Yes, it's cool to be brand new and everything, but it's even MORE cool to be one of the few stations in the US to go almost half a century without changing formats.Who can say THAT?   WGNA went on the air on December 5th, 1973 and still going strong. Now THAT's something to sing about!

Here's a little (?) ditty that I put together to celebrate,  with explanation following the lyrics.  To read more about this historic event, check out Kevin Richard's articles for more memories.

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We Didn't Start The Station
parody of "We Didn't Start The Fire", by Billy Joel
new lyrics ©2013 Richie Phillips  All Rights Reserved
Opens with intro from first owner, John Linstra
'GNA as you know
Started 40 years ago
Let's bring back the 70's
Mickey Gilley Jim Reeves
He was called the gentleman
Also Lynn Anderson
Talking bout the rose garden
"We"ll Always Love You" Dolly Parton
Faron Young
Dottie West
Don Williams had the hits
Johnny Paycheck and the Possum
El Paso  Marty Robbins
Waylon is a rambling
Kenny Rogers gambling
John Denver we enjoyed
"Thank God he's a Country Boy"
We didn't start the station
It was here you know 40 years ago
It's that's best station in the nation
It's gonna stay that way, it's WGNA
Can't forget the 80's
Conway Twitty Johnny Lee
Alabama feels so right
Eddie loved the Rainy nites
Hank JR Took no crap
We loved Ronnie Milsap
Willie Nelson, he was found
Flying too close to the ground
Kenny, Dolly back again
Randy Travis, "amen"….
Anne Murray, she was hot, so was Reba's Little Rock
the Judds are fantastic, George Jone's classic
"He stopped loving her today"
Lee Greenwood's "USA"
We didn't start the station
It was here you know 40 years ago
It's that's best station in the nation
It's gonna stay that way, it's WGNA
The 90's made the record books
all thanks to Garth Brooks
George Strait made his name
Can't forget Shania Twain
Alan Jackson did his part
Billy's Achy Breaky Heart
Wynonna and John Anderson,
Vince Gill,  Brooks And Dunn
We're tradition we're a brand
greatest station in the land
with you're loyalty I'm sure
we'll be here for 40 more
"Hey, Richie - Kevin here,
this is where I started my career
Boot Scootin, Watermelon Crawl,
Every nite we did em all!"
John Stanley,
Brother Lou
They've been here a year or two
Steve Oby behind the scenes
a one man production team
Kevin Richards middays
winner of the CMA's
Along with Sean and I,
15 years in morning drive
We didn't start the station
It was here you know 40 years ago
It's that's best station in the nation
It's gonna stay that way, it's WGNA
                                                               (repeat)
                                               end with one of the original jingles!
old wgna logo
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I won't get all "Wikipedia" on you here.  I saved that for the song. But we're very proud of being a part of the amazing heritage that is WGNA.  Sorry, folks, but it's time to pound our chest a little here!

If you want to REALLY hear the history and where we came from, you can read some of the articles that Kevin Richards has posted.  What was the first song we ever played?  Who has been on the air the longest?  (Answer? Jumpin' John Stanley!).  Lots of interesting information there and on his Sunday radio special.

In the meantime, I decided to try to rhyme all of the great song titles from that era and give a little credit to some of the folks who have been on the air and behind the scenes the longest.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Kudos to everyone else in the building no matter how long you've been here. Hopefully we can keep it rolling another 40 years (let me know how that goes--I'll be 103 by then)

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