WDDD-FM (or W3-D, as the station was called) broadcast country music, local news, and sports to a multi-county area with an initial staff of six. The station originated live broadcasts from the scene of news and sporting events using the newly available “Marti” equipment, introduced the very popular Country Store and Back Talk programs, and was the first station in the area to broadcast in full stereo. The station also took a leading role in broadcasting severe weather information.
The station’s sign-on personalities included Steve Schmidt, Big Al Henager, Steve Land, Fred Keller, and Dutch Doelitzsch, station founder and general manager.
The station broadcast 24 hours per day and by 1972 had outgrown its downtown location. New studios and a 500 ft. tower was built at the north city limits of Marion when power was boosted to 50,000 watts in 1974. This made WDDD the most powerful station in Southern Illinois.
The station continued to grow, adding WDDD-AM 810, which went on the air July 1, 1979. WDDD-AM was also operated 24 hours per day; unlike many of the other area AM stations which were daytime only stations. W3-D was the audience leader in the region for many years and received numerous awards and recognitions, including Top 10 FM station in the nation, Illinois Broadcasters Radio Station of the Year, Marion’s Industry of the Year in 1983 and others.
W3-D’s Weather Watch used the area’s first weather radar system to predict and cover tornadoes and other severe weather, interrupting regular programming for extended coverage and utilizing the Storm Sentry automatic alerting system. The station played a key role during the tornado which swept through the county on May 28, 1982. W3-D tracked the tornado’s movements and gave residents precious moments of advance warning to take cover. As a result of the station’s outstanding performance during the disaster, WDDD and manager Dutch Doelitzsch were honored with special resolutions by both the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate.
Other firsts for the station included satellite dishes for program reception, a computerized traffic and billing system, and “Stepping Out Country”, a half hour weekly television program featuring interviews with country music stars. W3-D was a reporting station for the national charts, which meant that air-play for a new record on W3-D moved the record up the charts.
W3-D was one of just a very few reporting stations which were not located in major metropolitan areas, such as New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, and was very well known in the country music record business.
In 1998, Doelitzsch sold all of his radio station interests to Cumulus Broadcasting. At a later time the stations passed to Clear Channel and then to Withers Broadcasting. Withers is a company based out of Mt. Vernon, Illinois who own most of the stations in Southern Illinois.
( Data and photos from Dutch Doelitzsch and 1989 Sesquicentennial History, WCHS; Compiled by Sam Lattuca on 03/03/2013)