Technical Profile: WCKA

AM Technical Profile: WCKA

Frequency:: 810
Format:: Classic Country
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] Off CR-19 (Roy Webb Road), just north of Jacksonville, on John Turner Broadcast Blvd.
Power (ERP):: Day: 50 kW; Night: 500 watts
Antenna:: Day: 2 towers [pattern - PDF]; Night: 3 towers [pattern - PDF]
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files
[FCC]
[FCCdata.org]
[FCCInfo]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]; [Facebook]
Pictures:: [transmitter] the Continental transmitter's front panel; [transmitter] glowing tube; [host] Sonny at the helm; [towers] a view of the towers.; [towers] an alternate view of the towers.
Owned by Alabama 810 LLC (Steve Gradick)
History:: This station first signed on the air during March 1987 as WJXL, with an adult contemporary format, after roughly decade of extensions to the original construction permit. From the get-go, the station ran 50 kW during the day and 500 watts at night.

Roughly a year later, ownership changed from HMS Broadcasting of Jacksonville to Bussey-Hayes Communications, Inc; one half of this company was Bill "Bubba" Bussey of the popular Rick & Bubba Show that is syndicated throughout the south. Bussey was the general manager of the station when it came on the air. The Hayes half of the duo was likely Troi Hayes, the head sales manager at the time.

After the station fell silent, the license was transferred to Peoples Network in May of 1995 and the call sign later changed to WNSI. Under their ownership, the station came back on the air with a talk format. Less than a year later, the station's license was transferred to United Broadcasting Network, headquartered in White Springs, Florida.

The station was sold by United Broadcasting to Les Graddick's Alabama 810, LLC in the fall of 2003 for $235,000. The calls changed to WCKS in the winter of 2004, and the station flipped to its current wide-ranging country format. The calls changed again, to WCKA in November of 2006 after the company acquired an FM station in Ashland (now WCKF). After Les Gradick passed in 2019, ownership passed to his son, Steve.