WCHK (1290

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...

) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

broadcasting a

Spanish-language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

Latin pop Latin pop () is a pop music subgenre that is a fusion of US–style music production with Latin music genres from anywhere in Latin America and Spain. It originates with List of countries where Spanish is an official language, Spanish-speaking ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

, known as "La Mega." Licensed to

Canton, Georgia Canton is a city in and the county seat of Cherokee County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 22,958, up from 7,709 in 2000. Geography Canton is located near the center of Cherokee County at (34.2273 ...

, it serves

Metro Atlanta Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell metropolitan statistical area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the sixt ...

. The

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

stands for Cherokee, the county of which Canton is the

seat of government The seat of government is (as defined by ''Brewer's Politics'') "the building, complex of buildings or the city from which a government exercises its authority". In most countries, the nation's Capital city, capital is also seat of its governmen ...

, largest city, and

geographic center In geography, the centroid of the two-dimensional shape of a region of the Earth's surface (projected radially to sea level or onto a geoid surface) is known as its geographic centre or geographical centre or (less commonly) gravitational centre. In ...

. The station is currently owned by Davis Broadcasting of Atlanta, L.L.C. By day, WCHK is powered at 10,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s, using a

non-directional antenna In radio communication, an omnidirectional antenna is a class of antenna which radiates equal radio power in all directions perpendicular to an axis (azimuthal directions), with power varying with angle to the axis (elevation angle), declining t ...

. But at night, to protect other stations on

1290 AM The following radio stations Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the rad ...

, it switches to a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

and greatly reduces power to 500 watts. The

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is on Keith Drive, near Interstate 575 and Hickory Log Creek in Canton. WCHK is also heard on two

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

stations: 96.5

W243CE W243CE (96.5 FM "''La Mega 96.5 y 105.1''"), is a Spanish-language music radio station having Winder, Georgia as its city of license, and previously transmitting from west-northwest of Winder, about halfway to Auburn, Georgia. In late February ...

in Winder and 105.1 W286DU in Canton.

History

Early Days of WCHK

WCHK first went on the air on April 11, 1957, under the ownership of Cherokee Broadcasting (headed by Chuck McClure, owner of Columbus-based McClure Broadcasting). Its programming involved

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

and southern gospel music, with local production. Among the personalities were station manager Byron Dobbs (retired in 1997), Mike McDougal, and Jim Axel (who moved to

WAGA-TV WAGA-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, serving as the market's Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains st ...

WCHK-FM

Because WCHK was on the

AM band Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM broadcasting, AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. Duri ...

with a daytime-only operation, it was required to sign-off by sunset, allowing clear-channel stations to take over the airwaves. Therefore, on August 1, 1964. WCHK launched a simulcast on 105.5

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

, as WCHK-FM. This allowed the station to extend programming on the

FM band The FM broadcast band is a range of radio frequencies used for FM broadcasting by radio stations. The range of frequencies used differs between different parts of the world. In Europe and Africa (defined as International Telecommunication Union ( ...

by midnight. In 1991, WCHK-FM received

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains ju ...

approval to upgrade to a class C2 license. It relocated its transmitter to Bear Mountain, providing greater coverage in north

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. At the same time, the station switched its frequency to 105.7 MHz. Another station from Carrollton, WMAX-FM, later occupied the 105.5 MHz frequency in 1994. (In 2002, WMAX moved to 105.3 MHz; it is now

WRDG WRDG (96.1 FM broadcasting, FM) – branded as ''96.1 The Beat'' – is a commercial broadcasting, commercial urban contemporary radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station serves the Atlanta metropolitan ...

.) The station was renamed "North Metro's K-105", then "Country 105.7", and finally as "Atlanta's Classic Country 105.7". WCHK-FM was bought by Clear Channel Communications (now

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

) in 1993, under a local marketing agreement, simulcasting news/talk station WGST as WGST-FM. (The station is now

WBZY WBZY (105.7 FM) branded ''Z105.7'' is a commercial radio station licensed to Canton, Georgia, broadcasting a Spanish-language contemporary hits format. Owned by iHeartMedia, WBZY serves the Atlanta metropolitan area. The WBZY studios are loca ...

