WLBJ (defunct)

WLBJ

Broadcast area	Bowling Green, Kentucky
Slogan	"Your Place in the Country" & "Kentucky's Kountry King"
Frequency	1410 kHz
First air date	June, 1940
Format	Country
ERP	5,000 watts (daytime)/1,000 watts directional (nighttime)
Owner	Bahakel Communications [1]

WLBJ was the first commercial radio station in Bowling Green, Kentucky, signing-on in June, 1940. The station operated at 1410 kilohertz for much of its existence. Among the more significant local programs it produced were the 4 O'Clock Special, hosted by disc jockeys G. W. Boyum in 1947 and Brad Taylor in 1950, The Smilemaker, a morning and afternoon drive program featuring cuts from comedy albums by popular comedians, and Opinion Line, an Associated Press award-winning local public affairs program hosted by newscaster Mike Green in the 1980s.

History

In its early days, the station's studios were located in downtown Bowling Green and would later relocate both the studios and transmitter to its final location of 689 Scott Lane, now known as Indian Ridge Subdivision, adjacent to the Indian Hills Country Club.

In later years, the station was well known as a favorite among country music fans in South Central Kentucky and North Central Tennessee, as it had an effective daytime power of 5,000 watts (1,000 watts directional at night). One of the station's most popular programs was the 1981 launch of the Wrangler Country Showdown, a live-broadcast country music talent search which preceded such current programs as American Idol by some 20 years.

The station was also known as one of the earliest and longest-running affiliates of the now-defunct Mutual Broadcasting System and also carried Mutual's The Larry King Show, which was broadcast overnight during the early 1980s, making the station Bowling Green's first 24-hour radio operation.

The station was an affiliate of Cincinnati Reds baseball and the University of Kentucky football/basketball networks. The station was also known for live broadcasts of horse racing events at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington. The station also broadcast national news updates from The Christian Science Monitor news service during the 1980s.^[2]

The station also became well known for using their cowboy "boot" (Kentucky Kountry King)logo and 30-second jingle in television advertisements which aired on WBKO-TV. In return, 30-second spots advertising WBKO's evening news stories were aired over the radio station.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, the call letters were also assigned to sister station WLBJ-FM, operating at 96.7 megahertz under the brands "Natural 97" (Album-Oriented Rock) under the program direction lead of Jay Preston, Greg Pogue & later Dean Warfield, and later an automated "BJ 97" (Adult Contemporary). The call letters of the FM station were changed in the mid-1980s to WCBZ, which reflected ownership of both stations through much of their later history by Bahakel Communications of Charlotte, North Carolina. Bahakel first acquired the station in January 1956 ^[3] Today, the 96.7 frequency is owned and operated by Bowling Green-based country music station, WBVR-FM. WLBJ-AM permanently signed off the air in 1993. ^[4]

In recent years, the iconic call letters were reassigned to an AM station operating at 1570 kilohertz in the Louisville suburb of New Albany, Indiana. That station has since changed its call letters.

The callsign also exists on a low-power FM station (WLBJ-LP) in Fostoria, Ohio.

References

• Sies, Luther F. Encyclopedia of American Radio 1920-1960. Jefferson, NC:McFarland, 2000. ISBN 0-7864-0452-3

Other references