WGCO (98.3 FM, "Hot 98-3") is a commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed to

Midway, Georgia Midway is a city in Liberty County, Georgia, United States. It is a part of the Hinesville-Fort Stewart metropolitan statistical area. The population was 2,121 as of the 2010 census, up from 1,100 at the 2000 census. Midway has several museums, ...

. Owned by Dick Broadcasting, it broadcasts a

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...

format targeted towards

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...

and Brunswick. Its studios are in Savannah, while the transmitter is near

Townsend, Georgia Townsend is an unincorporated community in McIntosh County, Georgia, United States. It lies along State Route 57 northwest of the city of Darien, the county seat. Its elevation is 20 feet (6 m). It has a post office with the ZIP code ...

History

The station signed on the air on as a class A gospel station licensed to Jesup called WSOJ. In 1982, the station flipped (along with many others) to an audio simulcast of the new

CNN Headline News HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the network primarily carries true crime programming. The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982 by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News ...

. Shortly thereafter, the station went off the air. Gospel returned to the station in 1984, then country WAJS "The Great 98" a year later. Within a few months, the station became AC WZKS "Kiss FM". In 1989, the station's tower was moved to McIntosh County, closer to Savannah and began broadcasting oldies as "Oldies 98.3", and later "98.3 Cool FM" as the current call-letters WGCO. In 2005, the station flipped to an adult hits format under the Jack FM brand. On March 16, 2007, the station dropped the Jack FM format and returned to the

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...

format once again, as the former name since 1989 as "Oldies 98.3" after a 'protest' was held by then-former morning host Chuck "Boom Boom" Cannon asking for the return of Oldies 98.3. On September 24, 2007, WGCO switched to a

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...

format as ''Big 98.3'', playing a variety of songs from roughly 1964–1985, with the core being the 1970s. On August 29, 2013, the station dropped the classic hits format and began stunting with a loop of

Hank Williams Jr. Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), known professionally as Hank Williams Jr. or Bocephus, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of southern rock, blues, and country. He is the son of ...

's "

All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" is a song written and recorded by American musician Hank Williams Jr. It was released in October 1984 as the second single from his album ''Major Moves''. It peaked at number ten on the country music ...

", leading into a flip to

classic country Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country and western music hits from past decades. Repertoire The radio format specializes in hits from the 1950s through the early 1980s, and focus primarily on innov ...

''98.3 Hank FM'' the next day. In September 2017, Dick Broadcasting announced that it would acquire Alpha Media's clusters in Savannah, Kinston/New Bern/Jacksonville, and Myrtle Beach. Under the terms of the sale, however, a formal sale filing will not be made for the Savannah stations until August 2019, with Dick operating these stations under a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...

in the meantime. On May 25, 2018, the station began stunting with a heartbeat sound, and teasing that "something hot" was coming. On May 28, 2018, the station flipped to

as ''Hot 98.3''. The station will compete primarily with

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

WAEV WAEV (97.3 FM, "97.3 Kiss FM") is a commercial radio station licensed to Savannah, Georgia. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts a contemporary hit radio format. WAEV's transmitter is located near Bloomingdale, Georgia, and shares studios with ...

, giving it its first direct competitor since the flip of sister station

WXYY WXYY (100.1 FM), known as G100.1, is a radio station broadcasting a classic hip hop format. Licensed to Rincon, Georgia, US, the station serves the Savannah and Hilton Head areas. The station is owned by Alpha Media and operated by Dick Broadca ...

classic hip-hop Classic hip hop is a music radio format focusing primarily on hip hop music from the 1980s, 1990s, and the early to mid-2000s. Although stations with such a format date back as far as 2004, the format was first popularized in October 2014, after ...

References

External links

* Contemporary hit radio stations in the United States GCO {{GeorgiaUS-radio-station-stub

History

See also

References

External links