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24-398: WHAJ began as WHIS-FM in 1948, as the strongest FM station in the world at the time, with an effective radiated power of 186,000 watts. It was the sister station of WHIS . The radio station was not successful, and broadcasting had permanently ceased by 1950. The management of WHIS decided to relaunch the station in 1963, this time with an Effective Radiated Power of 5.8 kW. In 1977 power

48-614: A re-established WHIS-FM, which reclaimed the WHAJ call sign in 1976 —into the 1970s. However, this combination effectively served as a media monopoly, which locals called the "Shott Dynasty"; the town had only one broadcast outlet not owned by the Shotts, WKOY (1240 AM) . Pressure from Congress and the Department of Justice led to the 1975 passage of an FCC ban on cross-ownership of a city's only newspaper and its only television station—which would affect

72-496: A time as an inserter, hand inserting sales pieces into the Bluefield Daily Telegraph before going on to a distinguished career in mathematics . The weekly Princeton Times , covering Princeton, West Virginia , is also published at the Bluefield Daily Telegraph office. Both newspapers are owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc, who acquired them from The Thomson Corporation in 2000. This article about

96-523: A transmitter built for them and started WHAJ ("Hugh and Jim"). The transmitter was located in Hugh Ike Shott's office; however, a battery in the equipment spilled acid and damaged a prized rug he owned, spelling the end of the station. In 1931, WHIS was granted a move to 1410 kHz, which allowed it to go to 250 watts power but required sharing the frequency with WRBX. WRBX, located in Roanoke, Virginia ,

120-524: Is owned and operated by Charles Spencer and Rick Lambert, through licensee First Media Services, LLC. The Daily Telegraph Printing Company was issued a license for a new radio station to transmit on 1420 kHz on February 14, 1929. The new station would adopt the WHIS call letters in honor of the newspaper's editor, Hugh Ike Shott , and be based in the West Virginian Hotel in downtown Bluefield. At

144-589: The FM station was paying rent to the TV station for use of the transmitter site. Secondly, the site was undesirable from a technical perspective. The 1977 tower was too short and the rocky terrain would make a new, tall tower impractical. A new tower was therefore constructed approximately 1 mile to the west-southwest of the TV tower. WHAJ-FM moved to this site in 2000, using a Broadcast Electronics 25K transmitter. Co-owned WKOY and WHKX also moved to this site. (The old WHAJ-FM tower at

168-636: The FM), shifted to oldies in 1984 and then to adult contemporary in 1985. Even after the family sold the Daily Telegraph in 1986, Shott ownership of the radio stations continued until 2000, when Shott-owned Adventure Communications sold its 15-station portfolio to Triad Broadcasting for $ 25.6 million— a handsome return on the Shotts' original investment 71 years earlier. Triad Broadcasting and its 32 stations, including WHIS, were acquired in 2012 by Larry Wilson, owner of Portland, Oregon 's Alpha Broadcasting group;

192-503: The Shott holdings and require the divestiture of the television station. The Supreme Court upheld the rule in 1978, and the Daily Telegraph sold the television station to Quincy Newspapers in 1979. WHIS changed formats several times in the first half of the 1980s; after more than two decades of middle of the road music, it switched formats with WHAJ to take on its beautiful music sound in 1981 (a swap that created today's J-104 format on

216-474: The Southeast; a year later, the station was switched to NBC's Red Network. After World War II, Shott invested in radio again. He was an early believer in FM radio, building the 185,000-watt WHIS-FM 104.5 in 1947. That same year, WHIS was approved to increase its power on AM to 5,000 watts with a directional nighttime pattern. After construction began in 1948, the higher-power facility, utilizing four new towers,

240-613: The WVVA site is now used by WVVA-DT.) In the 1960s and 1970s, WHAJ had a Beautiful Music format and the station's on-air moniker was "Stereo 104". In August 1981, WHIS -AM's Contemporary Hit Radio format was moved to WHAJ, and J104 was born. J104 was an instant success both in terms of ratings and advertiser acceptance. For most of the 1980s, J104 was the most listened-to radio station in West Virginia . Today, J104 continues to be one of West Virginia 's most successful radio stations, winning

264-668: The West Virginia Broadcasters Association "Station of the Year" Award in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022. WHAJ was also named "Legendary Station of the Year" by the WVBA in 2010. WHIS WHIS (1440 AM ) is a talk -formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Bluefield, West Virginia , serving Bluefield in West Virginia and Bluefield in Virginia . WHIS

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288-599: The company reorganized as Alpha Media . In 2018, First Media Services acquired Alpha Media's Bluefield cluster and announced that it would add an FM translator for WHIS's programming. Bluefield Daily Telegraph The Bluefield Daily Telegraph is a newspaper based in Bluefield, West Virginia , and also covering surrounding communities in McDowell , Mercer and Monroe counties, West Virginia ; and Bland , Buchanan , Giles and Tazewell counties, Virginia (including

