WEOA (1400
AM) is a
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 to and serving the
Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is Indiana's List of cities in Indiana, third-most populous city after India ...
market. The transmitter is located near the interchange of I-69 and Weinbach Avenue in Evansville.
History
1400 AM originally was WEOA (Evansville On the Air) then changed to WROZ, a Top 40 station in the 1960s with top personalities such as Charlie Shoe, Jack Etzel, Mark Clark, Steve Walling, and Johnny Carr, and
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 ...
in the 1970s and 1980s with top personalities: Tiny Hughes and Jim Embry. After WROZ left, 1400 became a simulcast of then WJPS-FM (now
WLFW
WLFW is a Southern gospel-formatted radio station located in Johnston, South Carolina, and is part of the Augusta, Georgia, radio market (mostly on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River). The station is licensed by the Federal Communicat ...
93.5).
In 1997, a group of African American investors approached
South Central Communications
South Central Communications, d.b.a. South Central Incorporated, is a privately owned company based in Evansville, Indiana. It is owned and operated by the Engelbrecht family, which includes John D. Engelbrecht (President and CEO), JP Engelbrecht ...
about leasing the frequency for an
urban contemporary
Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary r ...
format. South Central agreed. For 10 years, WEOA would be the only urban station in the Evansville area until August 2007 when CHR/Pop
WDKS
WDKS (106.1 FM) is a Class A radio station licensed to Newburgh, Indiana and serving Evansville, Indiana. They are owned by Townsquare Media, which acquired the station from Clear Channel Communications in 2003.
WDKS broadcasts in HD.http://h ...
shifted to Urban. The
local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...
with BLS Entertainment
lasted until 2009, when BLS bought the station outright for $175,000.
On March 19, 2018, WEOA changed its format from urban adult contemporary to urban contemporary, branded as "98.5 WEOA".
WEOA Flips to Hip Hop
Radioinsight - March 19, 2018
Current programming
WEOA runs the ABC Radio's syndicated Tom Joyner
Thomas Joyner (born November 23, 1949) is an American radio personality, host, philanthropist and former musician. Joyner is the former host of the nationally syndicated '' The Tom Joyner Morning Show'', and also founder of Reach Media Inc., the ...
Morning Show and the ABC Touch Urban AC feed, although they do locally program some hours of hip hop
Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
, notably on Friday and Saturday nights.
See also
*WROZ
WROZ (101.3 MHz) is a non-commercial FM radio station licensed to Lancaster and serving South Central Pennsylvania. The station is owned and operated by the Educational Media Foundation and carries its Air1 Christian worship music radio form ...
References
External links
FCC History Cards for WEOA
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Urban contemporary radio stations in the United States
EOA
Radio stations established in 1936
1936 establishments in Indiana
{{Indiana-radio-station-stub