Silent Station History: WKYD

AM History Profile: WKYD

History:

Early on the calls were WCTA-AM (CovingTon Andalusia) and it was on 1340 instead of 920. It signed on in 1946 as Andalusia's first station. It was first managed and later owned by J. Dige Bishop, who went on to start several other stations in the region. In 1951 they got an FM counterpart, with the same calls. By the late 50's was on 920 kHz with the WCTA calls. In 1976, the station changed calls to WKYD and format to middle of the road when it was acquired by a new owner. In 1980, the station became known as "The Entertainer", with a mixture of music. The format didn't seem to last, because in the early 80's the station went country. The FM simulcast the AM when it had a CHR format in the mid 80's. In 1988 the FM companion to this station was sold and moved out of Andalusia a bit to better serve Ft. Walton Beach and Pensacola. Eventually, WKYD began to simulcast the FM station, which was playing oldies as 98.1 "The Surf". In the early 1990's WKYD became a news/talk station. AM 920 was then sold to WAAO, which moved its studios into the WKYD building (built in the 60's for what was then WCTA-AM!)

WKYD had three towers at one point; it was directional at night. Later it went non-directional with lower power. Then one of the towers was taken down. After that Hurricane Opel took down the one the station was using. Finally, a four-lane bypass road meant the demise of the last tower. The station went dark for a while in the late 90's.

This station's record has been deleted, and it was reported silent in May of 2009. The station's making way for WEZZ, which is moving from Monroeville to Brantley. Before going off air, the station was licensed for 5,000 watts day, 40 watts night, and featured news, sports and talk programming.