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A 50,000 Watt Giant Turns 100 On Monday, July 18th
If you've done any dial spinning after dark, you know the station at 840 AM. It's WHAS Louisville, one of the great all time 50,000-watt powerhouses in North America. It officially turns 100 on Monday, July 18th and reaches 40 states and a lot of Canada at night. On air celebrations are planned for the big day if you get a chance to listen online.
840 WHAS Celebrates 100 Years of Service
Many here may remember the all-night host, the late, great Joe Donovan, one of the very last people to play oldies by request all night. He had quite a following and when his show finally disappeared from the airwaves, it took an entire generation of old-style broadcasting with it.
Dale Patterson's always great Rock Radio Scrapbook has an aircheck of one of Donovan's last shows on the station and if you listen to it, you'll likely agree they don't do it like this anymore.
The Joe Donovan Page
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Re: A 50,000 Watt Giant Turns 100 On Monday, July 18th
I was listening to them Monday morning, and they featured vintage airchecks and news moments from the station's 100-year history. Sounds like they actually saved a lot of stuff, unlike other radio outlets celebrating a century.
My favourite story so far - WHAS didn't sign on until 7:30 PM on July 18, 1922, and they found logbooks that indicated the engineer in charge of getting them on the air for the first time was still hammering on the equipment in a frenzy about 10 minutes before the station signed on!
Proving, if nothing else, that some things never change.
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Thread Starter- mace
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Re: A 50,000 Watt Giant Turns 100 On Monday, July 18th
What I found interesting was the reason Joe Donovans overnight oldies show was cancelled. Advertising revenue from the show wouldn't cover the costs of the music licencing fees required by BMI and ASCAP.