For people like Mr. Manuel, who once played the accordion as his father hosted the station’s “Saturday Night Jamboree” program, its return signals an opportunity for the area’s musical history to become more complete after years of West Memphis being overshadowed by its more prominent neighbor to the east.

Image KWEM helped boost the careers of music stars like Howlin' Wolf. Credit... Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

“I, for decades, have seen guys fly into Memphis, bring their camera crews, go out to Sun Studios and do about four hours of filming and talk to some people out there, get on a plane and go back to New York and tell their bosses, ‘I’ve got the Memphis music story,’ ” Mr. Manuel said. “And what they’ve got is the icing on the cake. What this means here is that there is such a deep story: the cake itself. The people, as a whole, do not know that story, and they’re fixing to get acquainted with it.”

Melody has long been big business for Memphis, home to Graceland and Beale Street, and where even the airport’s logo evokes the city’s musical heritage. But now West Memphis and its Mid-South Community College are betting that KWEM will help lure tourists across the Hernando de Soto Bridge to a place that even some of its boosters describe as little more than a truck-stop town.

It is what the author Peter Guralnick, whose acclaimed writings about Southern music include a two-volume biography of Presley, described as “an act of creative archaeology” devoted to unearthing a vivid history.

“KWEM has been a secret,” said Henry Nelson, who grew up here and was later a radio personality in Memphis. “It definitely reshapes my thinking about our music heritage and culture.”