WKLS (105.9 FM, "Rock 105.9") 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 ...

broadcasting a

mainstream rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent a cross between classic rock, active rock and alternativ ...

format. Licensed to Southside, Alabama, United States, it serves East Alabama including Gadsden, Anniston and Pell City. Named 2015 Radio Station of the Year by the Alabama Broadcasters Association on March 21, 2015, the station is owned by Williams Communications, Inc.

Programming

On-air personalities include Hurricane Shane in the mornings; Lori Ray in the afternoon; Jason Bozeman and "The School of Rock" for your drive home. Weekend programming included normal rotation with weekend personality "Slyder" until his death from a seizure and heart attack on April 6, 2009. News reports are provided by ABC News and Yellowhammer News for local news with Jay Holland. WKLS offers a wide variety of rock from today's artists and includes both Active and Indie rock into their format.

History

The station was assigned the WFXO call letters by the

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 j ...

on March 4,

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, and on October 2, 2012, changed their call letters to the current WKLS. The station moved from Centre, Alabama to Southside, Alabama on August 20, 2013. The WKLS

broadcast callsign Broadcast call signs are call signs assigned as unique identifiers to radio stations and television stations. While broadcast radio stations will often brand themselves with plain-text names, identities such as " cool FM", " rock 105" or "the AB ...

was considered a heritage in the neighboring

metro Atlanta Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell metropolitan statistical area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the sixt ...

radio market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

to the east, where it was assigned to "96 Rock", later named "Project 9-6-1" (now

WWPW WWPW (105.3 FM, "Power 105-3") is an Atlanta contemporary hit radio station. The station's transmitter is located in Newnan, Georgia and targets metro Atlanta, also covering its city of license of Bowdon, Georgia. It is owned by iHeartMedia ...

FM 96.1, "Power 96-1") for over three decades from the 1970s until the late 2012. The WKLS

callsign 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 assi ...

stands for the initials of the founding owners:

Don Kennedy Donald J. Kennedy (March 2, 1930 – June 29, 2023) was an American radio and television personality and voice talent, whose career began in the late 1940s with a radio announcer spot on Pennsylvania station WPIC. Career In the mid-1950s, Ken ...

, James Lathom, and Arthur Swan ("K", "L", and "S"). They formed the station in 1960 with a $25,000 investment, selling it ten years later for $750,000.

References

External links

* * * KLS Mainstream rock radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1993 Cherokee County, Alabama 1993 establishments in Alabama {{Alabama-radio-station-stub