WJLE Radio
Voice of the Center Hill Region, serves Smithville and DeKalb County, Tennessee with news, weather, and sports as well as the best in country and gospel music.
We pledge to you our listeners to maintain a high standard of broadcast excellence with emphasis on local programming such as board meetings, community affairs, church services and related functions, obituaries, local sports-live, election returns, auctions, and yes yard sales.
How It Started
WJLE was authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to go on the air in 1964. A group of men with radio experience was organized by Dr. W. E. Vanatta, a local chiropractor, to apply for a construction permit to build a radio station.
The permit was granted after a few months with the able assistance of our Congressman, the late and honorable Joe Landon Evins, with a frequency assignment of 1480 kilohertz on the AM dial with 1000 watts of power and with the call letters WJLE, which has been suggested by some to be no coincident, they are the initials of our Congressman. The "W" in the call letters is assigned by the FCC and designates most stations east of the Mississippi River. The letter "K" precedes the call letters of radio stations mostly west of the Mississippi River.
After some months of operation the ownership changed from the Warren County group composed of the late Dr. C. H. Cope (chiropractor), the late Herman Spivey, the late Franklin H. (Chick) Brown, the Durham brothers, Hal, former manager of WSM's Grand Ole Opry and Aaron, WJLE's first manager and later McMinnville WAKI station owner to a group of DeKalb County businessmen selected by Dr. Vanatta, namely, the late McAllen Foutch, prominent local attorney and one time Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, the late Smith brothers, Will Herman and Jack, local merchants, the late James Herndon, local businessman, and John Bill Evins, businessman and homebuilder.
An FM 101.7 (frequency modulation) that has less static was added in 1970 with 3000 watts of power which afforded a wider and better coverage. The station now broadcasts with 4400 wattage.
The signal is not as strong in a westerly direction due to terrain and other factors, which we have plans to remedy by "streaming", putting our audio signal on computer, which will be received all over the world, yes, even our friends in the western section of DeKalb County.
The ownership operated the station until 1987 when all the shares of stock were acquired by Leon Stribling and Dr. W. E. Vanatta as co-owners.
We have resisted the urge to sell to conglomerates that may not be interested in maintaining a local flavor. We are affiliated with the Fox News Network for world and national events, the Tennessee Radio Network for State news, local news (you hear it first daily on WJLE), the annual Fiddlers' Jamboree summer festival, and the Vol Network to carry live broadcast of UT Sports.
We appreciate all our sponsors with aims of our motto "You Tell Us And We'll Tell Thousands."
We are grateful for our loyal listeners. You are the reason to be. We have been blessed over the years with good staff members. Many have been employed for part time that has assisted them to pursue their careers. Some have later gone to larger stations, some to TV, some to other fields such as former manager and likeable Ralph Vaughn.
We pay tribute to our present staff, manager Dwayne Page, 27 years indispensable, dependable, etc., etc, etc. Kathy Crouch, 15 years, loyal, efficient, (you wanna see the boss or the one who knows what's going on as the saying goes). Tom Duggin, 10 years, play by play, sports director, good radio man. Mike Cantrell, 8 years, likeable, gospel music man, has a good rapport with listeners taking lots of requests and loves it. Dale Carroll, 2 years, daytime innovative DJ, good listeners response. Ricky Arnold, 2 years, one of the more recent additions to the staff, dependable, solid, good addition. Samantha Walker, 2 years, our female DJ, smart, reliable. Darvin Gill, 10 years, part-time sports play by play brings his enthusiasm to the live coverage of local sporting events. Josh Kuhn, 4 years, his grandaddy, Joe Kuhn, was the owner and operator of stations in Sparta and McMinnville. Dora Estes, 15 years, our CPA, who tries to keep WJLE in the black. James Turvaville, our most recent addition, our engineering guru also known as Captain Turbo.
As of September 27, 2006, WJLE has added limited internet streaming. WJLE will Stream LIVE all DeKalb County High School Football Games on Friday nights, the Smithville City Council Meetings on the first and third Monday nights, the DeKalb County Board of Education Meetings the second Thursday nights, the DeKalb County Commission Meetings the fourth Monday night, and local news at 6:30 a.m., 7:30 a.m., 8:55 a.m., noon, 4:00 p.m., and 9:45 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Sunday at 6:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., noon, 4:00 p.m., and 9:45 p.m.