.) In 1998, WCHK launched another simulcast on 100.1 MHz, licensed to

Talking Rock, Georgia Talking Rock is a town in Pickens County, Georgia, United States. The population as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census was 91. History Talking Rock had its start in the early 1880s when the railroad was extended to that point. The com ...

, under the WCHK-FM callsign. In 1999, WCHK-FM was renamed WNSY, launching an oldies format as Sunny 100. The new station operated from the facilities of WCHK (with personalities Michael Searcy and Scott Evans).

The end

In the early 2000s, WCHK abandoned its country/gospel format in favor of news/talk. Shows included Ludlow Porch,

Dave Ramsey David Lawrence Ramsey III (born September 3, 1960) is an American radio personality who offers financial advice. He is the founder and CEO of Ramsey Solutions and a co-host of '' The Ramsey Show'', a nationally syndicated radio program. He ...

, and local-based Paul Carden. The station also aired a simulcast of the 6PM news from

WSB-TV WSB-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Cox Media Group, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to rad ...

. On July 18, 2004, Chuck McClure, owner of WCHK, died of natural causes. On November 14, 2006, Davis Broadcasting, owners of

WLKQ-FM WLKQ-FM (102.3 MHz "La Raza 102.3/107.1") is a commercial radio station licensed to Buford, Georgia, and serving Metro Atlanta. It is owned by Davis Broadcasting and airs a Regional Mexican radio format. The programming is simulcast on 107.1 ...

102.3 in Buford, made the purchase of both WCHK and sister station WNSY-FM, being completed in January 2007. Afterwards, both stations went off the air on January 22, 2007. WNSY returned to the airwaves on February 1, 2007 as a simulcast of WLKQ-FM (La Raza 102.3), broadcasting a

Regional Mexican Regional Mexican music refers collectively to the regional subgenres of the country music of Mexico and its derivatives from the Southwestern United States. Each subgenre is representative of a certain region and its popularity also varies by ...

format. WCHK came back a year later, simulcasting WLKQ.

Spanish-language radio

In 2013, WCHK switched from Mexican music to a simulcast of

Winder, airing a

Spanish Tropical Tropical music () is a term in the Latin music industry that refers to music genres deriving from or influenced by the Spanish-speaking areas of the Caribbean. It includes the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the Caribbean ...

format as La Mega 96.5. W243CE was also heard on WSRV-HD3. In 2015, W243CE and WSRV-HD3 broke from the simulcast, with WCHK maintaining the Tropical format. On March 21, 2017, WCHK re-added W243CE as a simulcast and relaunched the Latin pop format as La Nueva Mega 96.5/1290. The relaunch is intended to serve the Hispanic communities of North Fulton and Gwinnett Counties.Promo for La Nueva Mega.
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FM translators

Former personalities

*Chuck McClure (owner) *Jim Axel (1957–1959, later moved to

) *Bob Peterson (1957–1962, Co-Owner) *Byron Dobbs (1957–1997, General Manager/presenter) *Steve Bramham (1963–1965, Announcer, Chief Engineer) *Jackson Bain (1962–1964) later moved to WAGA-TV, then to NBC News *Chris Morgan (1990) *Mike McDougal *Joe Robinnell *Dick Byrd *Robert Owens *Linda Lee *Don Holt (1968-Feb 1972) *Scott Woodside *Jim McGhee *Paul Carden *Ashley Frasca Traffic reporter for WSB-TV and 95.5 WSB; host of "Green ad Growing with Ashley Frasca" on 95.5 WSB radio *Yzzi Evangelista (August 2017 – April 2019, Announcer ) later returned as Program Director, Imaging Director and Announcer from February 2020 - October 2021.) *Tim (Lawson) Cavender (1974–1987, announcer and Operations Manager of WCHK AM)

References

External links

La Mega Website
* * * * {{Spanish Radio Stations in Georgia 1957 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Cherokee County, Georgia Radio stations established in 1957 CHK CHK