WKJG

WKJG (1380 AM; "ESPN Radio 1380") is a radio station located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The station, owned by Federated Media, is Fort Wayne's ESPN Radio affiliate.

History

WKJG began broadcasting November 15, 1947 under the ownership of Northeastern Indiana Broadcasting, itself controlled by William Kunkel. Kunkel was also the publisher of The Journal Gazette; the call letters are derived from both entities. Initially a Mutual affiliate, WKJG joined NBC Radio in 1956, after WOWO dropped NBC to go independent; this brought the station in line with sister station WKJG-TV (channel 33), which had been an NBC-TV affiliate since going on the air in 1953. The WKJG stations were sold to the Truth Publishing Company of Elkhart in 1957; in 1963, the stations came under the Communicana banner.

After WKJG-TV was sold in 1971 (albeit to an entity controlled by the Dille family, which also controlled Communicana), it was decided to change the call letters of the radio stations, citing the perceived difficulty in saying "WKJG". As a result, on October 1, WKJG, by then a top 40 station, became WMEE, with sister beautiful music station WKJG-FM (97.3 FM) becoming WMEF. The following year, WMEE ceased its NBC Radio affiliation. The station's owner became Federated Media in 1977.