Frequency 1550 AM (kHz) | First air date April 7, 1965 | |
Format defunct (was gospel, then album rock) Power 50,000 Watts (day)10,000 Watts (night) | ||
WOKJ was the last call sign for a now-defunct American radio station in Jackson, Mississippi. The station operated at 1550 kHz, and with a daytime output power of 50,000 watts during the day, and 10,000 watts at night, with changing directional antenna patterns, until it was silenced in 1992.
History
This frequency first went on the air in 1964, but its roots can be traced back to 1954, when the WOKJ call letters were first used for a station in this same market, but broadcasting at 1590 AM. Studios for this incarnation of WOKJ were at 1850 West Lynch Street in Jackson.
The station went on the air as WJAQ on April 7, 1965 and under the ownership of Radio Mississippi. However, the station changed hands the following year, and assumed the call letters WOKJ, which AM 1590 had given up in favor of WWUN when it too changed hands. The new WOKJ was purchased by Jomac Jackson Corporation, a subsidiary of McLendon Ebony Group Stations on October 13, 1966. John M. McLendon was the company president, and Charles Fletcher was the general manager.
In 1967, the station was joined by an FM sister, WJMI.
On April 1, 1971, the station was sold to Tri-Cities Broadcasting Company, headed by E.O. Roden. Charles Fletcher was retained as general manager.
On January 1, 1987, the station was acquired by Holt Communications Corporation, headed by Arthur Holt. Carl Haynes was appointed general manager. In 1989, WOKJ was spun off so Holt Communications could acquire WOAD, the market's heritage gospel station, from John Pembroke. WOKJ was then sold to David R. Price, of Washington, Louisiana, who quickly changed the format to album rock. Studios and offices were then moved to the WOKJ's transmitter facilities on Tower Road in the Jackson suburb of Bolton.
Not long after Price acquired the station, problems began with the FCC, starting with fines and revocation notices beginning in 1991 and lasting until 1993, when the FCC ordered the license surrendered and the four broadcast towers dismantled. The license was formally cancelled on April 30, 1993; three years prior to its June 1996 expiration, and the towers were removed from the Bolton site in 1994.