WTAX's first license was granted on October 11, 1923, to the Williams Hardware Company in
Streator, Illinois. The call letters were randomly assigned by the government from a sequential list of available
call signs. It was initially on 1300 kHz, with a power of 20 watts. In mid-1927 the station was reassigned to 930 kHz. Following the establishment of the
Federal Radio Commission (FRC), stations were initially issued a series of temporary authorizations starting on May 3, 1927. In addition, they were informed that if they wanted to continue operating, they needed to file a formal license application by January 15, 1928, as the first step in determining whether they met the new "public interest, convenience, or necessity" standard. On May 25, 1928, the FRC issued
General Order 32, which notified 164 stations, including WTAX, that "From an examination of your application for future license it does not find that public interest, convenience, or necessity would be served by granting it." However, the station successfully convinced the commission that it should remain licensed. On November 11, 1928, with the implementation of the
Federal Radio Commission's
General Order 40, WTAX was moved to 1210 kHz. The station relocated to Springfield in late 1930. On March 29, 1941 most stations on 1210 kHz, including WTAX, moved to 1240 kHz, under the provisions of the
North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement. In 1948, WTAX added an FM station, broadcasting at 103.7 MHz, WTAX-FM. That station is now
WDBR. Recently, co-owned 93.9 FM has taken the WTAX-FM call letters to simulcast the news/talk programming on 1240 AM. Programming was previously also broadcast on 107.5 FM, over translator station
W298AP, which once served as a second signal for sister
adult hits station
WABZ. The W298AP simulcast lasted until January 31, 2017, when W298AP switched to oldies, now simulcasting
WDBR's HD3 subchannel. ==Previous logos==