WROX, Clarksdale’s first radio station, began broadcasting on June 5, 1944, from 321 Delta Avenue and from 1945 until 1955 was headquartered at 257 Delta, where it became famous for blues even as it aired a wide range of network and local programming. After founder Robin Weaver sold the station in the fall of 1944 to Birney Imes Sr. of Columbus, the Imes family owned it until 1990, first at this location and later in the Alcazar Hotel building. Blues artists including Ike Turner, Robert Nighthawk, Sonny Boy Williamson No. 2, Raymond Hill, Doctor Ross, Jackie Brenston, and Sonny Boy Williamson & the King Biscuit Entertainers hosted programs or performed live from the studios, and Williamson’s King Biscuit Time was added to WROX’s weekday schedule in the 1940s through a Delta Network link with KFFA in Helena. Early “Soul Man” Wright, who came to the station in 1945 as manager of the Four Star Quartet, became the leading personality in local broadcasting after station manager Preston “Buck” Hinman made him WROX’s first African American announcer, breaking the color line of segregated southern radio. Wright sold Sunday morning time to local gospel groups, attracted many sponsors, and built a dual on-air identity as “The Soul Man” for blues and R&B and “Brother Early Wright” for gospel; he remained on the air until 1998, and his broadcasts opened the way for other African American deejays at WROX, including Roy Messenger, Clarence Monix, Ike Turner, and Raymond Hill. The studios also hosted after-hours recording sessions by producers and station personnel, including Turner and John Friskillo, and in 2004 Kinchen “Bubba” O’Keefe opened a WROX Museum there.