WLOU
radio station in Louisville, Kentucky
WLOU (1350 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Louisville, Kentucky, United States, airing an urban adult contemporary format for the Louisville metropolitan area. Owned by New Albany Broadcasting, the station has studios on West Muhammad Ali Boulevard, west of downtown and a transmitter sited on the city's westside near I-264.
WLOU programming is simulcast on WLUE in Eminence, Kentucky, and also heard over low-power FM translator W284AD on 104.7 MHz.
History
Heritage
WLOU signed on the air on November 19, 1948. At first, it was a daytimer, required to go off the air at night. It had a general format in its first three years. But its owners made a bold move at that point.
WLOU is the heritage black station in Louisville, programming to that community continuously since October 21, 1951. It became a "Negro radio station," using a staff of black disc jockeys. The early conversion to rhythm & blues (R&B) music makes WLOU one of the first five full-time R&B stations in the United States.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “WLOU” as radio station in Louisville, Kentucky. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as radio station in Louisville, Kentucky. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7952403. Authority coordinates are 38.231, -85.823. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1350, 1948 and 1951.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “WLOU”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow WLOU primary sources, WLOU archive and WLOU research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “WLOU”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “WLOU” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.