WLAC: Nashville’s Late Night R & B Beacon

For many lovers of rock and roll, the station of choice was neither a local outlet nor a national network. It was something in between—WLAC, based in Nashville, Tennessee, which blasted 50,000 watts of varied programming, including plenty of rhythm and blues at night. In response to the contention that African Americans in rural areas of the South were still unserved by radio, the Federal Communications Commission granted WLAC permission to have one of the...