{{Infobox radio station , name = Classic Gold WABC , logo = , city = , area =

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

and

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, branding = , airdate = 15 January 1989 , frequency = 990 kHz in

1017 kHz in

DAB , format = Oldies , power = , owner = Classic Gold Digital (UBC) , website = Classic Gold WABC was a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

radio station, broadcasting to much of

and

from studios in

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the ...

. Regional news, weather, events and community information, local advertising (separate for Wolverhampton and Shropshire) and a four-hour live weekday regional programme came from a studio centre in

, home also to

Beacon Radio Free Radio Black Country & Shropshire is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Shropshire, Wolverhampton and the Black Country. As of Sep ...

. The station, along with the rest of the

Classic Gold Classic Gold was a network of three "Gold" music formatted stations which broadcast on AM in Bradford, Hull and Sheffield. They were the sister stations of Pennine Radio, Viking Radio and Radio Hallam respectively and they were part of the Yo ...

network, was replaced on 3 August 2007 by a new network called simply Gold, the result of the merger of the

and

Capital Gold The Capital Gold radio station started in London in 1988 on Capital Radio's AM frequency, after the Independent Broadcasting Authority had urged stations to end simulcasting (broadcasting the same programmes simultaneously on AM and FM) and t ...

networks under one owner, GCap Media. Bauer closed the 990/1017kHz Medium Wave Outlets at the beginning of May 202
Link to Radio Today announcement

History

The station began as Radio WABC in 1989 (the letters WABC standing for Wolverhampton and Black Country). The offshoot of the area's long-established Beacon Radio, it was launched as a response to government disapproval of the simulcasting of radio companies' FM programming on their

mediumwave Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytime ...

frequencies. Beacon began to cater for a younger audience following the frequency split, while the new AM service started to aim its programming toward a much older audience. Beacon's American management had originally wanted to use the name WABC for Beacon, but at the time of its launch during the 1970s, the IBA had considered the name too American (the W ITU prefix is designated for

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

s in the United States; WABC in that country is used by an unrelated radio station in New York City). WABC's inaugural Breakfast show on 15 January 1989, was presented by Mark Edwards, who kicked proceedings off with

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

Nice 'n' Easy ''Nice 'n' Easy'' is a 1960 album by Frank Sinatra. All the songs, with the notable exception of the title song, are sung as ballads and were arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle. The title song was a last-minute substitute for the originall ...

, a song which it was felt would reflect the feel of the station, and which was used as its strapline. While other similar AM stations of the time were focusing on playing music from the 1950s through to the 1970s, WABC adopted a format of

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

and

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

tracks. The station also had a distinctly American flavour to its shows, with presenters often referred to as 'the good guys', and weather forecasts giving temperatures in 'WABC degrees'. WABC first transmitted to Wolverhampton only on 990 kHz, but in December 1990, a frequency was added for Shropshire (1017 kHz), and again the vocals of Frank Sinatra heralded its launch. However, the music policy of the station gradually began to change, eventually shifting towards a standard 'Gold' format. Presenters began to play fewer big band and easy listening tunes, and more music generally associated with 'Gold' services. Music from the 1960s and 1970s became more prominent, together with tracks from the 1980s and contemporary chart hits. The 'Nice'n'Easy' strapline was also dropped in a bid to appeal to a younger audience, and replaced with 'The best mix of golden oldies'. In 1993 WABC was sold to GWR. One of the conditions of the sale negotiated by Beacon was that the format would be retained for three years. When that period ran out in 1996, WABC underwent a management change, while GWR made significant alterations to the format. A restricted playlist of 800 songs was adopted, while on-air presenters were replaced the following year and the station relaunched as Classic Gold WABC. Finally on 1 April 1998, programming at WABC was networked with other

stations, with only four hours of local weekday programming remaining in the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

. The WABC name was eventually dropped in 2006, when the station was renamed Classic Gold 990/1017. On 3 August 2007, the station, along with the rest of the

network, was replaced by a new network called simply Gold, the result of the merger of the

and

networks under one owner, GCap Media.

External links

History of local radio in Shropshire
GCap Media

Classic Gold WABC {{Infobox radio station , name = Classic Gold WABC , logo = , city = , area = Wolverhampton and Shropshire , branding = , airdate = 15 January 1989 , frequency = 990 kHz in Wolverhampton1017 kHz in ShropshireDAB , ...

Radio stations in the West Midlands (region) Radio stations established in 1989