-dominated pop rock, pop/soft rock sound in the 1970s. Gold played on scor ...

.WKLU Switches From Oldies to K-Love
/ref>

References

External links

* KLU Radio stations established in 1992 K-Love radio stations 1992 establishments in Indiana Educational Media Foundation radio stations KLU {{Indiana-radio-station-stub