WGGC

WGGC-FM
City Bowling Green, Kentucky
Broadcast area

Bowling Green and

surrounding areas
Branding Goober 951
Slogan The New Country Station!
Frequency 95.1 MHz
First air date June 23, 1961 [1][2]
Format Country
Audience share 9.8 (Sp'07 R&R) (, [3])
Power 100,000 Watts
HAAT 967 feet (295 m)
Class C0
Facility ID 27007
Transmitter coordinates 36°54′43.00″N 86°11′21.00″W / 36.9119444°N 86.1891667°W / 36.9119444; -86.1891667
Callsign meaning W Giant Goober of Country
Former callsigns WPRX (1989-1993)
Affiliations UK IMG Sports Network
Owner Heritage Communications, Inc.
Sister stations WLCK, WQXE, WULF, WVLE
Website WGGC.com

WGGC (95.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a country music format. It is licensed to Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA, and serves the Bowling Green area of south-central and west-central Kentucky. The station is currently owned by Heritage Communications, Inc.[4]

Its transmitter is located in northern Allen County on Kentucky Route 101 near the Warren/Allen County line. Its broadcasting studio is located at 1727 US 31W Bypass in Bowling Green.[5]

History

The station's application history dates back to 1959-60, when the call letters were going to be WKAY-FM to match with WKAY-AM, but the WGGC call letters were assigned by the FCC in July 1960.[6] Originally licensed to and located in Glasgow, Kentucky, the station first signed on the air in 1961 under ownership of Glasgow Broadcasting Company (now Heritage Communications, Inc.), which also owned WKAY-AM radio (now WCLU-AM). At the time of its inception, WGGC was the first FM radio station ever to sign on in south central Kentucky as all other FM signals came from either Nashville, Louisville, Central City, or Owensboro. Both WGGC and WKAY shared studios at 510 Happy Valley Road in Glasgow (Kentucky Route 351, now Kentucky State Route 90), which was demolished in November 2014 to make room for a new drug store.[2] During the first two decades of WGGC's existence, the station began as an almost-full-time simulcast of WKAY until the late 1960s. By 1970, the station was broadasting a religious format,[7] and later a gospel music, and eventually began broadcasting their country music format in 1975-76.[8]

In 1988, WGGC's signal origination was moved to its present transmitting site in Allen County.[2] At one point in 1989, the station's callsign was changed to WPRX,[9][10] but reverted to the WGGC callsign in either 1992 or 1993, and until 2002, it was known on air as "Country 95."

From 1988 through the mid-1990s, both WGGC and WCLU (AM) was under ownership of Royse Radio, Inc. While the ownership of both WCLU and WCLU-FM remained in the hands of Royse Radio, WGGC was sold to Heritage Communications in October 1997.[1] Then at some point in the mid-2000s, WGGC moved its broadcasting license to Bowling Green, where the station's broadcast facilities are currently located. From 2002 until 2010, the station was branded as "95.1 WGGC." It began branding itself as "Dolby Digital 95.1" in late 2010.

WGGC has often been involved in community service; most recently in June 2014, when the station, in conjunction with the southern Kentucky chapter of United Way, hosted a radio-thon to raise money for country music superstar Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.[11] It became an annual event beginning in 2015.

Programming and format

WGGC broadcasts a country music format, therefore competing with three other country formatted stations in the same market: WBVR-FM 96.7, Cave City-licensed WHHT 103.7, and Glasgow-based WLYE-FM 94.1 for ratings. WGGC also competes with out-of-market country stations like WSM-AM, WSM-FM, WKDF and WSIX-FM in Nashville, along with WBKR in Owensboro for the allegiances of the local listener due to Bowling Green's close proximity to both nearby cities. In fact, both cities can pick up at least Grade B coverage of the station thanks to WGGC's 100,000 watts of power and its tower height of 967 feet (295 m) , thereby covering many areas in west-central Kentucky, northern middle Tennessee, and a small sliver of southern Indiana.[12]

In addition to country music, WGGC has also been the longtime local home Kentucky Wildcats football and men's basketball games from the UK Sports Radio Network by JMI Sports. WGGC's morning show, "The Moose Lodge," airs from 6 to 10 weekday mornings. Hosted by Moose Michaels, the show features talk on a variety of topics as well as games, entertainment news and local news and weather.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.