WRJD signed on October 15th, 1954 as WSRC, the first black- formatted radio station in what is now the Triangle area and one of the first such stations in North Carolina. Ironically, founder John Greene, Jr., was white and the station itself remained under white ownership until 1986 (Greene was also the original owner of Raleigh's legendary WLLE). The station's first day on-air was cut short, as Hurricane Hazel roared into town and knocked the fledgling station off the air by mid-afternoon. However, WSRC returned to the air the next morning. Norfley Whitted, the South's first black disc jockey, came over to the new station from WDNC. Other notable personalities included Ervin Hester, who later became a well-known reporter and anchor at Durham's WTVD, channel 11 and the first black inducted into the North Carolina Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and Jimmy Byrd, better known as "Dr. Jive", who went onto Boston's legendary WILD where he became known as "Early Byrd" and was the inspiration for Ike and Tina Turner's song, "Doing the Early Byrd". WSRC was well-known for rhythm and blues with some gospel thrown in for good measure. In 1965, they signed on an FM station, WSRC-FM 107.1, (now known as WFXC). WSRC-FM was sold to Duke University in 1968, and became WDBS. During the seventies, WSRC was owned by Jim Mayes, who helped launch WARR in Warrenton, NC, in 1970. In 1986, WSRC was sold to Willis Broadcasting of Norfolk, Virginia and adopted a gospel and inspirational format as "Love 1410". In October of 2005, WSRC was sold to Davidson Media Group for $1.2 million. Davidson assumed control of the station March 16th, 2006, and the historic WSRC call letters were retired on April 1st and replaced with WRJD (Rejoice 1410 AM), though the station remained a black gospel outlet. Originally a 1,000-watt daytime-only operation, the station upgraded to a 5,000-watt directional daytime signal and a 290-watt nighttime directional signal in 1978 from a three-antenna array on Coclough Street, off Interstate 85 South near the East Club Boulevard exit (#179). This station's original studio and tower was located a few blocks west of this site in a Quonset hut at 700 East Club Boulevard. In late November of 1988, the studios and offices moved to 3202 Guess Road (NC 157) (within sight of those of His Radio WRTP) before the station relocated to 707 Leon Street, home of new sister station WTIK, in 2006. The historic WSRC call letters live on in the most famous work of Durham Artist Ernie Barnes, who depicted a banner advertising the station in his painting, "Sugar Shack". The painting was featured on the CBS sitcom "Good Times" and also graced the cover of the Marvin Gaye album, "I Want You". Though it was never visible on the TV show, a banner for the station hangs from the rafters in the upper right corner of the painting.
