WHKY (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 ...

Hickory, North Carolina Hickory is a city in western North Carolina primarily located in Catawba County, North Carolina, Catawba County. The List of municipalities in North Carolina, 25th most populous city in the state, it is located approximately northwest of Charlot ...

. The station is owned by WHKY, LLC, and broadcasts 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 Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

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 ...

. The

radio studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for recording and mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enough to record a single sin ...

s and offices are on Main Avenue SE in Hickory. By day, WHKY is powered at 50,000

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, the maximum for AM stations. But to protect other stations on

AM 1290 The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1290 kHz: 1290 AM is a Regional broadcast frequency In Argentina * Interactiva in Ciudad Madero * LRI371 Amanecer in Reconquista, Santa Fe * LRJ212 Murialdo in Guaymallén, Mendoza * ...

, it greatly reduces power at night to 1,000 watts. It uses 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 ...

at all times. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on Tate Boulevard SE at 20th Street SE in Hickory. Programming is also heard on

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 ...

W272DU at 102.3

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 ...

Programming

WHKY begins each weekday with a two-hour talk and information show, "First Talk," hosted by Hal Row. The rest of the weekday schedule comes mostly from

nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...

conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

shows: Mike Gallagher, The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show,

Sean Hannity Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American conservative television presenter, broadcaster and writer. He hosts ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a radio syndication, nationally syndicated talk radio show, has hosted a Hannity, sel ...

Mark Levin Mark Reed Levin (; born September 21, 1957) is an American broadcast news analyst, columnist, lawyer, political commentator, radio personality, and writer. He is the host of syndicated radio show '' The Mark Levin Show'', as well as '' Life, ...

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 ...

Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an Radio in the United States, American Sports radio, sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports ...

and ''

Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 198 ...

with

George Noory George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American talk radio, radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is radio syndication, syndicated to ...

''. Weekends feature

Kim Komando Kimberly Ann Komando (born July 1, 1967) is an American radio personality and the host of two daily radio shows and one weekend radio show about consumer technology. On her weekly call-in show, she provides advice about technology gadgets, websi ...

, '' Somewhere in Time with Art Bell'' and repeats of weekday programs. WHKY is also affiliated with

Motor Racing Network Motor Racing Network (MRN) is an American radio network that syndicates broadcasts of auto racing events, particularly NASCAR. MRN was founded in 1970 by NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. and broadcaster Ken Squier, and is a wholly owned subsidiary ...

Performance Racing Network The Performance Racing Network or PRN for short is a radio syndication network controlled by Speedway Motorsports (SMI) founded in 1981. PRN airs NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series events held at Speedway Motorsports owned tracks. PRN fi ...

and the Indy Radio Network providing NASCAR racing coverage, as well as select Indy Car Series events when in season. Also, on Fridays when in season, WHKY airs Hickory High School

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and girls and boys varsity basketball. Weekdays, WHKY has local news at 15 and 45 past the hour from 6:45 to 8:45am, 12 noon, 3 and 5pm. Local sports is provided at 7:45 and 8:45am and 3 and 5pm. News at the top of each hour is provided by

Fox News Radio Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. History In 2003, ...

. WHKY is also affiliated with the

North Carolina News Network The North Carolina News Network (sometimes called NCNN) is a news and information service established in 1942. It provides programming to approximately 75 radio stations, primarily in the state of North Carolina, and can also be heard by Internet st ...

. Until 2023, the station was co-owned with WHKY-TV (channel 14, now

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

station

WWJS WWJS (channel 14) is a religious television station licensed to Hickory, North Carolina, United States, owned and operated by the Sonlife Broadcasting Network. It serves the northwestern corner of the Charlotte media market, a region locally r ...

). WHKY radio is

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

via that station's

second audio program Second audio program (SAP), also known as secondary audio programming, is an auxiliary audio channel for analog television that can be broadcast or transmitted both over-the-air and by cable television. Used mostly for audio description or ot ...

, effectively bringing its reach across the Charlotte metro through that simulcast.

History

On June 10, 1940, the station first

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, getting equipment was difficult, but Ed Long put together the WHKY transmitter with the help of a mule and plow. The station signed on in 1940, broadcasting from the Hotel Hickory. In the 1950s, it moved to the Elliott-Carnegie Library. Tom Long, Ed Long's son, supervised the station's daytime signal boost from 5,000 to 50,000 watts in 2003, as well as the construction of a new building. Jeff Long, representing the third generation of Longs, was station manager. In 1987, WHKY ended its music programming and went with an all talk format. WHKY aired

Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast ''News and Comment'' on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous ''The Rest o ...

's ''News and Comment'' segments prior to his death in 2009. WHKY was a charter station of ''

The Rush Limbaugh Show ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'' was an American conservative talk radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh. Since its nationally syndicated premiere in 1988, ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'' became the highest-rated talk radio show in the United States. At i ...

'' and aired the show through his death until

Premiere Networks Premiere Networks, Inc. (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. It is th ...

debuted ''The

Clay Travis Richard Clay Travis (born April 6, 1979) is an American writer, lawyer, radio host and television analyst, and founder of ''OutKick''. As a political commentator, he and Buck Sexton host ''The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show'', a three-hour we ...

and Buck Sexton Show'' four months after his passing.

References

External links

FCC History Cards for WHKY
{{coord, 35, 43, 35, N, 81, 18, 02, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title HKY News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1940 1940 establishments in North Carolina