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Art Gilliam - WLOK editorial in the CA

R

radiosaur

There's a short editorial about WLOK in the paper today. WLOK is one of the often overlooked gems in Memphis radio history.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/editorials/article/0,2845,MCA_25348_5354988,00.html

But it says Gilliam "made WLOK the city's first black-owned (and, for that matter, locally owned) radio station."

Is that right? Wasn't WDIA owned by Sonderling at the time? Wasn't that minority owned or am I just getting old(er)?

Edit: On second thought, I think I'm just getting older. I think Sonderling was from Europe.
 
Wdia started by john pepper and later purchased by egmont sonderling and he was not black. He was in oak park, il and owned station there and others. At one time it was owned by ragen henry and that was the only black ownership of that station but it was not very long.  I think viacom sold it to henry for tax cirtificate. I dont know or remember when clear chan got it or from who but was some complex swap deal.

At some point,  there was thought of swapping channels between wmps and wdia but idea was abandoned.  one of them has better signal at night if i recall correctly.
 
radionekkid said:
Wdia started by john pepper and later purchased by egmont sonderling and he was not black. He was in oak park, il and owned station there and others. At one time it was owned by ragen henry and that was the only black ownership of that station but it was not very long. I think viacom sold it to henry for tax cirtificate. I dont know or remember when clear chan got it or from who but was some complex swap deal.

At some point, there was thought of swapping channels between wmps and wdia but idea was abandoned. one of them has better signal at night if i recall correctly.
Click to expand...

You are right...it was Henry I was thinking of....and 680 has a marginally better nightime signal, although they are both 5KW and similar patterns.
 
IIRC, WDIA in the 50s was at 730 on the dial with only a daytime license. they were losing people at night to WLOK and WHBQ, and in the early 60s moved to 730, with KSUD taking that frequency.

Before that you would have folks listening to Rufus Thomas in the daytime and Dewey Phillips at night.
 
"they were losing people at night to WLOK and WHBQ"


WLOK was also a daytimer until 1963. They were at 1480. Moved to 1340 after WHHM went out of business. WDIA moved to 1070 a few years before. So they were on at night before WLOK.
 
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