Located in Middletown, WPFB-AM was originally owned by Paul F. Braden and signed on the air September 1, 1947, with Ranny Daly as the program director. Braden had two refreshing ideas that started drawing listeners immediately. He instituted remote news broadcasts several days a week from smaller towns around Middletown such as Lebanon and Eaton, which had been underserved by the larger radio stations, and he programmed hillbilly music, which appealed to the hundreds of thousands of transplanted southerners who had come north to work in the factories of Middletown, Hamilton, Cincinnati, and Dayton. The Osborne Brothers, Red Allen, Dave Woolum, Hylo Brown, Jimmy Martin, J.D. Crowe, Jim and Jesse, Smokey Ward, Old Joe Clark, and Fairley Holden all worked at WPFB on the live daytime shows and the Saturday night WPFB Jamboree, which was broadcast from a tent on the grounds, later a barn, and finally the Middletown National Guard Armory. National name acts including Hank Williams made appearances in WPFB’s tent. In 1964, DJ Paul “Moon” Mullins came to WPFB and built himself into a bluegrass broadcasting legend.
WPFB