Eighty years ago today, WHOP radio went on the air. The first sound listeners heard that day was an orchestra recording of the National Anthem.
Then the music ended and Hecht Lackey, a pioneer in Kentucky radio with his brothers Pierce and Dutch, spent a few minutes describing what the community could expect from the new station.
WHOP, perched on a hill 2 miles northwest of downtown Hopkinsville on Buttermilk Road, was in the process of having teletype machines installed and planned to begin regular news programming within days, said Lackey. There would be eight daily news slots, beginning at 7 a.m. and ending at 10:30 p.m.
Lackey promised the station would have live broadcasting of high school sports and community events.
Music would come from stations in Nashville and Louisville — and from local artists playing in a studio at the station, Lackey said.
To sum it up, WHOP would be “a community hall for your benefit,” Lackey pledged to listeners.
All of the early owners and employees of WHOP have passed. Radio technology is vastly different today, and the station is broadcast on both AM and FM. A listener doesn’t have to rely strictly on a car or home radio in the proximity of Hopkinsville to pick up a WHOP signal. It’s also on the internet. But WHOP still sits on the same hill on Buttermilk Road (although it did have a broadcast studio in downtown Hopkinsville for a period in the 1960s) and its mission is much the same today as Lackey described on Jan. 8, 1940 — a community hall for the benefit of local people.
Employees, advertisers and local listeners were celebrating WHOP’s 80th anniversary today with special programming and interviews, including one with Christian County Historian William T. Turner. He reminisced about a number of former WHOP employees, including musician and personality Dink Embry, journalist Mary D. Ferguson and technician Leo Wilson.
This morning the station’s lobby was filled with displays of old black-and-white photographs. A big cake topped with an audio mic sat on a table.
A number of audio files of historic broadcasts were being replayed today on 98.7 FM and are available online. These include the 1969 moon landing, Hopkinsville native Edward T. “Ned” Breathitt’s inauguration as governor, and the announcement of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
The Lackey family remained owners of WHOP until 1999, when Forcht Broadcasting purchased it. Two of the original owners – Dutch Lackey and his daughter Sherry Jeffers – each served as Hopkinsville mayor after the station was established.
The station has two broadcast towers. One on Buttermilk Road is 300 feet tall and the other on Witty Lane is 500 feet tall. (The station refers to its home street as Dink Embry’s Buttermilk Road.)
Embry, probably the best-known employee in the station’s history, died in 1999. His wife, Virginia, was also an employee of the station. She died in 2010.
One of the station’s longest traditions is the “The Early Bird Show,” which runs from 5:30 to 9 a.m. weekdays.
Today the three hosts for the morning program are Jeff Sisk, Mark Lovely and Todd Hamilton. The show is a mix of news, advertising, weather, sports, event announcements, interviews with community leaders – and pleas to help find lost dogs.
Sisk said the reason for the show’s popularity is simple.
“I think it’s just the banter between the hosts,” he said.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
