WKLA is an AM radio station owned by Todd Mohr, through licensee Synergy Media, Inc. It broadcasts from

Ludington, Michigan Ludington ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat and the largest city in Mason County, Michigan, Mason County. The population was 7,655 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the fourth largest city i ...

. It airs

Westwood One Westwood One, Inc. is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1976. The co ...

Good Time Oldies Good Time Oldies is a 24-hour music format offered to local radio stations across the country that was originally produced by Jones Radio Networks. After the sales of Jones Radio Networks to Dial Global in 2008, the format was absorbed into D.G.`s ...

format and can be heard in a very small area around Ludington and Scottville. In late 2013 and early 2014, WKLA added two FM translators to extend its reach, 92.7 W224CA in Ludington (formerly a rebroadcaster of sister station WWKR) and 107.9 W300CG in Manistee (which has since moved to a different frequency and is simulcasting WKLA's sister station WMLQ). 92.7 covers a larger coverage area than 1450 AM. WKLA is also the home of Manistee Chippewas football and basketball despite the 1450 signal not reaching Manistee itself. As of September 2016, the station is airing the news/talk programming of sister station

WLDN WLDN is an FM radio station owned by Synergy Media and is licensed to Ludington, Michigan. WLDN broadcasts from studios in Ludington, Michigan along with sister stations WKLA, WKLA-FM, WKZC, WMLQ, and WWKR. It runs a news/talk/sports format ...

98.7 FM on an assumed temporary basis pending retuning and installation of a new antenna for WLDN, as the latter's previous antenna was used to put WKLA-FM on the air on 96.3. In February 2017, WLDN returned to the air on 98.7 FM, allowing WKLA and W224CA to resume the oldies format.

History

The AM station went on the air on October 8, 1944, originally housed on the second floor of the

Masonic Temple A Masonic Temple or Masonic Hall is, within Freemasonry, the room or edifice where a Masonic Lodge meets. Masonic Temple may also refer to an abstract spiritual goal and the conceptual ritualistic space of a meeting. Development and history I ...

in downtown Ludington.

Karl L. Ashbacher Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl of Austria, last Austrian Emperor * Karl (footballer) (born 1993), Karl Cach ...

was the original owner, with his initials being the original basis for the

call letters 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 Identifier, unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be fo ...

. (Previously the family had operated WKBZ in Ludington from 1926 to 1934, moving it to

Muskegon, Michigan Muskegon ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Muskegon County, Michigan, United States. Situated around a harbor of Lake Michigan, Muskegon is known for fishing, sailing regattas, and boating. It is the most populous city along Lake Michigan' ...

in the latter year.) In 1945 the WKLA studio moved to the Ludington Chamber of Commerce office at 204 E. Ludington Avenue. Raymond A. Plank purchased the station in 1949. In 1951, the station was moved to its current site at 5941 W. US 10 in Ludington. In 1971, WKLA expanded its programming with WKLA-FM. Programming on WKLA for many years consisted of full service MOR programming and

adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...

. WKLA-FM spent much of its programming day simulcasting the AM signal before introducing a separate

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 ...

format around 1980, which it has retained since. Talk programming was introduced in the late 1990s, and the station soon went all talk prior to the switch to oldies in 2010. Other past owners of WKLA include Tom Plank and Chickering & Associates. In 1996, the station was purchased by Roger Baerwolf under the corporate name of Lake Michigan Broadcasting, Inc. Until July 2012, the company owned and operated WKLA AM/FM, WMTE AM/ FM (Manistee) and

WKZC WKZC (94.9 FM) is a United States radio station broadcasting a country music format. Licensed to Scottville, Michigan, the Federal Communications Commission assigned the call letters of WKZC on June 21, 1982. WKZC (KZ 96) took to the air February ...

-FM (Scottville). In June 2012, it was announced that Lake Michigan Broadcasting was selling all of its Ludington/Manistee stations to Synergy Media, which already owned and operated WWKR in Hart and WMLQ in Manistee. Synergy assumed control of the stations the following month and began simulcasting WKLA's programming on WMTE-FM. On June 19, 2013, the licenses involved were transferred to Synergy Media at a price of $580,000. Former translator W300CG now operates on 107.7 FM as W299CB, rebroadcasting sister station WWMN.

Previous logo

(WKLA's logo under previous talk format)

References

Michiguide.com - WKLA History

External links

* * * * {{coord, 43, 57, 05, N, 86, 25, 28, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title KLA (AM) Oldies radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1944 1944 establishments in Michigan Mason County, Michigan