WEKV (FM)
WEKV is a K-Love owned-and-operated radio station that is licensed to Central City, Kentucky, United States. The station serves the Central City, Owensboro, Kentucky, and Evansville, Indiana areas. The station is currently owned by Educational Media Foundation, the owner of the K-Love radio network.
The station's transmitter is located along U.S. Highway 231 in northwestern Ohio County near Pleasant Ridge, located along the Ohio-Daviess County line.
History
The early years as an FM simulcast and first format change
On, November 2, 1955, Muhlenberg Broadcasting Company, the original owner of WNES-AM, was granted a construction permit by the FCC to launch an FM radio service. Over a year later, the station signed on the air as WNES-FM on December 18, 1956. From the beginning and throughout the station's ownership with Muhlenberg Broadcasting Company and its successors, the station has maintained shared facilities with WNES-AM and the Greenville Leader-News newspaper, located on Everly Brothers Boulevard on the west side of Central City. For WNES-FM's first 24 years and four months on the air, it was as a simulcast of its AM sister station. This ended on April 23, 1980, when the station became a separate entity and started broadcasting an easy listening format.First Hot AC attempt and Country format (1981–1993)
On December 1, 1981, the station increased its transmitter power to 50,000 watts, and switched to a Hot AC format and changed the call letters to WKYA. The radio station employed local radio talent during this period and experienced a great deal of success. However, head-to-head competition with "Hot AC" giant WSTO, based at that time in Owensboro, took its toll on the station. After a slow down in listenership and sales, "KY-102" ceased to exist and it changed its format to country music sometime during the 1989–90 winter season. From that point on, it called itself "K-Country KY-102". This was successful for a period of time until another Owensboro station, in this case being WBKR, clamped down on the market by increasing the effective radiated power on their transmitter in southern Daviess County near the community of Utica.New Hot AC era and increased power (1993–2013)
On February 23, 1993, WKYA discontinued their country format and changed the call letters to WQXQ. Along with the new callsign, the station built a new transmission tower in northwestern Ohio County near Pleasant Ridge; its signal was previously broadcast from the WNES transmission tower at the studio. Once the station began broadcasting on the new tower, it returned to its previous "Hot AC" style format; this time featuring a local talent in the mornings only and then satellite powered broadcast for the rest of the day. The new format and the new tower also came with the increase of power to 100,000 watts for the purpose to have the station focus on the Owensboro area but still serve their original broadcast area. In 1996, the WKYA callsign was reassigned to its Greenville-licensed sister station, a country station broadcasting at 105.5 MHz, which also shared studios with WNES and WQXQ since that station's 1981 sign-on.After being branded as "Q-101.9 FM" for a time during the mid and late-2000s, the station's branding changed to "Q-102" around 2011, and the format was changed to a CHR/Top 40 format, which mostly included new music.