WCTA (810 AM) was an American

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 ...

licensed A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

to serve

Alamo The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event and military engagement in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alam ...

, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

Crockett County, Tennessee Crockett County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,911. Its county seat is Alamo. Crockett County is included in the Jackson, Tennessee metropolitan area. History Crockett Count ...

. WCTA was a class D facility licensed to broadcast with 250

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 of power on a frequency of 810

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 ...

, operating only during daylight hours to protect both KGO in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, and WGY in

Schenectady, New York Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...

, from

skywave In radio communication, skywave or skip refers to the propagation of radio waves reflected or refracted back toward Earth from the ionosphere, an electrically charged layer of the upper atmosphere. Since it is not limited by the curvatur ...

interference. The

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which va ...

was held by Robert Davis, through licensee Alamo Media LLC. The station, established in 1983, fell silent on and off from 2008 through June 2012 before resuming normal operation. The station ran sporadically and lost its license in August 2020.

Programming

The station was launched in 1983 airing a

full service Full service or Full Service may refer to: Entertainment Books * ''Full Service'' (book), a 2012 memoir by Scotty Bowers * '' Full Service No Waiting'', a 1998 album by Peter Case Music * "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block fr ...

format mixing

country & western Country (also called country and western) is a music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is primarily focused on singing sto ...

and middle of the road music with news and farm programming. By the late 1980s the station has shifted to a pure country & western music format with limited news programming. This lasted through the mid-1990s when the station shifted to a mix of

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

and

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

music. As the 2000s began, the station was back to

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

with some

Christian music Christian music is a genre of music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christianity, Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence and lament, and its f ...

block programming. In its last few years before falling silent in 2008 due to the declining health of the station's owner, WCTA broadcast a

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

, including select programming from

USA Radio Network USA Radio Network is an American mass media company, specializing in 24/7 news coverage, long-form talk radio shows, produced and distributed with a generally conservative focus. USA Radio Network produces and distributes 24-hour news, talk, inf ...

History

In 1979, Crockett Broadcasting Corporation applied to the

U.S. Federal Communications Commission 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 ...

(FCC) for a

construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...

for a new broadcast radio station. The FCC granted this permit on February 20, 1980, with a scheduled expiration date of February 20, 1981. The new station was assigned

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 ...

"WCTA". In August 1981, Crockett Broadcasting notified the FCC that control of the company had passed from Ralph Clenney and Branson Townsen to Roy Davis. The FCC approved the move on October 5, 1981. After a series of extensions, construction and testing were completed in September 1983 and the station was granted its

on November 28, 1983. The station began broadcasting a

format mixing music, news, and information. In June 1986, Crockett Broadcasting Corporation reached a deal to sell WCTA to Charles C. Allen. The deal was approved by the FCC on August 13, 1986. In August 1990, Charles C. Allen contracted to sell WCTA to Gary Morris Reasons for $75,000. The sale was approved by the FCC on October 10, 1990, and the transaction was formally consummated the same day. In December 1996, Gary Morris Reasons notified the FCC of his intent to transfer the WCTA broadcast license to Billy Hugh Williams. The transaction gained FCC approval on February 21, 1997, and formal consummation of the deal occurred on March 19, 1997. After a period of sporadic operation, the station went completely

dark Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...

in early 2008 due to the declining health of license holder Billy Hugh Williams. The station reported to the FCC that it had been on and off the air for various periods from that time through 2012 but that normal operation was resumed in June 2012. The station was sporadically on and off carrying NOAA weather Radio and generic music. The station's license expired on August 1, 2020. However the station was back on even though its license had expired for a few weeks but is now silent. Effective October 5, 2015, WCTA's license was assigned to Robert Davis' Alamo Media LLC in exchange for forgiveness of a debt of $43,500. Its license expired August 1, 2020.Public Notice: Radio License Expirations
,

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 ...

. July 15, 2020. Retrieved August 3, 2020.

References

External links

Facility details for Facility ID 23305 (WCTA)
in the FCC Licensing and Management System
FCC History Cards for WCTA
(covering 1978-1981) {{Daytime-only radio stations in Tennessee CTA Radio stations established in 1983 Crockett County, Tennessee CTA Defunct radio stations in the United States Radio stations disestablished in 2020 2020 disestablishments in Tennessee CTA 1983 establishments in Tennessee