"WOPI 1490 AM 97.9 FM Tri-Cities" Bristol, Virginia
Posted by: 
UberHOKIE
N 36° 39.963 W 081° 38.290
17S E 442970 N 4058016
WOPI-AM\FM Radio is broadcast simultaneously and are affiliates of both ABC and The WKPT RADIO NETWORK and carries WKPT Network programming approximately 150 hours each week. On Saturdays 9:30AM - 6:00PM and Sundays from 1:00 PM - 5:30 PM WOPI returns to its original bluegrass and "old time" country roots. It is to that special weekend programming and to the history of WOPI.
Waymark Code: WM40QC
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 06/19/2008
Views: 83
WOPI-AM Radio is the Northeast Tennessee / Southwest Virginia area's first broadcast station. Indeed it was the first station between Knoxville and Roanoke. WOPI signed on the air on June 15, 1929, from its original combined studio and transmitter site located at State and 22nd Streets in Bristol, Tennessee. The first broadcast occurred at 6:30 PM and featured the Kingsport Concert Band, and like most broadcasts in those days, it was "live." The station's call letters stood for "Watch Our Popularity Increase," and in almost seventy years, those call letters have never been changed, an unusual circumstance in these days when many radio stations seem to change call letters on a regular basis.
WOPI's founder and original owner was W.A.Wilson, a former chief telegraph operator for Western Union's Bristol office. The idea of constructing a radio station in Bristol was born while Wilson operated Wilson Radiophone Service Company from 1921 to 1928, selling and installing receivers for the new medium. (Mr. Wilson's son, James C. Wilson, worked at the station in his youth and later bought the Tri-Cities second oldest station, WJHL, Johnson City, and renamed it WJCW).
In the 1940's WOPI and WKPT formed their own network for occasional programs of area-wide interest. It was known as "The Sister City Network" linking Bristol, "The Twin-City," and Kingsport, "The Model City." (WKPT, Kingsport, was then known by its copyrighted slogan, "The Nation's Model Station.")
On Christmas day, 1946, WOPI-FM joined WOPI becoming the Tri-City area's first FM station. In the 1960's WOPI-FM was sold to the owner of WKYE and became WKYE-FM. Still later it was sold to the owner of WFHG and became WFHG-FM. The FM station's call letters were later changed to WXBQ-FM, which is today the Tri-City area's number one radio station.
WOPI was originally licensed to the city of Bristol, Tennessee. In 1966, the then-owner of the station, Tri-Cities Broadcasting Company, sought to emphasize the unity of the two twin-cities of Bristol, Tennessee, and Bristol, Virginia, by petitioning the FCC to change WOPI's official community of license to Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia. That official dual city license status was granted by the FCC on April 29, 1966.
Station Category: Commercial Radio
Genre or specialty of the station submitted: Country/Western
Station web-page: [Web Link]
How is the signal transmitted: By "Transmission Tower"
Favourite program or on air person/announcer:
"Authentic Bluegrass with Tina Jones & Larry Gorley"- they play a great variety of bluegrass with a lot of local talent.
Internet web-casting link if available.: Not listed
"SIRIUS Satellite Radio" channel number: Not listed
"XM Satellite Radio" channel number: Not listed
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