WDUN (550 kHz), known as "North Georgia's Newstalk", is a news/talk formatted AMradio station licensed to the city Gainesville, Georgia, in the Atlanta, Georgia radio market. WDUN is licensed as a Class B AM broadcast facility by the Federal Communications Commission operating with 10,000 watts of power during the daytime using a non-directional antenna signal pattern, and 2,500 watts during nighttime using a directional antenna pattern. The station is currently owned by JWJ Properties, Inc., doing business as Jacobs Media Corporation, which also operates WDUN-FM in Clarkesville, Georgia.[1][2][3]
About a year after World War II ended, The Atlanta Constitution newspaper was granted a construction permit to build a station on the enviable 550 kHz spot. The paper erected a four -tower, in -line directional array off Defoors Ferry Road, Fulton County, Georgia. WCON hit the southern airwaves in 1947 as a 5000-watt ABC affiliate. Its studios and ample staff were located in the Constitution Building. The FCC suspected that the station's antenna pattern might not be as predictable in practice as it was (in theory) on the application form. When the readings didn't look manageable, the Commission backed away from fully licensing WCON beyond its initial construction permit and program test authorization. Whether the station could have been fixed to the FCC's satisfaction became an academic question when, a year or so later, the Constitution merged with rival The Atlanta Journal. Because (in those pre-duopoly days), the Journal already owned one of the South's finest stations, 50,000-watt WSB 750, the resulting media company (Atlanta Newspapers, Inc.) was only allowed one Atlanta-area AM, so it quickly took troubled WCON dark. Reportedly, much of the equipment was sold to another then-fledgling Atlanta station, WQXI 790.[4]
As part of the station's history, "WDUN 550" and sports formatted 1240 ESPN Radio (WGGA) swapped dial positions in 1983.
