The first all-comedy based radio station debuted January 31st, 1983 in the Washington DC market. WJOK-AM, broadcasting at 1150 am, played comedy routines and humor based content 24 hours a day. In between 2-4 minute comedy bits "joke jockeys" would report news and weather The New York Times
reported WJOK had eighteen months of air-able material to play without repeats. In that same article; WJOK's station manager was inspired by the old Dial-a-joke service provided by the telephone company. He's quoted as saying,
"If thousands of people would all up and pay to hear one joke, I figured they'd love to hear hours of jokes for nothing.''That's entirely true. People do love jokes, but WJOK was unable to stay afloat. Broadcasting from Gaithersburg, Maryland, the station's weak signal was seen as a handicap. Perhaps no one was ready for the format? Maybe the programming formula wasn't right? No one can answer for sure.
Today, the former WJOK now goes by
WMET and broadcasts Catholic religious programming. The call letters
WJOK have since been reassigned to an AM Christian radio station in Kaukauna, Wisconsin
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