KWEM-LP is a low-power FM radio station in West Memphis, Arkansas, United States, owned by Arkansas State University Mid-South. The station airs a format of blues and gospel music and is also used as a training ground for students in the community college's digital media program.
The call letters and format are a tribute to a former West Memphis radio station, KWEM (990 AM), which began in 1947; moved across the Mississippi River to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1953; and changed call letters in 1959. The station was influential in the early careers of several blues and rockabilly musicians.
The owners of Little Rock-area radio station KXLR sought to build a statewide network of stations to carry Arkansas Razorbacks football, and they felt that the Memphis area would provide important coverage and exposure for the football program.[2] After delays, KWEM (990 AM) began operating on February 9, 1947,[3] with official opening two weeks later.[4]
West Memphis was described as the "Las Vegas of the South" in this era, and its programming drew from the musicians playing clubs in that era.[2]Howlin' Wolf had a show on the station from 1949 to 1952, and Sam Phillips heard him and signed him to a contract with Sun Records;[5] his program aired after music by rockabilly guitarist Paul Burlison;[6]B.B. King was first heard over the station, getting his break on a show helmed by Sonny Boy Williamson II;[7]Stax Records founder Jim Stewart started at KWEM, as did James Cotton and Hubert Sumlin;[8]Johnny Cash's first radio broadcast was on KWEM in 1953.[2][9] The station allowed aspiring performers to pay for 15-minute blocks of air time.[10]Elvis Presley made his first radio appearance on KWEM in 1953, which did not go well because he lacked a band and moved around too much;[5]George Klein worked there as a DJ after its move to Memphis;[11] so did Eddie Bond.[12]
KWEM was purchased by Dee Rivers in 1951.[13] Rivers moved the station to Memphis, where from studios on Flicker Street, it continued to be an influential hotbed of talent; the transmitter remained on the Arkansas side of the river.[14] This lasted through the end of the decade, when KWEM became KWAM,[14] and it eventually stopped playing live music.[10]
The revival
In 2009, Dale Franklin purchased assets to relaunch KWEM as an online-only station, playing the genres of music where it had the most influence.[9] In addition, he acquired such historic artifacts as a recording lathe used by Ike Turner.[5] Franklin's goal was to increase recognition of KWEM's historical role and increase musical tourism on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi by restoring the original studio on Broadway Street.[10] He then opted to sell these assets to Mid-South Community College in West Memphis.[15] Streaming returned under MSCC management in 2014 ahead of the station's 2015 sign-on on FM.[16]
Franklin, who was described by the president of MSCC as having a "John the Baptist type fervor" for the project,[5] died in 2017.[17]
