This week marks 75 years since WHOP became affiliated with the CBS Radio Network—a relationship that continues to be productive for our family of stations and listeners.
Interviewed 50 years ago by Margaret Wyatt on WHOP, former station owner Dutch Lackey said it was difficult to hire the manpower necessary to fill programming during World War II and he began looking for a network that could assist.
CBS had contacted a radio station owned by his brother—Pierce Lackey—in Paducah, and they partnered to bring the network to western Kentucky listeners.
By that summer listeners to WHOP were hearing soap opera programming, sports, news and more from CBS.
The conflicts with network and high school sports broadcasts on WHOP became easier to navigate with the arrival of WHOP FM—which allowed games to be heard on 98.7 and the regular programming on 1230 AM.