WQNU (103.1 FM, "New Country Q103.1") 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 ...

broadcasting a

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, ...

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

. Licensed to

Lyndon, Kentucky Lyndon is a home rule-class city in Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 11,002 at the 2010 census, up from 9,369 at the 2000 census. Incorporated on May 10, 1965, Lyndon became part of the new Louisville Metro govern ...

, United States, the station serves 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 SummitMedia. The station's studios are located at Chestnut Centre in

Downtown Louisville Downtown Louisville is the largest central business district in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the urban hub of the Louisville, Kentucky Metropolitan Area. Its boundaries are the Ohio River to the north, Hancock Street to the east, York and Jaco ...

and the transmitter site is in

Worthington Hills, Kentucky City of Worthington Hills is a home rule-class city in Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 1,446 at the 2010 census, down from 1,594 at the 2000 census. A suburb of Louisville, City of Worthington Hills was separatel ...

History

WSTM went on the air from St. Matthews in 1966. It was owned by J. W. Dunavent and sold four times in its first 10 years of broadcasting. The station became WNUU on August 28, 1978. On New Year's Day, 1980, the station changed its callsign to WRKA. It first aired an Adult Contemporary format but in 1982, the station became a short-lived Top 40 format until 1984, when it returned to its

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

music format.

Glenn Beck Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, entrepreneur, and television producer. He is the CEO, founder, and owner of Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of his television and rad ...

was their morning drive host at one point. In January 1989, the station adopted 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. On July 18, 2008, at 2:30 p.m., after playing The Beatles' ''

Hello, Goodbye "Hello, Goodbye" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Backed by John Lennon's "I Am the Walrus", it was issued as a non-album single in November 1967, the group's first re ...

'' and a message from the station's program director going into a commercial break, the station aired a montage of station moments themed to '' American Pie '' by

Don McLean Donald McLean III (born October 2, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his 1971 hit song " American Pie", an eight-and-a-half-minute folk rock "cultural touchstone" about the loss of innocence of the early ...

that ended on the lyric ''The day the music died'', followed by one last jingle. After about a minute of static (through which the ending of ''

Beginnings Beginnings may refer to: Literature * Beginnings (collection), ''Beginnings'' (collection), a 1988 collection of short stories and poems by Gordon R. Dickson * Beginnings (Honorverse), ''Beginnings'' (Honorverse), a 2013 collection of short stori ...

'' by

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

could be faintly heard), the station began stunting and introduced their "new" format as ''News/Talk 103.1 WRKA'', complete with fake reports before having a fake "Breaking Fox News Alert" report of

power outage A power outage (also called a powercut, a power out, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, or a blackout) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user. There are many causes of power failures in an electricit ...

s around the state leading into the introduction of "New Country Q103.1" at 3 p.m., launching with

Kid Rock Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known professionally as Kid Rock (also known as Bobby Shazam), is an American singer, songwriter and rapper. His style alternates between rock, hip hop, country, and metal. A self-taught musician, ...

's '' All Summer Long''. The same day, they changed callsigns to the current WQNU. The former WRKA callsign is now used on a

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

in the Louisville market. On July 20, 2012, Cox Radio, Inc. announced the sale of WQNU and 22 other stations to Summit Media LLC for $66.25 million. The sale was consummated on May 3, 2013.

Notable alumni

Previous Logos

File:WRKA (FM) logo.png, Previous Logo (1989-2008) File:WQNU logo.jpg, Previous Logo (2008-2021)

References

External links

*
FCC History Cards for WQNUFootage of WRKA changing formats
{{Country Radio Stations in Kentucky QNU Country radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1978 1978 establishments in Kentucky