WGL (AM)

WGL
City Fort Wayne, Indiana
Broadcast area Fort Wayne, Indiana
Branding Fox Sports 1250
Frequency 1250 kHz
First air date 1921 (as WCWK)
Format Sports
Power 2,300 watts (daytime)
1,000 watts (nighttime)
Class B
Facility ID 22285
Callsign meaning "What God Loves"
(original:) World's Greatest Loudspeaker (Magnavox)
Former callsigns WCWK (1921-1928)
Owner Adams Radio Group, LLC
(Adams Radio of Fort Wayne, LLC)
Website 1250foxsports.com

WGL ("Fox Sports 1250 AM") is an AM radio station located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The station operates on the frequency of 1250 kHz and is owned by Adams Radio Group. It airs a Sports radio format, with most programs coming from Fox Sports Radio.

History

The station was the first to broadcast in the city of Fort Wayne. Chester Keen and Lauer Auto founded what was originally called WCWK when it signed on in 1921. Keen bought the Lauer interests in WCWK in 1925. That same year, WOWO was established by the Main Auto Supply Co., with studios above Main Auto's downtown factory.

In 1928, Keen sold WCWK to WOWO owner Fred Zieg, and the call letters were changed to WGL (What God Loves), taking a callsign previously used by the current WADO in New York City. WOWO and WGL were owned by the Zieg family until WOWO's sale to Westinghouse in 1936. Westinghouse sold WGL to the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation in 1945. On September 24, 1947, the station's power was increased from 250 W to 1,000 W.[1]

Subsequently it was purchased by the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. The call letters of WGL were reinterpreted as Wayne's Great Lady, referring to Helene Foelliger, who had markedly improved circulation of the News-Sentinel since becoming publisher less than a decade earlier, when she became the youngest, as well as one of the first female, publishers of a major newspaper. William Kunkle, publisher of the morning Journal-Gazette, followed by establishing WKJG (William Kunkle Journal-Gazette) in 1947, but while WKJG established a television station in 1953, WGL had no television license.

In March 2014, Adams Radio Group, LLC entered an agreement to purchase Summit City's cluster (which includes WGL). Days later, Adams announced they would purchase Oasis Radio Group's stations. To meet ownership limits, Adams will retain WNHT, WGL and WXKE, as well as acquiring Oasis Radio Group's WJFX and WBTU, while selling off WHPP to Fort Wayne Catholic Radio, and selling WGL-FM to Calvary Radio Network. WLYV and two translators (on 96.9 FM and 103.3 FM) will also be acquired by Adams. The transaction, at a price of $6.4 million, was consummated on June 2, 2014. As a result, Adams plans on massive format restructuring. WGL flipped to Fox Sports Radio programming on June 3 after "American Pie" by Don McLean bought a close to WGL and WGL-FM's oldies format.

Programming

WGL is known for being the first station in Fort Wayne to carry a talk format and one of the initial stations to carry The Rush Limbaugh Show, which moved to WOWO in 1996. In February, 1998, WGL changed its format to sports; most of its programming came from "One-On-One Sports" (now "Sporting News Radio.") As a result, they dropped G. Gordon Liddy, Tom Leykis, Art Bell, and local host Rusty Humphries. Between September, 1998 and August, 2000, WGL aired ESPN Radio, claiming it from rival WOWO. By August, 2000, ESPN's affiliation moved to rival WONO, WOWO's sister station. At this point, the format returned to talk, featuring the programs of such hosts as Liddy, Bill O'Reilly, and Jim Rome. Several years later, the format again switched to sports talk under the Fox Sports 1250 banner, with the notable exception of Dave Macy's morning program, which covered news, politics, and culture as well as sports.

WGL was sold (along with the other Kovas Communications stations) to Travis Broadcasting Corp. in December, 2001, for $7.5 million. WGL was purchased, along with its sister stations by Summit City Radio Group in July, 2004. Currently, it broadcasts adult standards, having picked up the format in 2003. WGL aired the syndicated Adult Standards (America's Best Music) format from Dial Global until April 2007, when the station went to a standards/soft AC hybrid with a combination of local DJs and local automation. The station soon returned to airing the Dial Global format with a local morning show.

Weekday programming on The River consisted of Dial Global's America's Best Music format from midnight to noon and then from 6 p.m. to midnight, Dave Ramsey from noon to 3 p.m., and local talk host Pat White from 3 to 6 p.m.

WGL's programming was simulcast full-time on WGL-FM 102.9 until 12:00PM on April 1, 2010, when the FM station broke away to air a Soft AC format as "V102.9". The simulcast returned June 3, 2013, when both WGL and WGL-FM switched to an oldies format. Former WLYV and WQHK-FM disc jockey Rick Hughes served as the station's morning host; Pat White's show was retained on the simulcast (and moved to 2 to 5 p.m.), while Dave Ramsey was dropped from the WGL lineup.[2] As previously stated, this simulcast lasted until June 2014 when both stations switched to Fox Sports Radio.

References

  1. ↑ "Dedicatory Show Marks WGL Increase to 1 kw" (PDF). Broadcasting. October 6, 1947. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  2. ↑ Kilbane, Kevin (May 29, 2013). "Local radio stations WGL AM and FM will switch to oldies music June 3". The News-Sentinel. Retrieved May 29, 2013.

Coordinates: 41°01′16″N 85°09′46″W / 41.02111°N 85.16278°W / 41.02111; -85.16278

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.