WGOK (900 AM), "Gospel 900") is a

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 ...

serving the

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...

, area with a

Gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...

format. The station is under ownership of

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 87 ...

. Its studios are on Dauphin Avenue in Midtown Mobile, and its transmitter is northwest of downtown.

History

The radio station in the early 1960s was located at 900 Gum Street right in the middle of a swamp. The station was part of the largest chain of

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

radio stations in the country called The OK Group. All of the stations in the OK Group had an OK at the end of their call letters. There was WGOK in Mobile, KYOK in Houston, and WBOK in New Orleans for example. There were other OK stations in the cities of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

and

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

among others. There was one White station in

Alice, Texas Alice is a city in, and the county seat of, Jim Wells County, Texas, United States, in the South Texas region of the state. The population was 19,104 at the 2010 census. Alice was established in 1888. First it was called "Bandana", then "Kleberg ...

with the OK reversed. It was called KOPY. Starting around 1959, the station WGOK was managed by Robert Irwin Grimes, Jr. He had been a radioman in the Navy, had served at Pearl Harbor on the and was there in Hawaii on the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. In the early 1960s disc jockeys had names like Topsy Turvey, Miss Mandy, and the Reverend A. J. Crawford. The station was very popular and played

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

records as well as gospel records. Currently, it plays Gospel music.

Ownership

In 1999, the station was acquired by Citadel Communications Corp. (Lawrence R. Wilson, chairman) from Fuller-Jeffrey Broadcasting Co. Inc. (Robert Fuller, president) along with sister station WYOK for a reported sale price of $6 million.

References

External links

Gospel 900 official website
* GOK Gospel radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1959 1959 establishments in Alabama Cumulus Media radio stations GOK {{Christian-radio-station-stub