WAYN was founded in 1946 by Wayne M. Nelson of Mooresville. It is one of North Carolina’s earliest radio stations and was the first FCC licensed radio station between Charlotte and Fayetteville.
Bill Futterer, a transplanted New Yorker, became a salesman and ultimately General Manager of WAYN and purchased WAYN IN 1964 with participation from local Rockingham businessmen.
The Futterer family remains owner and operator of WAYN. Bill Futterer III serves as president and general manager and Mary Julian Morgan is music and programming director.
Futterer and sibling John Futterer were among many high school disc jockeys on the long-running Platter Chatter pop and R&B show.
WAYN’s business offices are located in the Richmond Observer building at 115 South Lawrence Street in uptown Rockingham.
- On-air and streaming 24 hours daily originates in the Jimmy Smith Studio, named in honor of WAYN’s morning host for 63 years.
- WAYN has donated over $6.0 million in on-air value to the Richmond County schools, Richmond Community College, Discovery Place for Kids, local law enforcement, non-profits, local hospitals, and religious and civic organizations.
- WAYN takes great pride in its holiday music traditions. Mary Morgan has continued the Christmas programming with the very best in sacred and secular music that WAYN has collected over the past 77 years.
- Recent innovations in 2023 include over 25,000 annual chats featuring local citizens, businesses, non-profits and municipal employees. WAYN has also created Platter Chatter Legacy, featuring Motown, beach and soul music and former Platter Chatter DJ’s dating back 70 years.
- The Ledbetter Men’s Bible Class, now in its 77th year, is the longest continually running radio show in the Carolinas.
- Former Platter Chatter DJ Ron Stutts, a long-time personality on WCHL in Chapel Hill, is now the “voice” of WAYN. Another former WAYN announcer and a retired teacher, Jennifer Richardson Byrd, is both a voice talent and a commercial representative of WAYN.
On-air personalities Carlton Hawkins and CeCi Giddens and consulting engineer Jim Heim are additional vital members of the WAYN team.