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The facility which is now home to WKJV is now sixty years old. It has been home for several broadcasting companies which have also held several different formats. The original construction was completed and signed on the air in 1948.

Then it was WLOS AM which was eventually moved to Macon Avenue in the same building which was shared by WLOS TV. The FCC rules included a prohibition of a radio station and the TV station occuping the same building. WLOS AM and FM were both located here. WLOS-FM was on 104.3 with 9.1 KW of power. Then in the early 1950's, it moved to 99.9 and was moved to Mt. Pisgah.

Therefore the station was sold to the Greater Asheville Broadcasting Co. owned by the John Jenkins family in Huntington, WV in 1969 with the call letters WKKE. The format was middle of the road-Top 40, with their main competition being WWNC which controlled the number one market share in America for most of the years during the last half of the 20th century.

WKKE was changed to to WRAQ in November of 1977, taking on an adult rock format, which was later changed to country, and then in 1982, the Jenkins family hired Sid Hughes to become Program Director as WRAQ took on a Southern Gospel format.

Later Ricky Seay became Program Director. Ricky is now General Manager of WHBK Radio in Marshall, NC.

In 1988, the Jenkins family sold WRAQ to George H. Buck of New Orleans, LA. The station call sign was then changed to WTOO and was operated by the GHB Broadcasting Co. In June of 1992, the owner told the manager of WTOO that the station was not making money. He expressed that if the station was not operating in the black by July 1st, the format would be changed to Rock & Roll.

Pastor Doug Roland of the Maple Ridge Baptist Church in Candler, NC heard the news of the impending change. He then notified some of the area pastors. A meeting was called at Trinity Baptist Church on July 5, 1992. During the meeting of approximately 30 pastors and concerned individuals, a committee was formed to decide what direction to pursue in order to insure the station would remain gospel. There were several options discussed. The direction decided upon was to attempt a buy out of WTOO from its then present owner.

Anchor Baptist Church in Pisgah Forest, NC where Dr. Randy Barton is the pastor, was asked to be the official purchaser and operator of the station. They agreed on the condition that the people in the Asheville area listening community raise the $50,000 needed for the down payment.

The Christian community responded to the call for help. Bro. George Lindsey, Bro. Steve Rhinehart, Bro. Doug Roland and Dr. J. Wendell Runion spent a total of one hour per day on the station airing a plea for help. The people and churches in the listening area gave a total of $53,000 in those five days and a total of five hours on the air. No one person could take credit for this happening. It was simply a move of god on the Christian community. A joint effort from many churches, pastors, and people; and a miracle took place.

Pastor Barton and Anchor Baptist Church agreed to operate the station for a period fo time until it could become successful and independent. I was clearly, solely under the ownership of Anchor Baptist Church and was operating under the umbrella of Anchor Baptist Broadcasting which also operated and does until this day radio station WGCR 720 AM in Pisgah Forest, NC. They were asked to take the station because of their success in taking a small 1000 watt AM station and upgrading it to a 10,000 watt powerhouse at 720 AM. The main reason being their fundamental gospel format with conservative Christian music and sound gospel preaching.

In October of 1992, the FCC granted a license to Anchor Broadcasting take the ownership and management of radio station WKJV. These call letters were chosen because they would identify that the station stood for the infallibility of the A.V. 1611 King James Bible.

The first day of operation was an exciting time for everyone. WKJV signed on the air and played 1380 songs without interruption. A prayer and victory celebration was held in the parking lot with the Harvest Time Quaret singing and Bro. Steve Rhinehart , who is pastor of Mt. Sheba Baptist Church in Weaverville, doing the preaching.

While under the operations of Anchor Baptist Broadcasting, Dr. J. Wendell Runion was asked to become the Station Manager. He served in that capacity until January, 1996. At that time, Pastor Barton told Dr. Runion that Anchor Baptist Church was no longer willing to keep WKJV as part of their ministry.

International Baptist Outreach Misssions, Inc. then took WKJV on a lease agreement which lasted until 1997. Tony Maynor was made manager of WKJV shortly after the lease agreement went into effect. Dr. Runion serves as President and Director of International Baptist Outreach Missions, Inc.(IBOM), which is the parent corporation of WKJV. IBOM has a Vice President which is Dr. R.G. Smith of Winder, GA, and a ten member board including mostly preachers and some laymen who are successful business men.

WKJV, which is known by the business name The King's Radio, has experienced a continual growth under the leadership of Dr. Runion, and much credit must be given to Tony Maynor and the fine staff. In September of 2001 the station was granted the privilege to increase the power to 25,000 watts which was a miracle within itself. The FCC does not normally grant a license for 25,000 watt AM stations. The engineering work was done and the application was made with the FCC and in a record five months it was approved and the construction was completed in a short time. WKJV began broadcasting at 25,000 watts on September 17, 2001. The signal can now be heard over a large portion of Western North Carolina and even into upstate South Carolina and Eastern Tennessee.

The advantage of a high powered station is that the fundamental gospel message in preaching and song can be heard by many more people. WKJV also began broadcasting all around the world on August 15, 2000 at www.wkjv.com.. The response has come from as far away as Australia, Europe and Asia.