WSKY (1230 AM) 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 religious format. Licensed to

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

, United States. The station is currently owned by Wilkins Communications Network.

History

For almost 50 years, Zeb Lee ran WSKY, including serving as an announcer for high-school football games. He was the first to introduce

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

to Asheville when he sponsored an

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

concert in 1955. Zeb Lee was a pioneer in Asheville broadcasting. First he loved radio and honestly cared about the community; he produced many great radio programs, including "The Man on the Street" a daily talk show live in front of the S & W Cafeteria in downtown Asheville. For many years Zeb and his engineer "Buddy" Resienburg did a live broadcast of every Asheville High football game. Zeb Lee hired and trained many DJs who went on to have great careers in large market radio. WSKY was a

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 " con ...

station in the 1970s and early 1980s. In March 1994, Lee sold WSKY in order to put WZLS on the air. New owner River City Communications switched the format from a mix of music and

Larry King Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American television and radio host, whose awards included 2 Peabodys The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program ...

Rush Limbaugh Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...

and the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...

to a format of mostly

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

-delivered

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 ...

, with Limbaugh and a local morning host called Mountain Man. Between the songs, Mountain Man included comedy, some of it risqué, and he was dropped or resigned after several months because he "crossed the line". Station manager Chris Pedersen took over July 18, 1994 promising a "kinder, gentler" program. On January 25, 1995, WSKY switched from oldies to

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

. In addition to Limbaugh, WSKY added ''Good Day USA'' with

Doug Stephan Doug Stephan is an American radio talk show personality who independently syndicates and hosts several national syndicated radio shows for Radio America. Radio Programs Doug Stephan's "DJV Show" is a morning talkradio program airing live Mond ...

(with Dan Poe doing local reports), Derrick DeSilva,

G. Gordon Liddy George Gordon Battle Liddy (November 30, 1930 – March 30, 2021) was an American lawyer, FBI agent, talk show host, actor, and convicted felon in the Watergate scandal as the chief operative in the White House Plumbers unit during the Nixon admi ...

David Brenner David Norris Brenner (February 4, 1936 – March 15, 2014) was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author. The most frequent guest on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' in the 1970s and 1980s, Brenner "was a pioneer of observ ...

Tom Leykis Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

Jim Bohannon James Everett Bohannon (January 7, 1944 – November 12, 2022) was an American broadcaster who worked in both television and radio. He is best known for hosting the nationally syndicated late night radio talk show ''The Jim Bohannon Show'' orig ...

and Stan Major. Rick Howerton tried to purchase the station to no avail, however he was able to secure the rights to an old Southern Railway frequency (

AM 880 The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 880 kHz: 880 AM is classified as a North American clear-channel frequency by the Federal Communications Commission; WCBS in New York City is the dominant Class A station on 880 kHz ...

) that was eventually sold to a local businessman/entrepreneur - while WSKY was sold to Wilkins Communications and changed to

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

programming. After several months of trying to get the station on the air, Howerton was asked back and to assist and signed on WTZY in the summer of 1997. Subsequently, most of the programming on WSKY was added to the new WTZY (now WPEK). WTZY also shared simulcast duties with WTZK (formerly WZQR in Black Mountain, North Carolina) which was also purchased by the local businessman. Howerton went on to form Zybek Media Group with his wife Beth and they purchased WAAK (WZRH and

WCRU WCRU (960 kHz) is an AM radio station licensed to Dallas, North Carolina and serving the Charlotte metropolitan area. The station broadcasts a Christian talk and teaching radio format and is owned by the Truth Broadcasting Corporation. WCRU c ...

) in

Dallas, North Carolina Dallas is a town in Gaston County, North Carolina, United States, and a suburb of Charlotte, located north of Gastonia. The population was 4,488 at the 2010 census. It was named for George M. Dallas, Vice President of the United States under Jame ...

and WWRN (WZNN and WZGM) in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

References

External links

SKY The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

Radio stations established in 1955 1955 establishments in North Carolina {{NorthCarolina-radio-station-stub