WDKN
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| City | Dickson, Tennessee |
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| Frequency | 1260 kHz |
| Format | Country music |
| Power | 5,000 watts (day) 18 watts (night) |
| Class | D |
| Facility ID | 18713 |
| Owner | R & F Communications, Inc. |
| Website | www.wdkn1260am.com |
WDKN (1260 AM) is a radio station operating in Dickson, Tennessee, on a frequency of 1260 kHz. It was formerly owned by Edmisson Communications, a local Dickson company. It is currently owned and operated by R & F Communications, also a local Dickson company.
WDKN broadcasts primarily country music and community-oriented programming for the Dickson area such as death notices, a community calendar of events, local high school football and basketball games, and the small-town radio staple Swap and Shop, an on-air garage sale whose announcements are free to private, non-commercial vendors.
WDKN broadcasts a 5,000 watt signal during daylight hours but is restricted by the Federal Communications Commission to 18 watts after dark so as not to interfere with out-of-market stations on the same frequency.
The station is an affiliate of the Tennessee Titans radio network.
The station left the air as of March 19, 2009. On July 27, 2009, the station came back on the air with fanfare and new owners, but a very similar format and programming.
On New Years Day of 1955, at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the first words ever to be spoken over the airwaves of WDKN were "This is Hal Smith beginning a history of broadcasting in Dickson, Tennessee....there was a baby born in Wisconsin this morning at 12:01 am, and in Dickson, Tennessee here at 1:00 pm, January 1st, 1955, a radio station was born."
WDKN's origins date back to the summer of 1954, when John Bailey of Clarksville found an available frequency and thought of Dickson. Bailey started looking for someone to take on the task of co-owning and running a radio station in Dickson at AM frequency 1260. It turns out he didn't find anyone, but Bill Potts found him. Potts became majority owner in the now three-way partnership, which also included Mitchell Hayes.
WDKN's first studio location was on Main Street above the current downtown Bank of Dickson location. When Mr. Potts, who died in 2004, was asked about the station's philosophy in the early days, he replied "If it happened, we covered it." He also said the station staff worked by a few basic principles, among them "the first thing we do is serve the public, money wouldn't enter into it." Mr. Potts went on to own and work with the station for 25 years.
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