Radio Trivia: WKDJ, owned by Dave Greenlee, was sold to Bud Walters' Cromwell Group in 1981 and the calls were changed to WFMI. (Dave Greenlee put WKDJ on in 1974, first operating out of studios in a Winchester shopping center, and later from Dave's home. More about WKDJ on this page.)

"WFMI was licensed to Winchester on 100.1 MHz at a power level of 3KW. Bud Walters' Cromwell Group of Nashville owned the operation under the calls WFMI until it was sold to a group out of Albany NY in 1989 and they changed the calls to WLFX ("Fox 100"), changing the format to AC.

"Bud reacquired the license to build the power upgrade as WHRS-FM in 1992 at the Trumper/WLAP Radio Park site on Russell Cave Road and then sold the station to be combined into the WLAP family of stations as Young Country WWYC in early 1993. The upgraded 20KW, 100.1 frequency is still licensed to Winchester and now carries the programming of WKQQ, after that station's 100KW frequency on 98.1 became country giant WBUL-FM.

 WFMI Air Staff

"WFMI's studios were located on Main Street in downtown Winchester, first at a rather old second story location at 58 1/2 Main, then I moved them almost directly across the street to the final Winchester location of 53 S. Main.

"As an additional note, the 53 S. Main location was also the final resting place of WWKY, 1380. When the FM moved out, the FM control room became the main studio for the AM until it also left town and now the 1380 transmitter is outside of and licensed to Nicholasville, running 5KW, as religious WMJR by Thy Kingdom Come Network, Inc. Their studio is in Lexington."

Lexington Herald - February 20, 1981
There's a New FM Radio Signal Floating on Local FM Airwaves
By David Reed

If you happen to be tuning around the FM radio dial this weekend, you might stumble upon a new signal.

That's because Winchester's new FM radio station, WFMI, is expected to begin testing its transmitter soon and will begin regular, full-time broadcasting on March 2.

WFMI, 100.1 on the dial, is owned by the Cromwell Group Inc. of Nashville and isn't exactly a new radio station. It replaces WKDJ, which went off the air in December.

"Our format will be personality-adult-contemporary," explains vice president and general manager Larry Trimmer. "That means we'll have real people on the radio and be aimed at the young adult. You might say our sound will be similar to WLAP-FM but will skew a little different. People will hear the difference."

Translated, that means WFMI will attempt to attract young people from about 18 to 34 with current music played by disc jockeys instead of machines. It appears that's a formula that will work in this area. The 3,000 watt Winchester FM station should reach some areas of Lexington and is considered the ABC FM network affiliate for the Lexington area, according to Trimmer.

Trimmer said he expects WFMI to be more successful than WKDJ for several reasons, not the least of which is programming.

WKDJ played country music and did not have stereophonic sound. WFMI will program in stereo.

The station expects to begin broadcasting at 6 a.m. March 2.

 
Indy Jones does morning drive on WFMI in November 1987