Welcome to LKYRadio - Classic Lexington, Kentucky Radio

630 WLAP-AM
WLAP Photos \| WLAP 1960s DJs \| WLAP Airchecks \| WLAP Jingles
WLAP-AM History By Scott Wills WLAP is the oldest station in Kentucky. Their history is perhaps the vaguest of all of them to me, however. WLAP started out as the first station in Kentucky in June, 1922. It beat out WHAS in Louisville by a few months. They had studios in the old Nunn Building downtown for several years (a breaker panel in the basement still listed some distinctly broadcasting labels as late as 1987), and a suite on Upper Street in downtown Lexington. They completed the move to their transmitter site in 1974. Their facility there has a distinctive Cold War look to it. Of course, they are the Primary EBS, now EAS, station in Lexington. They were the first in town with a generator to broadcast their signal when power was out, which was a good thing on April 3, 1974 when tornadoes swept through Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Their broadcasts that night were the only link to the outside world for many people. WLAP-AM utilized a Gates BC-5F transmitter into their 4 tower, DA-1 pattern. The typical 5KW day/1 KW night license. Their nulls were deep, but not as deep as WVLK, where at one point, you could see the towers but not hear their nighttime signal. Sometime in the mid 1970's, they were the first in Lexington to install automatic transmitter reading apparatus and switched to a Harris MW-5 transmitter also. More WLAP History \| WLAP 1960s DJs
Know anything more about this station? Have any WLAP-AM airchecks, photos or promotional material? Drop us a line.
WLAP Photos

Two WLAP programmers from the station's early days in Louisville: William Farris and Vivian Adams

WLAP gets some ink in 1929.

WLAP singers Betty Leonard and Miller Hass

Carl Zoller's Melodists (circa 1929)

WLAP Airstaff in the mid '60s Bottom row: Jim Allison, John Duvall, Hal Kemp, Nick Clooney Middle row: Reynolds Large, Fred Gooding, Herb Kent Top row: Don Duckworth, Gomer the Frog, Dale Green, Billy Love

WLAP Chief Engineer Lewis Owens	Jack Pattie in the WLAP-AM control room

Dan Reynolds programs the WLAP-FM automation system

WLAP's "Radio Park" on Russell Cave Road

WLAP Airchecks
1962 Aircheck Snippets (Unknown Announcers) 2:10 - 765 KB
Billy Love (1964 #1) 4:25 - 1555 KB
Billy Love (1964 #2) 4:09 - 1463 KB
WLAP 1964 Newscasts 7:33 - 2658 KB
Billy Love (1966) 12:24 - 4360 KB
Herb Oscar Kent (1966) 18:48 - 6613 KB
Herb Oscar Kent (1968) 7:05 - 2495 KB
Herb Oscar Kent's Last Night Show (1969) 29:10 - 10,256 KB
News, Traffic and Commercials Montage (Date Unknown) 2:56 - 1037 KB
Reynolds Large (1970) 4:22 - 1535 KB
Bill Crisp's Undoing (1970) :28 - 167 KB The quality on this brief aircheck is a little "iffy" but you can clearly hear the non-PC remark that cost morning man Bill Crisp his WLAP gig.
Al Risen (July 3,1971) 44:11 - 15,534 KB
Jason Williams (August 6, 1971) 40:15 - 14,154 KB
Herb Oscar Kent Top 1000 Finale (1972) 4:16 - 1501 KB
Herb Oscar Kent Phone Interview with Lily Tomlin (1972) 4:52 - 1715 KB
WLAP 1972 Sign-On Announcement :23 - 142 KB
Dave White Commentline Promo (Date Unknown) :30 - 179 KB
Ron Lake (1972 #1) 4:15 - 1498 KB
Ron Lake (1972 #2) 7:17 - 2562 KB
Ron Lake (1972 #3) 7:29 - 2634 KB
Herb Oscar Kent (1973) 5:26 - 1914 KB
Jason Williams (1973) 7:53 - 2774 KB
Ron Lake (1973) 6:28 - 2277 KB
Rob Kennington (1974) 3:09 - 1109 KB
John Egan (1975) 3:51 - 1356 KB
Herb Oscar Kent (July 1983) 9:09 - 3220 KB
Stephanie Markoo (1984) 26:20 - 9260 KB

WLAP Jingles
WLAP CRC Jingles 8:09 - 3824 KB
WLAP Ullman Powerhouse Jingles 12:08 - 5692 KB
WLAP Gwinsound Jingles 5:29 - 2574 KB For more information on Gwinsound jingles, go to the Gwinsound Website.
All audio is in downloadable MP3 format.