WEST MEMPHIS -- Mary Toney grew up in West Memphis with the blues of Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson, Ike Turner, James Cotton, Bobby Blue Bland and others on KWEM-AM, 990.
Now, more than 50 years after the station that provided the musical soundtrack for her childhood went off the air, Mid-South Community College will bring that era back to the airwaves.
Today, college President Glen Fenter and a handful of others -- including some who performed live on the radio station in the 1950s -- will host an event called Flip the Switch, which includes the live-streaming of new KWEM programming on the Internet.
The event will be held at 5:30 p.m. today at the community college's University Center. It will be broadcast on the station's website at www.kwemradio.com. The college took over rights to the station in 2009.
The college plans to broadcast on 93.3 FM once it receives its license from the Federal Communications Commission in August, said Diane Hampton, the college's vice president of institutional advancement. It will continue to simulcast 24 hours a day on the Internet, she said.
"This is wonderful," Toney, 67, said of the station's return to the airwaves. "The station is a major part of the history here. If you lose your history, you lose your future."
As a youngster, Toney didn't realize the importance of KWEM's role in the cultural history of the Crittenden County town and the surrounding Delta. Her uncle was friends with musician Howlin' Wolf, and when she heard his music on the station, she thought of the performer as another friend.
"I never knew it would come to this," she said. "As a child, I was a little bit more of a nerd than some. I always paid attention to the history around me, but I wasn't aware of the impact of this at the time."
The station began broadcasting at 231 Broadway near downtown West Memphis on Feb. 23, 1947. Originally, it was established to broadcast Arkansas sports as part of the Razorback Network.
To make money during the day, the station developed a "pay-to-play" format, allowing up-and-coming performers to showcase their talents on the station, said John Bennett, the college's new station manager of KWEM.
Unknown performers at the time such as Ike Turner, Johnny Cash, Scotty Moore and Albert King paid up to $25 for a segment on the station, Bennett said. Elvis Presley's first radio appearance was on KWEM in 1953, when he played with Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio.
"Their sound was picked up throughout all of West Memphis and filtered into Memphis," Bennett said.
The area developed a reputation for its music. Musician Rufus Thomas called West Memphis the "Las Vegas of the South" because of its "wide-open music scene."
Most of the KWEM performers were black, Hampton said. But whites were tuning in to listen.
"There was still segregation at the time," she said. "But there was desegregation already in the music.
"There is nothing more grass roots in a community than its music. Arkansas is a hotbed of music, and West Memphis is the connective pivot point for the Dyess Colony [where Johnny Cash grew up], the rockabilly and Memphis music."
Toney, who is a Mid-South Community College trustee, said she remembers hearing the blues musicians' craft throughout her neighborhood. Homes didn't have air conditioning back then, so songs filtered through open windows.
"I'd turn to stations where I could hear the blues," Toney said. "I was told I'd go to hell listening to that kind of music. My mother would listen to gospel music on the radio, too. I guess I had a balance. I still like the blues. I never stopped liking it."
Several of the performers became power players, creating the music of the era. Jim Stewart, who played in the KWEM house band called the Snearly Ranch Boys, began Satellite Records in Memphis in 1957. Four years later after Stewart's sister, Estelle Axton, joined the business, it became Stax Records.
Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records in Memphis, would listen to KWEM, Bennett said. When Phillips heard Howlin' Wolf's KWEM show in 1950, Phillips said, "This is for me. This is where the soul of man never dies."
The station discontinued its pay-for-play policy around 1957, Bennett said. It went off the air in 1960.
Today, after broadcasting a brief history of the station, Fenter and others will begin the Internet streaming.
Bennett said he had yet to decide which song to play first but noted it would be a "power" song that reflects the era and the radio station's importance.
The station also will broadcast historical "snippets" about the music of the 1950s and play music by performers influenced by the Delta blues such as the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin.
The college intends to incorporate the station into its curriculum, allowing students hands-on experience in radio production, Hampton said.
"If you keep the station going, you keep making history," Hampton said of KWEM. "We're hoping history will continue."
Toney, who plans to attend today's event, looks forward to hearing the songs of her youth again.
"I'm glad to see it reborn," she said. "It tells a story. Supposedly, it was our story. The blacks' story. But it's everybody's story. We all think the same thing, regardless of who we were."
State Desk on 05/29/2014