WDIA went on the air June 7, 1947, from studios on Union Avenue. The owners, John Pepper and Bert Ferguson, were both white, and the format was a mix of
country and western and
light pop, as well as "
homemaker shows", network shows and
block programming that included
soap operas and
classical music. The original frequency was 730 kHz. The station did not do well until Ferguson learned about "targeted programming" and realized there was one audience in Memphis no other radio station served. Half of the listeners who could hear WDIA's signal were African-American, and WDIA hired the first black
disk jockey in the South.
Nat D. Williams, a
syndicated columnist and high-school teacher, started
Tan Town Jubilee on October 25, 1948. This was one of the first radio programs in the United States to appeal to black listeners. In June 1954, WDIA was licensed to increase its power from 250 to 50,000 watts, which meant moving to 1070 kHz. Its powerful signal reached the
Mississippi Delta’s dense African-American population and was heard from the
Missouri Bootheel to the Gulf Coast. WDIA reached 10% of the African-American population in the United States. Future WJLB strong jock, Martha Jean "The Queen" Steinberg became known as "Princess Premium Stuff". Ernest Brazzell gave crop advice, and Robert Thomas became a DJ named “Honeyboy” after he won a citywide amateur competition. Among other notable personalities were Maurice "Hot Rod" Hulbert, Theo "Bless My Bones" Wade, and Ford Nelson, who continued as of 2013 as an active gospel DJ on WDIA. Originally, the fund provided transportation to school for disabled black children. Later the fund expanded to include college scholarships, establish boy clubs, provide 125 Little League Teams to Memphis and neighboring communities, and help provide low cost supplemental housing (Wilson). "We have raised over $900,000 over the years," A.C. Williams says. Many
music legends got their start by working at WDIA, including
B.B. King and
Rufus Thomas.
Elvis Presley was greatly influenced by the station. B.B. King joined WDIA in early 1949. He had a daily 15-minute show, promoting first a
patent medicine called Pep-Ti-Kon, and later
Lucky Strike cigarettes, the first major advertiser for the station. The next year, he took a DJ position on an afternoon show previously hosted by Maurice "Hot Rod" Hulbert. King credits his days on the station for building his audience and launching his career, describing the station as providing a sense of freedom. In addition, he contributed to the redevelopment of
Beale Street and
Soulsville, USA. In the 1970s and 1980s, the owners of WDIA also owned
KDIA, a similarly formatted station in the
San Francisco Bay Area. This callsign, however, is now assigned to an unrelated
Christian-programmed station. In 1996,
Clear Channel Communications, since rebranded as iHeartMedia, bought WDIA. In 2020 the
Beale Street Historic District and the WDIA radio station were added from Memphis to the
United States Civil Rights Trail. ==See also==