WHSY (1230 AM)
{{short description|Radio station in Hattiesburg, Mississippi}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox radio station
| name = WHSY
| city = Hattiesburg, Mississippi
| frequency = {{frequency|1230|kHz}}
| airdate = {{start date|1948|9|24}}
| coordinates = {{coord|31|20|55|N|89|17|00|W}}
| owner = Hub City Broadcasting, Inc.
| power = 1,000 watts
| former_frequencies = 1220 kHz (1948–1949)
| sister_stations = WHSY-FM
| last_airdate = {{end date|1994|5|16}}
}}
WHSY was a radio station that broadcast on 1230 kHz AM in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States. It was owned by Charles W. Holt's Hub City Broadcasting Company and broadcast from 1948 to 1994. The studios and transmitter were located on U.S. Route 11 in what is today Petal.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1992/1992-BC-YB.pdf#page=271|accessdate=April 28, 2021|work=Broadcasting & Cable Market Place|date=1992|title=WHSY(AM)|page=A-193}}
History
=Early years=
The Hub City Broadcasting Company obtained a construction permit to build a new radio station on 1220 kHz in Hattiesburg on April 29, 1948. The original owners were Charles W. Holt, Marvin Reuben and Vernon Cheek; Holt and Reuben had been announcers together at a radio station in Montgomery, Alabama.{{r|again}} They had been granted the permit after changing their proposed frequency from 1230 kilohertz to 1220, a minor shift that required the new station to start out as a daytime-only operation.{{Cite web|url= https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=60512 |title= History Cards for WHSY|publisher=Federal Communications Commission}} (Guide to reading History Cards) Construction proceeded, and WHSY went on the air on September 24, 1948.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76315732/tune-in-1220-on-your-dial-whsy/|page=3|work=Hattiesburg American|date=September 23, 1948|accessdate=April 28, 2021|title=Tune In 1220 On Your Dial, WHSY}} Reuben sold his interest ten months later.{{r|fourth}} The new station had barely been on the air when its owners petitioned to move to 1230 kHz and regain the ability to broadcast during the day; this was granted on August 11, 1949, and implemented on the 28th of that month; the station became an ABC affiliate.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76659542/|page=10|work=Hattiesburg American|title=WHSY Celebrating Fourth Anniversary|date=September 24, 1952|accessdate=April 28, 2021}}
WHSY was part-owned by David A. Matison in the 1950s. Matison would sell his interest in WHSY and other stations to Holt in 1955, a deal contemporaneous with the withdrawal of a Holt-backed bid to build a television station on channel 9 in Hattiesburg, allowing Matison to start WDAM-TV.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76673437/|accessdate=April 28, 2021|date=May 5, 1955|work=McComb Enterprise-Journal|page=1|title=Partner In WHNY To Sell Interest, Concentrate On TV}} WHSY was allowed to increase its power to 1,000 watts in 1960.{{r|hc}} By the 1960s, Holt owned a total of four stations, with another Mississippi outlet in McComb and stations in Montgomery and Prichard, Alabama.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76670328/|title=Hub outfit buys Alabama radio station|date=July 27, 1962|work=Hattiesburg American|page=4-A|accessdate=April 28, 2021}} Another was added on July 1, 1967, when WHSY-FM 104.5 began broadcasting.{{cite web|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1973/1973-BC-YB.pdf#page=293|accessdate=April 28, 2021|date=1973|work=Broadcasting Yearbook|title=WHSY-FM|page=B-111}}
=Financial difficulties and closure=
Holt-Robinson Communications, the partnership between Holt and Robert N. Robinson that owned the Montgomery station (but not the WHSY stations, which Holt owned outright), expanded into television in the early 1980s. In 1983, it was able to sign on WTWC-TV in Tallahassee, Florida—a station whose sign-on was delayed by the collapse of its transmitting tower during construction.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76671010/|accessdate=April 28, 2021|title=Channel 40 signs off temporarily Sunday following football game|work=Tallahassee Democrat|date=October 7, 1983|page=1D|first=Marc|last=Brown}} That event and lack of funding helped to scuttle the company's plans to build channel 35 in Marshall, Texas.