station was moved to Du Quoin in 1953 and began transmitting from north of Du Quoin in St. Johns. The station then changed its call letters to WDQN of the Lankford Broadcasting Company. The first studio was in Du Quoin on the 2nd floor of the Riggio building at the corner of Main and Walnut Streets. Around 1959, a new studio was constructed at the site of the tower. The station signed on with a BC-GY250 radio transmitter that was manufactured by the Gates Radio Corporation of Quincy, Illinois in 1953. WDQN operated at a power of 250 watts during the day and a power of 10 watts at night. They remained at this power even after the deregulation of broadcast powers by the FCC. This power was used until the original transmitter was replaced in 2003, where the power was then reduced to 170 watts and 6.6 watts.  In 1969, WDQN signed-on a new FM frequency, WDQN-FM, which operated as a simulcast of WDQN.  The original tower was constructed to a height of about 173 feet, but was then added on to in 1988 to take the height to 311 feet.