312-400: The fire, WHIS opted to reduce its permanent nighttime authorization from 5,000 to 500 watts the next year. The fire did not affect the progress of WHIS-TV , the television station which signed on later that year. All of the WHIS stations moved into a new purpose-built Broadcast Center at the end of 1966. The Shott family continued to own the Daily Telegraph and the WHIS stations—including

336-486: The first commercially successful digital radio automation systems. In 1996, the DCS system was replaced by a first-generation system from Scott Studios. The older Scott Studios system was upgraded to Scott Studios SS32 in 2003. WHAJ's transmitter is located on East River Mountain, overlooking the city of Bluefield. When the station returned to the air in 1963, the transmitter was co-located with WVVA-TV (then WHIS-TV). The antenna

360-404: The station by the time Shott bought out WRBX. In March, reformed gambler and vaudeville performer Kid Canfield was speaking on the air when he abruptly died on air—the first known on-air death in radio. The station had installed a brand-new 500-watt transmitter, which was consumed in a July 15, 1935, fire during studio renovations; the station was silent for 10 days, and it was decided to relocate

384-499: The time, West Virginia had four other broadcasting stations, none of them in the southern portion of the state. While the station did not start up formally until June 24, the station made several test broadcasts, including a June 11 program that included music and primary election results. Even prior to the 1929 launch of WHIS, the Shott family had been involved in Bluefield broadcasting. In 1922, Hugh's sons, Jim and Hugh Shott Jr., had

408-429: The town of Bluefield, Virginia ). It publishes online Monday through Saturday. A print edition is distributed Tuesday through Saturday. The Bluefield Daily Telegraph was launched on January 16, 1896, by long-time editor Hugh Ike Shott , who at one point controlled Bluefield's newspaper, both leading radio stations, and only television station. Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash Jr., a Bluefield native, worked for

432-586: The transmitter out of the West Virginian. The rest of the decade was spent upgrading: the station doubled its daytime and nighttime power to go to 1,000 watts day and 500 night in 1936 from a new site in the Harry Heights area, and WHIS moved to its present 1440 kHz upon NARBA reallocation in 1941. In 1940, the station joined the NBC Blue Network as part of a group of ten new Blue Network outlets in

456-505: Was activated in March 1949. On the evening of May 8, 1955, another fire broke out at the Harry Heights transmitter site; starting in a parked car, the blaze destroyed the station and caused an estimated $ 100,000 in damage, and there was no available water service to aid fire crews. The station was on air again 44 hours later using borrowed equipment; the equipment used was the 250-watt transmitter that WHIS had just sold to WBRW of Welch . After

480-590: Was bought out by Shott in 1935 and dissolved to allow WHIS to go full-time on 1410; some of the Roanoke station's equipment was retained and used in Bluefield. 1931 also saw the station air the first-ever broadcast in the United States of a criminal trial, concerning the murder by scalding of a 10-year-old boy by his stepmother, Minnie Stull; the case was appealed, in part because of the radio broadcasts, and moved to another county. 1935 had already been an eventful year at

504-405: Was increased to 100 kW and the call sign was changed from WHIS-FM to WHAJ-FM to emphasize separate programming from WHIS. When the radio station was relaunched in 1963, the studios were co-located with WHIS and WHIS-TV (now WVVA ) in what was then the Bluefield, WV City Hall. In December 1967, the three stations moved to a new, state-of-the-art facility on East Cumberland Road. The facility

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528-519: Was known as Broadcast Center. WHIS-TV was sold to Quincy Newspapers in 1980, and remained in Broadcast Center. WHIS and WHAJ-FM moved to 900 Bluefield Avenue, where they remain today. From the 1970s until 1987, WHAJ used a Shaffer 903 automation system. From 1987 to 1990, WHAJ did not employ radio automation. On March 6, 1990, WHAJ became the world's first radio station to use Computer Concepts' Digital Commercial System (DCS) automation, considered

552-527: Was side-mounted on the TV tower. The transmitter was an RCA BTF-5D. WVVA's transmitter site is unique because the TV transmitter building is in the state of Virginia, but the TV tower and antenna are in West Virginia. This was a problem in 1977 when the management of the station wished to begin operations at 100 kW. In accordance with FCC rules FM radio stations in West Virginia may not have an Effective Radiated Power greater than 50 kW. This problem

576-460: Was solved by constructing a new tower 80 feet to the east-southeast of the TV tower. This tower was in Virginia, enabling 100 kW operation. A Harris FM-20K transmitter and ERI 12 Bay antenna was installed and 100 kW operation began in 1977. In the late 1990s it became desirable to relocate the station's transmitter to a new location for two reasons. Firstly, the TV station had been sold, and

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