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Clarke Broadcasting
	File:Clarke Broadcasting Logo.png
Company type	Corporation
Industry	Radio broadcasting
Founded	June 18, 1956; 67 years ago in Athens, Georgia, U.S.
Founder	H. Randolph Holder Sr.
Headquarters	Athens, Georgia, U.S.
Area served	U.S.
Key people	H. Randolph Holder
Brands	myMotherLode.com, KVML, KKBN and KZSQ
Website	clarkebroadcasting.com

Clarke Broadcasting, Inc. owns American radio stations Sonora, California and the owning corporation is based in Nevada. The Board of Directors is chaired by H. Randolph Holder, Jr and includes Janice Holder Black and Susan C. Holder as Directors.

Tom Nankival is General Manager of KVML/KZSQ/KKBN/myMotherlode.com.

The stations are affiliated with the AP, ABC News Network and Fox News Radio with weather provided by KCRA.

History[edit]

In 1956 Clarke Broadcasting Corporation was formed in Clarke County, Georgia and purchased the Athens, Georgia radio stations WGAU<link to existing WGAU wiki page> and WGAU-FM. H. Randolph Holder, Sr., and J. Thomas Lloyd each owned fifty percent of the stock. After the purchase, the stations started editorializing, the first station in Athens to do so. In 1962, WGAU-FM was the second station in Georgia to feature stereo six hours a day.

In 1963 Clarke Broadcasting worked out a cooperative agreement with the University of Georgia School of Journalism to allow students to use WGAU-FM for three hours an evening for separate programming in stereo. The agreement was kept until 1968 with Clarke Broadcasting Corporation paying for the balanced lines between the University's studios and our transmitter, a service to the school, the students, and to the state's broadcasters in training future employees.

In 1963 Clarke Broadcasting Corporation purchased radio station WLAQ in Rome, Georgia.

In 1965 radio station WRIX was purchased in Griffin, Georgia. The call letters were changed to WGRI; the station was sold in 1968.

In March 1968, Clarke Broadcasting enlarged its studios by 1800 square feet to go full time separate programming on WGAU-FM and changed its name to WNGC: "We're North Georgia Country", becoming Northeast Georgia's FIRST full-time country music station and was an instantaneous success. WNGC-FM was one of the first FM stations in the nation to program country music full time.

In 1976, WNGC went twenty-four hours a day and moved from 5200 watts to a 100,000 watts stereo with a new 605-foot tower and new transmitter building, constructed 12 miles away at Neese, Georgia. The Athens studios were linked by microwave to the remote transmitter site.

In March 1982, Mr. Lloyd formed a new corporation and purchased Mr. Holder's share of WLAQ, and Mr. Holder purchased Mr. Lloyd's interest in WGAU and WNGC.

In May 1983, WNGC was issued a construction permit for a new tower 1189 feet tall, 1248 feet above average terrain and, using two 20-KW transmitters and a 6-bay antenna, doubling its coverage, reaching five states: Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama.

In 1986, Clarke Broadcasting Corporation, through its subsidary H Group, Inc, purchased radio stations KVML and KZSQ-FM in Sonora, CA. KVML, licensed in 1949, was Sonora's first radio station. In 1973, KVML-FM, now KZSQ-FM, commenced separate programming on 92.7 MHZ, as Sonora, California's first FM service. H Group, Inc was subsequebtly folded into its parent company Clarke Broadcasting Corporation.

In 1995, Clarke Broadcasting put KVRQ-FM, a new frequency at 92.5mhz, on the air in Atwater, CA serving the Merced, CA market, soon adding radio stations KLOQ/KFMK-FM and upgrading the AM to 10,000 watts at 1660khz on the expanded AM band. The stations were sold in 2002 to Mapleton Communications.

On September 15, 1999, WNGC-FM (Construction Permit) was sold to Cox Broadcasting, Atlanta, and WGAU was sold to Southern Broadcasting, Athens, who also purchased the WNGC call letters and format in its entirety.

On March 1, 2000, KKBN-FM, Twain Harte, California was purchased from Clear Mountain Air and made the switch to country on May 12, 2000, quickly growing to the Number 1 Country Station in the Mother Lode.

On December 1, 2000, Clarke Broadcasting acquired Mother Lode Internet, the first Tuolumne County local Internet Service Provider (founded 1994) and created myMotherLode.com, the community's portal, in 2000. Mother Lode Internet was sold in 2008,Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Clarke-owned stations[edit]

Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.

All of the assets are owned by Clarke Broadcasting, Inc.^[1]

(**) indicates a station that was built and signed-on by Clarke.

Radio stations[edit]

AM Stations

FM Stations

Market	Station	Owned Since	Current Format
Sonora	KKBN 93.5	2000	Country
	KZSQ 1440	1986	Adult contemporary
	KVML 1450	1986	News/Talk
	KVML 102.7	2015	News/Talk

Former Clarke-owned stations[edit]

Clarke also owned...

Radio stations[edit]

AM Stations

FM Station

Market	Station/ Frequency	Years owned	Current ownership
Athens, Georgia	WGAU/99.5	1956–1999	owned by Cox Media
Griffin, Georgia	WRIX/WGRI	1965–1968	owned by Cumulus Media
Griffin, Georgia	WLAQ	1963–1982	none
Rome, Georgia	KVRQ 1590	1995–2002	owned by Cripple Creek Broadcasting
Merced/Atwater, CA	KLOQ-AM 1590	1996–1997	owned by Mapleton Communications
Merced/Atwater, CA	KTFN/KRAN/1660AM 1590	1997–2002	owned by Stephens Media Group