WENK is an AM

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 ...

based in northwest

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. In its first incarnation, WENK

1240 Year 1240 ( MCCXL) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * May 24 – Duke Skule Bårdsson, claimant to the Norwegian throne, is defeated by King Haakon IV (the Old) and his supporters. ...

went on the air with 250 watts day and night from the upstairs of a furniture store on October 26, 1946. WTPR

710 __NOTOC__ Year 710 ( DCCX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 710 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europ ...

went on the air with 250 watts daytime from the second floor of a building on the square in downtown

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1947. Both were owned by the Dixie Network of

Jackson, Tennessee Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Tennessee, United States. Located east of Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis and 130 Miles Southwest of Nashville, it is a regional center of trade for West Tennessee. Its total population wa ...

. and had at the time a variety format. WENK featured the talents of people like Hank Huggins and Lou Wrather during the early days. WTPR was home to future Nashville star Ralph Emery and future

WPSD-TV WPSD-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Paducah, Kentucky, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for Western Kentucky's Jackson Purchase region, Southern Illinois, the Missouri Bootheel, and northwest Tennessee. Own ...

newsman Dan Steele. WENK caught the Rock and Roll bug in 1956 and for the most part remained a popular music or Top 40 station until WWKF took that format in 1982. John Dixon Williams, a future WPSD-TV newsman and general manager was an early star. WTPR continued to play a variety of music over the years. WENK increased its power to 1,000 watts in the early 1960s and WTPR was able to increase its power to 1000 watts daytime as well. During this period personalities like J. R. Moore and Ed Taylor were heard on WENK, along with Jolly George and John True. WTPR featured Bill McCutcheon. The late Gary Powley who worked at WTPR in the 1990s and until his death in 2005 actually got his start at WENK in 1968. Present day President and General Manager Terry Hailey followed Gary Powley at WENK in 1968 and has been with the station ever since. Cindy Snyder was one of the driving forces behind WTPR in the 1980s and 1990s. Joe Van Dyke was long time general manager at WTPR for the Dixie Network.

Station information

WENK purchased WTPR in 1989. WTPR then adopted WENK's

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

format which continues today. WTWL, Dover/McKinnon, was added in 1994 with callsign changed to WTPR-FM. The station was on 101.5, but changed to 101.7 in June 2005. WENK, WTPR and WTPR-FM are now a three-way simulcast of ‘The Greatest Hits of All Time’ and are on AM1240, AM710 and FM101.7. The stations can be heard in southeast

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, northeast

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

...and all across northwest

and southwest

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

from

Reelfoot Lake Reelfoot Lake is a shallow natural lake located in the northwest portion of the U.S. state of Tennessee, in Lake and Obion Counties. Much of it is swamp-like, with bayou-like ditches (some natural, some man-made) connecting more open bodies of wat ...

Kentucky Lake Kentucky Lake is a major navigable river, navigable reservoir along the Tennessee River in Kentucky and Tennessee. It was created in 1944 by the Tennessee Valley Authority's impounding of the Tennessee River via Kentucky Dam for flood control a ...

to Clarksville. Their sister stations WWGY and WRQR-FM (KF99/KQ105) play contemporary hit music or

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 ...

, the format they took from WENK in 1982. Effective December 28, 2016, WENK of Union City sold WENK, WTPR, WTPR-FM, WAKQ, and WWKF to Forever Communications for $500,000.

Sister stations

* WWGY 99.3:

Fulton, Kentucky Fulton is a home rule-class city in Fulton County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,357 at the 2020 census, down from 2,445 at the 2010 census. It was once known as the "Banana Capital of the World", because 70% of imported ban ...

Union City, Tennessee Union City is a city in and the county seat of Obion County, Tennessee, United States. 11,170 people were living in the town as of the 2020 census. It is the principal urban settlement of the surrounding micropolitan area, which includes Obion Cou ...

* WRQR-FM 105.5:

Paris, Tennessee Paris is a city in and the county seat of Henry County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 10,316. A replica of the Eiffel Tower stands in the southern part of Paris. History The present site of Par ...

References

External links

WENK official websiteForever Communications Website
* * * ENK Oldies radio stations in the United States ENK Radio stations established in 1946 Radio stations established in 1947 Radio stations established in 1988 {{Tennessee-radio-station-stub