The Bakewell Company
WBOK 1230 AM
The Bakewell Company
WBOK 1230 AM
AM 1230 was originally WJBW with a Top 40 format in the late 1950s, but by the end of the decade it switched call letters to WSHO and became a Broadway music formatted outlet. In 1962 WBOK swapped signals with WSHO and moved its R&B format to the 1230 signal. The R&B format would last until the late 1970s when it evolved to its current format after it was sold to by Christian Broadcasting Corporation (Bishop Levi Willis).
WBOK was a Traditional Black Gospel outlet based in New Orleans, LA. The station, which is owned, broadcasts at 1230 kHz with 1 kW-Unlimited power. WBOK’S slogan was “The Message Is In The Music.”
The failure of levees constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers immediately following the landfall of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005 resulted in flooding of WBOK’s studio and offices. The station’s transmitter site received additional flood damage and the broadcast tower was severely damaged.
WBOK is currently operating with a very powerful signal after major upgrades due to damage sustained from Hurricane Katrina. The station has now been purchased by Danny J. Bakewell Sr. on behalf of The Bakewell Family, one of the nation’s oldest and largest African-American owned-and-operated real estate development companies. The Bakewell Company is also the owner of The Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper (recognized as the “Best Paper in America” by the National Newspaper Publishers Association), the largest and oldest African-American newspaper west of the Mississippi.
As of November, 2007, WBOK has returned to the air ready to “Real Talk for Real Times.”
Format
WBOK-AM (1230 AM) black-talk format was launch on November 1, 2007. The first official in-studio guest of the station was Vincent Sylvain, publisher of The New Orleans Agenda e-newsletter, followed by a call-in from former New Orleans’ Mayor Marc Morial, President & CEO of the National Urban League. Later, Pastor Tom Watson of Watson Teaching Ministries offered a blessing of the station praying for its continued success. Other guests included Wayne Baquet, Edgar Chase III, Senator Ed Murray, Senator Ann Duplessis, Jon Johnson, Calvin Mack, Roderick West-President and CEO of Entergy, Sheriff Paul Valtaeu, Sheriff Marlin Gusman, Marvel Robinson, and a host of others.
Congratulatory calls were also made by distinguished leaders from across the country, Senator Barack Obama, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Congresswoman Laura Richardson and other national leaders. Each shared comments of the importance of the station’s role in helping to provide an alternative voice to issues affecting the Black community.
1639 Gentilly Boulevard New Orleans, LA 70119
Office – (504) 942-0106
Fax – (504) 942-0309
www.wbok1230am.com