 | |
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|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Louisville metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 840kHz |
| Branding | Newsradio 840 WHAS |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | News/talk |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | July 18, 1922 (103 years ago) (1922-07-18) |
Former frequencies |
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Call sign meaning | "We Have A Signal" (abackronym, as the call was randomly assigned by the government) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 11934 |
| Class | A |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates |
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| Repeater | 97.5 WAMZ-HD2 (Louisville) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | whas |
WHAS (840kHz) is acommercialAM radio station inLouisville, Kentucky, airing anews/talkradio format. It is owned byiHeartMedia, with studios in downtown Louisville, in theFourth Street Live! entertainment complex. First licensed in July 1922, it is the oldest radio station in Kentucky.
WHAS is aClass Aclear-channel station, powered at 50,000 wattsnon-directional, the maximum for commercial AM stations. Its daytime signal can be heard in most of centralKentucky, as well as almost half ofIndiana (includingIndianapolis) and much of southwesternOhio (includingCincinnati andDayton).[2] Its nighttime signal can be heard in most of theEastern and Central United States and much of Canada with a good radio.[citation needed]
iHeartMedia owns two talk stations in Louisville.WKJK1080 AM is mostly a pass-through forsyndicated shows while WHAS features mostly local programming and news. Weekdays begin with theKentuckiana Morning News anchored by Tony Cruise.Tony & Dwight (Tony Vanetti and Dwight Witten) are heard in late mornings andThe Terry Meiners Show airs in afternoondrive time. Syndicated programs includeThe Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,The Mark Levin Show,Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis andCoast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory.
Weekends feature specialty shows on money, health, the outdoors, the law and home repair, some of which are paidbrokered programming. Syndicated shows includeArmstrong & Getty,The Ramsey Show withDave Ramsey,The Weekend with Michael Brown,Bill Handel on the Law,Somewhere in Time with Art Bell,At Home with Gary Sullivan andSunday Nights with Bill Cunningham. Nights and weekends, most hours begin with an update fromABC News Radio. WHAS is theflagship radio station for the annualWHAS Crusade for Children Telethon.
WHAS is Louisville's primary station for theUniversity of Kentucky athletic broadcasts from theUK Sports Network. Play-by-play includesWildcatsfootball andmen's basketball games.[3]
Starting in 2015, iHeartMedia began broadcastingLouisville City FC soccer games. WHAS had been the flagship forU of L Sports Network coverage ofLouisville Cardinals football andbasketball, and still carries some the Cardinals games. When there is a conflict with Wildcats games, co-ownedWKRD790 AM broadcasts Cardinals games.[4]
The U.S. Department of Commerce, which regulated radio in its early days, adopted regulations, effective December 1, 1921, that formally established a broadcast service category. The wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) was designated for "entertainment" broadcasting, with 485 meters (619 kHz) assigned for "market and weather reports".[5] On July 13, 1922, theCourier-Journal andLouisville Times were issued a license for operation on both the 360- and 485-meter wavelengths. The WHAScall letters were randomly assigned from a sequential list.[6] WHAS was the first broadcasting station in Kentucky, which was the 45th out of the then-48 states to establish a station.[7] Following a short series of test transmissions, WHAS made its formal debut broadcast on July 18, 1922.[8]
In September 1922, theU.S. Department of Commerce set aside a second entertainment wavelength, 400 meters (750 kHz) for "Class B" stations, including WHAS, that had quality equipment and programming.[9] However, concerned that an abrupt frequency change would make it difficult for listeners to pick up the signal, station manager Credo Fitch Harris made arrangements to temporarily remain on 360 meters.[10] In May 1923, additional "Class B" frequencies were made available, with 750 kHz now reserved nationwide for Louisville,[11] which was exclusively assigned to WHAS.[12]
WHAS was originally part of the local media empire managed by theBingham family, which also publishedLouisville Courier-Journal andLouisville Times (now owned by theGannett Company and merged in 1987). On May 16, 1925, the first live broadcast of theKentucky Derby horse race was made by WHAS and also byWGN in Chicago.[13] The call of the Derby featured an announcer who watched from the windows of one of the famous twin spires ofChurchill Downs.
On November 11, 1928, theFederal Radio Commission's (FRC)General Order 40 made a major reallocation of the broadcasting frequencies. This introduced a category known as "clear channel stations" that included WHAS, which was assigned exclusive nationwide use of 820 kHz.[14]
On May 15, 1932, WHAS changed from being anNBC RedNetwork affiliate, which it joined in late 1926.[15] It switched to theColumbia Broadcasting System (CBS), which previously aired onWLAP, now relocated inLexington.[15]: 29 WHAS carried the network's dramas, comedies, sports and news during the "Golden Age of Radio." The studios were at 300 Liberty Street in Downtown Louisville, co-located with theCourier-Journal.[16]
In the early 1930s, WHAS operated with 10,000 watts of power. But in 1932, the output was increased to 25,000 watts as authorized by the FRC.[17]
During theOhio River flood of 1937, the station gained nationwide notice for its coverage of the disaster. WHAS would broadcast Louisville flood bulletins over the facilities ofWSM inNashville after Louisville authorities were forced to cut electrical power to the city due to rising flood waters. This took WHAS's own signal off the air. During the flood, the station aired 115,000 messages.[18]
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On March 29, 1941, the enactment of theNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) required many radio stations to change their dial positions. WHAS's clear channel frequency was shifted to its current assignment of 840 kHz.
