The station signed on the air in November 1948.[4] Its original call sign was WKLO. The studios were in the Henry Clay Hotel.[5]
WKLO was one of Louisville's favorite Top 40 stations in the 1960s and 70s. It was owned by Dayton-based Great Trails Broadcasting, which also owned several other Top 40 outlets, all of them in Ohio including WING, WIZE, WCOL (AM), WCOL-FM and WGTZ. WKLO provided competition to Louisville's main Top 40 station, WAKY 790 AM (now WKRD). In 1979, WKLO began sharing its Top 40 format with sister station 99.7 WKJJ-FM. Because co-owned AM and FM stations could not fully simulcast the same programming at the same time, WKLO became a "shadowcast" delayed broadcast of WKJJ-FM (now WDJX).
Country, Oldies, Christian and All News
In 1980, it became WCII. It tried several formats, including country music, oldies and Christian music. It returned to a simulcast of its FM sister and its Top 40 format in September 1988 (though it would briefly break away for an all-news format).
On June 24, 1991, the station flipped to Christian talk and teaching after it was leased out to different operators. Six months later, on January 13, 1992, it again flipped back to a simulcast of its FM sister. In 1992 a fire at the base of one of the towers briefly took the station off the air.[6]
The station was assigned the call letters WWSN on May 15, 1993. It was part of a warehousing move to put the call letters on 107.7 FM after it signed on later in the year. By August, the AM occasionally split from the simulcast to air some alternative rock programming. Several months later, on October 15, 1993, the station changed its call sign to WDJX.[7] In September 1994, it ended the simulcast and returned to all-news as "The News Resource", WRES. During this time, the station aired AP Radio News and NBC Talknet programs.
Classic Country, Standards and Talk
In July 1995, WRES flipped to classic country as "The Hawk", WHKW. The format was moved from 98.9 FM. It later became "KJ 1080", WKJK. On June 7, 1997, the station flipped to adult standards for a couple of years.
In 1999, WKJK flipped to a talk radio format.[8] With sister station 840 WHAS airing mostly local talk shows, WKJK became the Louisville home for iHeart's nationally syndicated shows, including Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.
