In the Thursday, April 14, 1966, edition of The Cadiz Record, several headlines and top stories are scattered across the eight-column page.
At the time, the federal government had rejected the Trigg County Schools’ plan for integration, Commissioner of Commerce for Kentucky’s Katherine Peden implored for Trigg County to reconsider adding a county-wide planning program for Between the Lakes growth, and Boy Scouts of America’s Troop 57 had held a Court of Honor at the Cadiz Methodist Church for its recent Tenderfoot awardees, including Rick Clements, Craig Perry and John Leneave.
But there, in the middle top fold, reads “RADIO STATION NOW BROADCASTING IN CADIZ.”
Sixty years later, almost to the day, WKDZ 106.5 FM serves as the spine of the News Edge Media Group and stations WHVO, WEKT, WPKY and WFMW — and as a regional radio and online hubcap for news coverage spanning Trigg, Christian, Todd, Caldwell and Hopkins counties.
And often beyond.
Originally owned by the Barkley Lake Broadcasting Company, WKDZ began as a clear channel system that could, at times, be heard more than 170 miles away from Will Jackson Road — found at 1110 on the dial on 1,000-watt power.
Its nine stockholders included President Robert Meadows, Joe Clements, James Hayes, John Woodruff, Mrs. A.K. Goodwin, Mrs. Ruth Humphries, Ms. Carolyn Campbell, Mrs. Virginia Alexander and P.H. Oliver, and its staff included Manager Wilburn “Willie” Wilson, receptionist Ms. Wanda Calhoun, engineer and announcer Larry Norman, announcer David Ellis, announcer Phillip Connor and a news director in Humphries.
News Edge Owner, President & CEO Beth Mann — herself a 40-year media veteran in south western Kentucky, including 30-plus with WKDZ — recently reflected on Wilson’s belief in radio, and what it means for rural communities.
Mann also told News Edge News Director Alan Watts that leading these radio stations now is “overwhelming most days, truthfully,” but also an “incredible honor” where she remains proud of a team that rallies around, and later relays, regional news, sports and weather for constituents.
In a 1998 interview with The Paducah Sun’s C.D. Bradley, Wilson said his “Wake Up with Willie” morning show popularly ran from 1966 until 1986 because it was a “homey, home-spun show,” where they tried to act “as a sounding board” while reflecting “the mood of the community.”
Wilson went on to say that “you never know who’s been listening to the radio,” and that they “always tried to excel.” He called it a “labor of love,” and that they tried to “love everybody,” and, in fact, “thought [they] did.”
Some things don’t change.