In 1950, WHAS helpedWSM-TV establish television service in Middle Tennessee with a microwave signal link from WHAS-TV.[20][21]
WHAS was the home ofThe Moral Side of the News, one of the oldestpublic affairs programs in American broadcasting, dating back to the 1940s. The show was also seen onWHAS-TV since the 1950s. The program's panel of clergy members were involved in distributing the proceeds of the Crusade for Children among local charities since the telethon's beginning.[22]
Experimental W9XEK began in 1944, at 45.5 MHz, on the original FM band. A second FM station was established on the newer FM band in 1947, when WCJT started at 99.7 FM, co-owned with WHAS. The WCJT call sign represented the initials ofThe Courier-Journal andLouisville Times. By the following year, W9XEK was taken off the air and WCJT became WHAS-FM. Few people owned FM radio receivers in that era. Seeing little chance to make it profitable, the Bingham Family returned WHAS-FM's license to theFCC on December 31, 1950. Their attention was already on setting up a new television station.
WHAS-TV first signed on the air on March 27, 1950.[23] Originally broadcasting on channel 9, it was the second television station in Kentucky, after NBC affiliateWAVE-TV, which started in November 1948. WHAS-TV operated from brand-new studios in the Courier-Journal/Times Building at 6th & Broadway. Because WHAS 840 was a longtime CBS affiliate, WHAS-TV also aired CBS programming.
A second WHAS-FM began on September 7, 1966.[24] It broadcast at 97.5 MHz with a 100,000-watt transmitter, airing anautomated classical music format. The Binghams ran the station as a public service with almost no advertising. This format lasted until September 3, 1975, when WHAS-FM was renamed WNNS and adopted theNBC Radio Network's "News and Information Service" (NIS)all-news radio format. Today, that station is co-ownedcountry music outletWAMZ.
As network programming moved from radio to television in the 1950s, WHAS began afull service format of news, sports andmiddle of the road (MOR) music. Disc jockeys hosted music shows with frequent breaks for news, weather, sports scores and other information.
WHAS modernized its format in the early 1970s. Theplaylist switched toadult contemporary, featuring adult-appeal hits and recentoldies. One longtime slogan was "Good and Gold" (as in "good music", or adult contemporary, and "golden" oldies). For a time in the 1980s, it was also the Louisville affiliate forCasey Kasem'sAmerican Top 40.
WHAS was the original radio home to locally produced coverage ofAmerican Basketball Association games involving theKentucky Colonels during that league's 1967-1976 existence.[25][26][27]
On the afternoon of April 3, 1974, Louisville was hit by an F4 tornado that developed during the1974 Super Outbreak. WHAS broke away from regular programming to track the storm as it passed through the Louisville metropolitan area. In the hours immediately following the storm, the station delivered important information about what areas had been directly impacted by the storms, and traffic reporter Dick Gilbert followed the tornado in his helicopter, reporting on the damage as he flew at a safe distance behind the storm. The station stayed with continuous coverage of the disaster in Louisville and across the state of Kentucky and the southern portion of Indiana until well into the early morning hours of April 4.[28][29] For their efforts, the station's personnel earned thanks from then-Kentucky GovernorWendell Ford and PresidentRichard Nixon.
In 1986, the Bingham Family decided to divest its media company holdings.[30]WHAS and WAMZ (the former WHAS-FM) were acquired in 1986, byClear Channel Communications based inSan Antonio. In 2014, Clear Channel changed its name to iHeartMedia, WHAS's current owner.
WHAS 840 continued to air a full-service AC and oldies format through the 1980s. WHAS one of the last 50,000-watt clear-channel radio stations to feature music programming on a regular basis. Personalities on the weekday lineup includedTerry Meiners[31] andLachlan McLean on "SportsTalk 840". By the 1990s, the music shows were ending and the station switched to a news–talk format.
On January 17, 1994, a record overnight snowstorm paralyzed the city and much of the state of Kentucky.[32] WHAS had round the clock updates and school closing information for nearly a week.[33] OnMay 28, 1996, another tornado outbreak occurred in Kentuckiana and the station suspended its election coverage that night to cover the storm.[34]
Prior to 1995, WHAS broadcast inC-QUAMAM stereo.[35] Following an initial testing period which started in 2006, beginning in September 2007 WHAS broadcast full-time using theHD RadioIBOCdigital radio system.[36] HD Radio has since been turned off.
The late morning slot (9 am to noon) has seen several changes. Francene Cucinello hosted "The Francene Show" until her death on January 15, 2010. She was replaced that summer by Mandy Connell. In turn, Connell left in August 2013, to become the morning host on co-ownedKHOW630 AM inDenver.[37] Her last show on WHAS was on August 9.[38] For several months after her move, Connell provided daily one-minute commentaries, known as "Mandy Minutes", to WHAS.[38] Connell's slot was filled by Leland Conway, previously a talk radio host inLexington and most recentlyRichmond, Virginia, whose show began airing on September 16.[39]
Significant changes came to the afternoon and evening lineup in the first half of 2015. In February, McLean announced he would leave WHAS on May 15 and move toCharlotte, North Carolina.[40] In April, it was confirmed thatSports Talk 840 would end when McLean left WHAS. Effective May 18, Meiners' show was cut back by an hour. The 6-8 time slot was filled by Connell, who returned to the Louisville market with a locally focused talk show. Then longtime fill-in host Mary Walter took over as the permanent host and continued the local focused format.The Mark Levin Show moved to the 8-11 pm slot, being delayed by two hours instead of three.[41] An extra hour ofGround Zero with Clyde Lewis was picked up.
At the same time as the spring 2015 lineup changes, WHAS replacedThe Bill Cunningham Show in its Sunday night lineup withThe John and Leah Show, a syndicated weekly news review program hosted by former WHAS personalityJohn Ziegler and Leah Brandon. Cunningham's show, based at co-ownedWLWCincinnati, has since returned to Sunday evenings.