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76644576/fcc-turns-down-etex-tv-station-building/|accessdate=April 28, 2021|page=2|agency=Associated Press|title=FCC Turns Down ETex TV Station Building Permit|work=Tyler Courier-Times|date=March 13, 1987}} In the late 1980s, the station switched to a news/talk format using a mix of ABC, CBS News Radio and Mutual Broadcasting System programs,{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76672018/|accessdate=April 28, 2021|date=November 24, 1988|page=5C|work=Hattiesburg American|title=Newsradio 1230 AM WHSY}} as well as simulcasts of the audio of WDAM-TV's local news programs.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76672345/|accessdate=April 28, 2021|date=December 30, 1989|title=WHSY, WDAM join forces|work=Hattiesburg American|page=5A}} WHSY had aired Hattiesburg High School football for 43 consecutive years prior to moving to FM on the 44th{{endash}}and final{{endash}}season with the stations in 1993; the station manager, Ted Tibbett, was the team's radio voice.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76627898/|accessdate=April 28, 2021|first=Stan|last=Caldwell|title=Tibbett looks forward to airing HHS games|work=Hattiesburg American|date=August 22, 1993|page=23E}} The station also aired New Orleans Saints football and Ole Miss Rebels athletics in its final year;{{r|signals}} it had previously dumped The Rush Limbaugh Show because of its cost.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76673266/|accessdate=April 28, 2021|title=What a Rush! WHSY cans Limbaugh, but he's still bellowing|first=Robyn|last=Jackson|work=Hattiesburg American|date=November 11, 1993|page=1B}}
In 1992, Hub City Broadcasting filed for bankruptcy reorganization. The AM and FM had been down on their luck; poor ratings on the FM led to the loss of many national advertising accounts, starving the station of revenue. That prompted the Chapter 11 proceeding to turn into a Chapter 7 liquidation, with $31,000 in tax liens hanging over the station. After two restraining orders temporarily prevented bankruptcy trustee J. C. Bell from seizing the company's assets, the second order was left to expire. On May 16, 1994, Bell impounded the equipment and took WHSY-AM-FM off the air.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76315844/|accessdate=April 28, 2021|first=Stan|last=Caldwell|title=Rolling to a full stop: Radio station fights to get back on air|work=Hattiesburg American|page=8A}} Holt blamed problems with the Tallahassee television station for causing financial drains that hurt the Hattiesburg radio operation.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76315916/|accessdate=April 28, 2021|date=August 16, 1994|page=5A|title=Classic rock station hopes to be rolling again soon|first=Nikki|last=Davis Maute|work=Hattiesburg American}}
Blakeney Broadcasting, owner of WBBN, acquired the WHSY stations at bankruptcy auction, beating out two other parties with a winning bid of $450,000.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76315862/|title=Bankruptcy sale signals new era for WHSY radio stations|first=Brent|last=Christensen|work=Hattiesburg American|date=September 22, 1994|page=8A|accessdate=April 28, 2021}} After a lengthy hiatus, the FM station was put back into service in April 1995 as WXRR "Rock 104".{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39499944/classic-stations-rock-airwaves/|accessdate=April 28, 2021|title=Classic stations rock airwaves|page=1B|first=Scott|last=Travis|work=Hattiesburg American|date=April 6, 1995}}
The AM station never returned to air; its license, having been off air more than a year, was canceled on February 9, 1997, one of the first such cancellations under Section 312(g) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-M-Street/M-Street-Journal/M-Street-1997-04.pdf|accessdate=April 28, 2021|page=9|work=M Street Journal|date=April 9, 1997|title=Washington This Week}} Holt would later buy another of Hattiesburg's heritage radio stations, the former WBKH at 950 kHz, and give it the WHSY call letters; Holt died at the age of 96 in 2018.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76628134/whsy-station-owner-holt-dies-at-96/|work=Hattiesburg American|title=WHSY station owner Holt dies at 96|first1=Lici|last1=Beveridge|first2=David R.|last2=Davies|date=March 11, 2018|accessdate=April 28, 2021|page=8A}}