790 AM in Louisville was originally WGRC, and featured a variety of programming, typical of radio in the pre-rock era. In 1958, broadcaster
Gordon McLendon, a
Top 40 radio pioneer best known for
KLIF in
Dallas, Texas, purchased WGRC. After stunting with the novelty record "
The Purple People Eater", WGRC became WAKY on July 7, 1958, and immediately shot to the top of the Louisville ratings as the market's first Top 40 music station. WAKY (known affectionately to its listeners as "Wacky") competed with 1080 AM
WKLO during the 1960s and 1970s, with WAKY usually being the dominant station of the two. The station's popular personalities included Bill Bailey ("The Duke of Louisville"), Dude Walker,
Gary Burbank (later of
CKLW,
WHAS, and
WLW), Mason Lee Dixon, and the late Bert Markert (known on the air as "Weird Beard"). The station solidified its mass appeal by playing a great deal of
country and R&B product mixed in with the mainstream pop and rock, owing to the large audiences for both genres of music in the Louisville market and the lack of a 24-hour R&B/soul station at the time (1350
WLOU, the area's primary
black-oriented station, was a daytimer). Having lost listeners during the 1970s to FM rock stations such as
WQMF and
WLRS, WAKY softened its music format to a more
adult contemporary sound in 1978, declaring, "The station you grew up with has grown up with you." This was followed by format changes to
oldies in 1982, to automated
beautiful music in June 1986, to automated
country music, back to adult contemporary in March 1988 as WVEZ (dropping the heritage WAKY calls to reflect its simulcast with
106.9 FM), to
classic country in August 1989 as WWKY, and then to a
talk radio format in February 1991. On May 10, 2001, WWKY changed to the sports-talk format as 'WXXA ("Xtra Sports 790") before changing to the WKRD calls. Sports programming that airs on WKRD includes
NASCAR Sprint Cup,
Xfinity Series and
Truck Series, and
Cincinnati Bengals football. From August 2007 to February 2022,
Louisville football and
men's basketball have aired on WKRD when their games conflicted with
University of Kentucky football and
men's basketball on
WHAS radio. On April 16, 2007, WKRD began simulcasting on WKRD-FM 101.7 (formerly WLPP).
Cincinnati Reds games were broadcast on AM 790, before they were moved to 101.7 in favor of
Louisville Bats games.
University of Louisville sports were broadcast on AM 790, before they were moved to 93.9 FM and 970 AM. On January 5, 2023, WKRD was rebranded as "SportsTalk 790AM". This aligned with several programming moves consolidating Louisville's sports talk programming on the station, including the popular
Kentucky Sports Radio show, which had spent the past decade on sister station WKJK. In March 2024, WKRD was announced as the primary carrier of
Racing Louisville FC's
National Women's Soccer League broadcasts. ==References==