The station signed on the air in 1951 under the call letters WKIN and was soon owned by Cy Bahakel.

The station was originally daytime-only and, over the years, increased its power to 5,000 watts.

Some key names over the years included: Nighttime service was added in 1981 with a new 4-tower directional array at the intersection of East Stone Drive and New Beason Well Road in Kingsport, and a nighttime power of 500 watts.

[4] Citadel Broadcasting, which had owned WJCW and WQUT since 1977, bought WGOC and WKIN in 2000.

[5] Prior to its current programming, WGOC was broadcasting a Classic Country/Bluegrass/Gospel format.