NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It was 1969 when more than 600 students at Fisk University signed a statement expressing interest in a radio station.
“What they wanted to have at WFSK was a place that you can hear about things that impacted the Black community from Black people,” WFKS General Manager Sharon Kay said. The students wanted a place for their voices to be heard.
Finally, in 1973 the university launched the first Black FM radio station on the dial in Nashville and the first Black FM-owned and operated radio station in Nashville.
“There was no such thing as Black people owning an FM radio station in Nashville," Kay said. "It did not exist.”
On the heels of the Civil Rights movement, the student-run station confronted the issue of its time. At the time, its call letters were WRFN — the original Radio-Free Nashville.
“A lot had happened around that time and people were feeling a certain kind of way, and a lot of Jesse Jackson and all these people — that Black power energy was going on,” Kay said.
After joining the station in 2005, Kay led Jazzy 88 WFSK in a complete overhaul.
“When I first walked in the door here, there were 40 people — 40 and no budget,” she said.
Finding funding to update the studio came first. Then she restructured the station and launched a new internship program. Now, countless students have her to thank for finding a voice of their own.
“So I said you’re going to have to come out of your shell," Kay said. "You want to get a job, don’t you? You can’t be quiet as a mouse and in the corner — you won’t make any money.”
With Kay at the helm, the station is celebrating a major milestone: 50 years of programming over Nashville's airwaves.
“I tell the audience 'this is the house that the community built', ok? If you all had not given and supported it would be gone," Kay said.
Now half a century later, Kay said the secret to FSK's success lies in the community that helped build it.
“It’s a privilege to be on the air," she said. "It’s a privilege to have people listening to you.”
