A Cleveland station used WJAX as its callsign in 1922 and early 1923. Broadcast channels sat mostly vacant in Jacksonville except for occasional skywave reception at night. Higher fidelity frequency modulated (FM) broadcasts here would not begin for another two decades with no local television until 1949.
Recognizing the need and value of the new broadcast radio medium, the City of Jacksonville allocated almost $20,000 to construct a studio and amplitude modulated (AM) transmitter site near First and Laura Sts., across from where Downtown Campus sits today. City Commissioner Tom Imeson lobbied for a municipal presence on the broadcast airwaves. Imeson was also a prime mover in opening Jacksonville Municipal Airport #1 in late 1927.
The new 1,000 watt WJAX broadcast station transmitting on 890 kc went on the air on Thursday, Nov. 26, 1925 from a former stable site that was used to house horses and mules. The original two-story studio and transmitter building remained in use for 46 years. The transmitter was moved to the city's Hyde Park Golf Course in west Jacksonville in 1938 following FCC approval for a large power increase and more effective antennas.
After changing frequency several times, WJAX settled on 930 kc in 1941--a channel that remains active in 2025. WJAX was the only broadcaster in town until 1934 when an itinerant operator moved his WMBR station out of Tampa.
When World War II broke out, Jacksonville only had three stations before a fourth, WPDQ, signed on in 1942. Following the war, another half-dozen broadcasters joined the chase for listeners and advertising income. Specialty formats appeared including country & western and rhythm & blues.
The city added WJAX-FM in 1949 as did WJHP, owned by publishers of the afternoon Jacksonville Journal. A year later, WMBR added a third signal to the FM band. Another decade passed before stations began attracting significant FM audiences. Operating schedules were limited and broadcasters usually just duplicated AM programming on their FM stations until FCC mandated at least partial non-duplication in the 1960s.
WJAX provided Jacksonville with NBC national news and network programming along with local and state news. It was an important contributor to the fabric of life for our predecessors. Local musicians provided live entertainment from a WJAX studio equipped with a piano. Soap operas, detective shows, mysteries, westerns, science fiction, comedies and variety programs dominated the NBC network schedule on WJAX.
Sources of news and entertainment were few with no cable TV, no CDs or VCRs, no satellites, no internet and no small handheld wireless telephones. TV viewers needed to purchase costly receivers and pay for frequent service calls to choose among only a few channels. Fringe areas required large rooftop antennas.
AM table radios and small transistor sets were hot tickets.
The 1960s brought intense competition between station operators programming contemporary hit music. In Jacksonville, WAPE and WPDQ played the hottest hits with fast-talking DJs, contests and promotions.
Music became more prominent and upbeat on WJAX. Though hesitant to play the Beatles and contemporaries at first, by the early 1970s music selection became much broader. NBC's marathon weekend program Monitor aired from 1955 until the 1970s. Besides sports news and features, WJAX aired Jacksonville minor league baseball game studio re-creations developed from descriptions via teletype dispatches or long-distance phone calls. Live college football game broadcasts, including the Georgia and FSU networks, were popular with fans. Live television coverage was very limited and primitive compared to today.
FM broadcast stations offering full-fidelity stereo gained dominance WQIK added FM in 1965 becoming the first source of C&W music around the clock. WMBR-FM became WKTZ at Jones College, broadcasting low key music and commentary from Ed Bell Oberle--who also held ham station call W4LLT. WIVY-FM became Jacksonville's first full-fidelity stereo rock music station and in 1974, it began surpassing WAPE(AM) in some audience measurement surveys. By 1978, R&B music played on FM in Jacksonville.
During the early 1970s, mechanical automated programmers featuring large tape reels and rotating cartridge players on carousels started partially replacing live announcers and DJs on WMBR (AM), WPDQ-FM and WJAX-FM with mixed results.
Technology advancements brought cheaper and more reliable solid-state television receivers, greatly reducing the viability of local electronic service shops. Cable, satellites, internet and small phones followed which diluted the value of radio broadcasts.
WJAX municipal operation continued for almost sixty years until late 1983 when the AM station and its FM counterpart were sold to a private group that flipped the stations to an urban format still mostly operated by the staff inherited from the city. Two years later, the stations were sold again and the WJAX callsign migrated among several AM stations including 690AM and 1220AM. Eventually the call landed on TV station CBS47. AM 930 became a sports station while FM 95.1 became WAPE, a different operation from the very popular WAPE 690 AM of the 60s and 70s.
Recordings or airchecks of city-owned WJAX are rare today. Here is a page that includes a 20-minute segment from Summer 1971 with sign-off of both WJAX and WJAX FM for maintenance.
Over the decades many Jacksonville amateur "ham" radio operators with professional credentials worked for WJAX. This page includes several articles about WJAX along with a postcard rendition of the studio building. It was demolished in 1972 after the station moved to the waterfront Jacksonville Civic Auditorium.
Founded in 1957, NOFARS is Jacksonville's heritage ham radio group. Newcomers are always welcome at NOFARS monthly meetings. An FCC Amateur Radio license is not required to attend or join.
Invading forces were approaching Saigon from both the north and west.
A slow reaction to these obvious threats by top level administrators at the U.S. Embassy in downtown Saigon along with problems at the U.S. DAO complex (formerly MACV HQ) caused delays in evacuating the few remaining Americans along with South Vietnamese who were closely connected with the American effort.
Chaos ensued on April 29th as the final evacuation order was issued. Most Americans received word via tactical two-way portable FM radios at housing centers throughout Saigon. At 9 Hong Thap Tu, a few blocks north of the U.S. Embassy, operators of the civilianized American Radio Service (led by ham radio operator Ian Tervet, K6MHQ) broadcast the pre-arranged signal....a pseudo weather report of "105 degrees and rising" followed by the American holiday standard, "I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas." There is debate among historians about whether it was the Bing Crosby version or whether Tennessee Ernie Ford sang the finale.
After repeating the sequence several times, a station staff member programmed military band music and reactivated the automated Gates controller. The few remaining station staffers jumped in a station jeep to begin a harrowing drive to the embassy for evacuation. Fortunately all made it and martial music remained on 99.9 MHz. from the station for several days.
What started as the "Good Morning Vietnam" type AFRS Saigon operation in Summer 1962 was fading fast in Spring 1975. Here is a history of American broadcast radio in South Vietnam during the war. AFRS-Saigon eventually became the American Forces Vietnam Network. With very few entertainment alternatives and sources of news & information, AFVN had mostly a captive audience with its wide signal coverage from a network of high-powered AM broadcast stations. As its slogan stated, coverage extended from the Mekong Delta up to the Demilitarized strip bordering North Vietnam.
After being drafted away from a daily announcing shift at city-owned WJAX AM & FM in Jacksonville, Billy Williams went to Vietnam as a Signal Corps electronics technician. The first stop was a service bench at Phu Loi airbase. He was offered a technician slot at an upcountry AFVN detachment before being selected to host a daily contemporary popular music show from AFVN's Saigon HQ.
A constant stream of requests helped Williams fill his shift airtime along with playing the hits listed on the "Stateside Top Thirty." Plus a variety of other cuts from AFVN's extensive record library.
Here is a montage of AFVN programming mostly compiled from clips of his radio shows.