WNEX (AM)
| City | Macon, Georgia |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Macon |
| Frequency | 1400 kHz |
| First air date | 1945 |
| Format | Talk |
| Power | 1,000 watts unlimited |
| Class | C |
| Facility ID | 54034 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 32°51′7″N 83°39′11″W / 32.85194°N 83.65306°WCoordinates: 32°51′7″N 83°39′11″W / 32.85194°N 83.65306°W |
| Owner | Creek Media LLC |
WNEX is a radio station in Macon, Georgia, owned by Creek Media. WNEX operates on an assigned frequency of 1400 kHz. It is currently a talk radio station.
WNEX-AM signed on the air April 20, 1945, as an affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System. In addition to Mutual programming, the station's format included country music, local personalities and newscasts. The station was started by Al Lowe Sr., his brother Ed Lowe, Peyton Anderson and Ellsworth Hall. Charlie "Peanut" Faircloth (1927–2010) was one of the first announcers. Faircloth hosted "Farm Frolics", a show for the early morning risers. He would also entertain listeners on "Hillbilly Hit Parade" airing daily at 12:15pm. On Saturday nights, he could be heard on a show called "Heaps of Corn". By 1948, Faircloth's "Hoedown Party" was airing nationwide on the Mutual network. Del Ward Napier Leslie, who for many years was the popular host of "Date With Del" on WMAZ-TV, began her broadcasting career at WNEX, hosting "Across the Breakfast Table". Another early announcer was Marion Bragg, who said in a 1980 interview that he was on air when the station signed on in 1945. The story goes that shortly before the station was to sign on, the FCC asked owner Al Lowe Sr. if he had call letters in mind, he looked down at a partially covered box of Kleenex on his desk and said, yes, "WNEX."
In 1953, WNEX and Douglas, Georgia radio station WOKA combined to invest in one of the south's first UHF TV stations, WETV channel 47. They hoped that, by signing with the NBC network, central Georgians would buy the set-top adaptors required to watch the station. The two locally owned stations planned to use profits from the operation of their AM radio outlets to keep the TV station going until it could turn a profit.
WETV operated out of a new building on Macon's Pio Nono Avenue and placed advertising in Atlanta's "TV Digest," the precursor to TV Guide, and in the trade industry magazine Broadcasting in hopes of attracting national advertising. In a matter of weeks, the expense of running the station (particularly the power bill; UHF transmitters were very inefficient) caused the owners to rethink their investment in the blossoming television industry.
WETV soon changed call letters to WOKA, then briefly to WNEX. In turning the station off, WNEX asked that Macon's channel 47 not be deleted from the FCC database while the owner tried to find a way to return to the air. The station never did. The combination of few potential viewers, the expense of running the station, and crushing competition from crosstown CBS affiliate WMAZ TV 13 (whose signal could be received on all TV sets) made UHF impractical for decades.
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