Oak City Media, Inc.

Just as toymaker Coleco was founded in 1932 as the "Connecticut Leather Company" and communications provider Nokia began in 1865 as a paper mill operator, the entity that today exists as Oak City Media didn't begin under that name. And it certainly didn't begin as a media organization.

What's now Oak City Media began as... a softball team. The Carolina Softball Club was formally organized on March 4, 1995 by Glenn Bronstein and D.P. McIntire, friends and co-workers who joined forces to launch an employer sponsored softball team. The day the team took the field for its first game? The employer went out of business - a less than auspicious beginning. With little better to do, they and the team went on.

Over time, Carolina Softball Club went from a single team to two, then three, then a full league of its own. Bronstein would leave the organization, but as the result of an on-field player accident and fearing legal liability, McIntire would kick off the new millennium by incorporating the organization as "ColtSport, Incorporated" on January 1, 2001.

Under the ColtSport banner from 2001 to 2005, the organization's softball program would expand and an off-season flag football league would be launched. The organization's 10th anniversary brought with it another structural and name change, becoming "Capital Area Team Sports, Inc."

Growth continued through the 2000's, and by 2012 CATS would be operating teams or leagues year-round, playing basketball, dodgeball, flag football, golf, softball and other sports, meriting attention in Newsweek magazine and other prominent places. But as our members grew older, we sought a new purpose, and in mid-2013? We found it.

Going for broke, we spent 2013 winding down our sports operations, and that October 15 we submitted an application with the Federal Communications Commission, seeking to build a brand new, low power FM ("LPFM") radio station to serve the people of Raleigh, North Carolina.

To our delight, on March 18, 2014 our application was approved - along with permission to use the call sign "WKRP", a name which for many evokes memories of the popular 1978-82 CBS television series "WKRP in Cincinnati."

The next 623 days were spent raising money, undergoing another name change, preparing studio space, buying equipment, raising our antenna and more. Finally, at noon on November 30, 2015, WKRP began its first day on the air.

Today, Oak City Media, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, public benefit corporation whose mission is simple: "Educate. Inform. Entertain." Our goal is to provide programs and activities that serve as a means for people in the area to communicate, to be informed, and to be entertained.

We're always interested in helping those with a true commitment to broadcasting and pursuing it, doing so through the "spacious, luxurious Oak City Studios" in northeast Raleigh, where our studios, offices, transmitter and production facilities reside.