HOUSE COMMEMORATION   NO. 1020

        Introduced by: Representatives Michels and Hunhoff and Senator Moore  

         A LEGISLATIVE COMMEMORATION,  Honoring and supporting WNAX Radio in Yankton on the occasion of its eightieth anniversary.

     WHEREAS,  in 1922, Dakota Radio Apparatus in Yankton applied for and received a broadcasting license from the federal government for what became WNAX. The radio station began in a small upstairs store on Walnut Street in downtown Yankton and was used to broadcast music and announcements to a cafe downstairs. In 1925, Chan Gurney, seeing the possibilities persuaded his father, D.B. Gurney, to buy the young station, move the radio station into the Gurney home on Mulberry Street, and broadcast full-time shortly thereafter. In 1943, WNAX built a 927-foot tower, one of the tallest AM towers in the world, and dedicated it to the Midwest farmer; and

     WHEREAS,  WNAX reaches into five states from its Yankton location and is one of only five stations in the United States with the same call letters since the early 1920s. WNAX was one of the first in the region to begin receiving wire reports in the mid-1930s from United Press; and

     WHEREAS,  WNAX has broadcast local, regional, and world events, from the dedication of Mount Rushmore in 1939 and in 1941, and the rededication in 1991, to the end of World War II, to the ground-breaking of Gavins Point Dam in 1956, to the commissioning of the USS Rushmore in 1993. The fall of 2002 marks the eightieth Anniversary of WNAX beginning its service to the Midwest:

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED,  by the House of Representatives of the Seventy- seventh Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the Legislature congratulates WNAX Radio of Yankton on its exemplary service to the people of South Dakota on the occasion of its eightieth anniversary.