WVJS (1420 AM) is an American

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 serve the

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, t ...

Owensboro, Kentucky Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of L ...

. The station is owned and operated by Hancock Communications, Inc.,

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

the Cromwell Radio Group.

History

WVJS programming began November 27, 1947, from studios located at 324 Allen Street in downtown Owensboro. The station's transmitter building and multi tower directional array were located on a 26-acre tract of land on U.S. Highway 60, just west of the Owensboro city limits. The station operated at 1420 kilocycles with 1,000 watts of power. The following year WVJS-FM went on the air at 96.1 megacycles. The stations were owned and operated by Owensboro on the Air, Incorporated. Owensboro developer Vincent J. Steele was majority owner. Owensboro radio veteran Malcolm Greep, who was a driving force in starting WVJS, was named general manager of the new station. In early 1960, WVJS closed its downtown studios on Allen Street and consolidated all of its operations at the company's transmitting site on Highway 60. The station began play-by-play coverage of the Kentucky Wesleyan College basketball games in 1961. In 1962, WVJS was granted FCC approval to boost daytime power to 5,000 watts. In 1963, the station's FM call letters were changed to

WSTO WSTO (96.1 FM, "Hot 96") is a radio station that serves the Evansville, Indiana, Owensboro, Kentucky, and Henderson, Kentucky markets with a contemporary hit radio format. It is licensed to Owensboro and broadcasts from a 1,000-foot tower strat ...

and it became Kentucky's first full-time stereo broadcasting station. In 1973, Owensboro on the Air was granted a franchise by the city to provide cable television service to Owensboro and a new building to house Owensboro Cablevision was constructed at the company's Highway 60 site. In 1983, V.J. Steele's heirs sold WVJS, WSTO and the cable TV operations to Century Communications Corporation of

New Canaan, Connecticut New Canaan () is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census. About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is bound ...

. At the end of 1996, Century sold WVJS and WSTO to Brill Media which already owned Owensboro stations WOMI and WBKR. WSTO was later sold to South Central Communications of Evansville, Indiana. In 2002, WVJS was purchased by its current owner, Cromwell Radio Group, and shares facilities at 1115 Tamarack Road in Owensboro, with the following stations: Philpot-licensed WBIO, Whitesville-licensed

WXCM WXCM (97.1 FM, "97X") is an American radio station licensed to serve the community of Whitesville, Kentucky. The station is owned and operated by Hancock Communications, Inc., doing business as the Cromwell Radio Group. WXCM broadcasts an Activ ...

, Hawesville-licensed WKCM, Lewisport-licensed

WLME WLME (102.7 FM, "102.7 The Game") is an American radio station licensed to serve the community of Lewisport, Kentucky. The station is owned and operated by Hancock Communications, Inc., doing business as the Cromwell Radio Group, and the station' ...

Cannelton, Indiana Cannelton is a city in Troy Township, Perry County, in the U.S. state of Indiana, along the Ohio River. The population was 1,563 at the 2010 census. Cannelton, which was the smallest incorporated city in the state until 2010, was formerly the ...

-licensed WCJZ and

Tell City, Indiana Tell City is a city in Troy Township, Perry County, in the U.S. state of Indiana, along the Ohio River. The population was 7,272 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Perry County. History Tell City traces its 150+ year old roots ...

-licensed WTCJ.

Programming

WVJS broadcasts a mix of

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 w ...

and

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 198 ...

music

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 ...

to the greater

, area. Programming features the " Kool Gold" syndicated format from Dial-Global. WVJS GENERAL MANAGERS (1947-1997) Malcolm Greep, Ray Wettstain, Corky Norcia and Steve Cooke. WVJS COMMERCIAL MANAGERS (1947-1997) Jack McLean, John Rutledge, Parker Smith, Joe Fife, Dennis Keller, Corky Norcia. WVJS PROGRAM DIRECTORS (1947-1997) Lee Meredith, Earl Fisher, Jim Orton, Joe Lowe. WVJS NEWS DIRECTORS (1947-1997) Joe Bell, Gerry Wood, Joel Utley, Jim Parr, Mike Whitsett, Scott Douglas, Jerry Birge. STATION SLOGANS (1947-1997) "Radio Center"; "Sparkle Radio"; "The Big Sound"; "Radio-One"; "The Station You Depend On"; "Oldies 1420"; "The News Station".

Translators

WVJS programming is also carried on a

broadcast translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

station to extend or improve the coverage area of the station.

References

External links

WVJS official website
* * {{Oldies Radio Stations in Kentucky VJS Owensboro, Kentucky Oldies radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1947 1947 establishments in Kentucky