WKDQ

WKDQ (99.5 FM) is a country music formatted radio station in Henderson, Kentucky radio market, broadcasting to Evansville, Indiana. The owner is Townsquare Media.

History

Begun by Hecht Lackey, owner of WSON (860 AM), the station received the call letters WSON-FM when it went on the air in 1947, and most of the FM station's programming in the early years was simulcast from the AM station. In 1971, the FM station switched to a rock format and the call letters were changed to WKDQ.

By the mid-to-late 1980s, WKDQ had switched to an adult contemporary/oldies hybrid format and was known on-air as "KQ99." While it did reasonably well, management saw greater opportunity in challenging "WYNG 105" (now WJLT, 105.3 FM) and WBKR (92.5 FM), so in 1992 they flipped WKDQ to country.

The station instantly became a success, surpassing WYNG and WBKR in ratings. Eventually, WYNG's country format was completely eliminated and eventually those call letters moved to 94.9 FM in Mt. Carmel, Illinois. WKDQ is currently the highest rated country station in the Evansville market and a close second to WIKY (104.1 FM) among all stations in the market.