The Middle Georgia Broadcasting Company applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on April 22, 1940, to build a new radio station in Macon using 250 watts on 1420 kHz.
[1] Earlier than the proprietors expected,[2] the FCC approved the application on May 21, conditioning the application on identification of suitable studio and transmitter sites, and granted the final permit on August 9 for the station to maintain its transmitter at 8th and Mulberry streets and its studio in Macon's First National Bank Building.
[11][12] Studios moved into the former Macon Natural Gas building in late 1949,[13] and two years later, the station switched networks to NBC.
WDDO broadcast a "soul music" format aimed at Black listeners and had been created in 1977 as a result of needing to split programming from WCRY-FM 107.9, with which it had been simulcasting.
For WDDO, the switch to the 1240 facility was an upgrade from 250 to 1,000 watts and to nighttime operation,[25] enabling it to mount a better challenge to heritage station WIBB.
Six months prior, on January 20, vandals had stolen copper grounding wire from the transmitter site, resulting in the station going off the air.