Jacksonville State University’s 91.9 WLJS(FM) is planning festivities to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
JSU alum Mike Sandefer, the first voice heard on the station when it took to the air in 1975 and its inaugural station manager, is helping to organize the plans with the university, which is located in Jacksonville, Ala.
As the station was trying to secure a license, Sandefer recalled driving to the FCC office in Atlanta to hand-deliver the application for a construction permit.
Now as a consultant, he’s looking to help the station reach out to as many alumni as possible from the past five decades. Today, the station has approximately 30 students involved in its day-to-day operations, which include a mix of block music and talk programming.
Notable WLJS alumni include Rick Burgess and Bill “Bubba” Bussey, hosts of the “Rick and Bubba” morning show for more than 30 years. Bussey announced he was leaving the show in December to become Jacksonville State’s assistant athletics director for broadcasting.
Anniversary plans
On the 50th anniversary date of Sept. 29, the station will air special content to celebrate the anniversary and is holding an alumni reunion. Sandefer said an official ribbon-cutting is planned to commemorate the on-air anniversary, where alumni will meet at the WLJS studios to record remembrances.
There will be block programs throughout the day, representing the station’s five decades. The university is working to assemble alumni from each of those decades to take to the air.
50k for 50 years
Sandefer said the station is also looking to raise $50,000 in honor of its 50 years. The proceeds, he said, will go toward a new transmitter, which the station’s engineer Ted White says is “desperately” needed.
An EF-3 tornado tore through part of the Jacksonville State campus in 2018. “We had a little 45-foot tower on top of our tallest building that had a three-bay FM antenna on it,” Sandefer said. That’s what WLJS had been using since its inception, first with 10 watts and then with an upgrade to 3 kW ERP in the 1980s.
But the tornado took the station off the air. iHeartMedia assisted the university in getting back on the air atop Chimney Peak. At approximately 1,900 feet of elevation, WLJS’ signal has improved there, but the tower has taken several lightning strikes. White has made multiple trips for repairs. “Things are good, but that transmitter is struggling a bit,” Sandefer said.
The station will be running a 24-hour marathon broadcast to help raise funds on April 10.
They hope to raise enough to operate for the next 50 years. Looking back, what were the first words Sandefer said when WLJS took to the airwaves at approximately 2:30 a.m. on a September 1975 overnight?
“Damn, it worked,” he recalled.
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