WPBG (93.3 FM) 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 ...

with 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 Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

, and is licensed for

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

. The station was formerly known as 93.3 WMBD-FM, as well as KZ-93 (WKZW) through 1994, "Mix 93.3" prior to its conversion to oldies/classic hits. The station is owned by Midwest Communications, Inc.

HD Radio

WPBG broadcasts in the

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

digital (hybrid) format: *HD1 is a digital simulcast of the (traditional) analog format of

. *HD2 is an oldies format known as 102.7 Super Hits, simulcast on

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

W274BM. *HD3 is a format known as Freedom 95.9, simulcast on

WIRL WIRL (1290 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a conservative talk format. Licensed to Peoria, Illinois, United States, the station serves the Peoria area and broadcasts in AM stereo. The station is currently owned by Midwest Communication ...

and

W240DM. *HD4 is a simulcast of longtime sister station 1470 WMBD, also simulcast on

W262BY.

History

WMBD-FM was established in April 1947 with 17,000 watts on 92.5 MHz as a sister station to 1470 WMBD (AM), the only other station in Peoria; Illinois AM stations on pages 94 & 98; Illinois FM stations on page 294. Page 326 shows 4 additional FM construction permits already in progress for Peoria. the nearest other FM station was 101.5 WJBC-FM (now

WBNQ WBNQ (101.5 FM) is the most powerful FM radio station in McLean County, Illinois, United States, broadcasting on at 50,000 watts of effective radiated power. It has had a contemporary hit radio music format since 1975. History WBNQ first signe ...

) in Bloomington, established the same month as a sister station of 1230

WJBC (AM) WJBC (1230 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Bloomington, Illinois, and serving the Bloomington-Normal region. It broadcasts a news/talk radio format and is owned by Cumulus Media, part of a five-station cluster. It has two ful ...

. By 1950, WMBD-FM was licensed for 20,000 watts. WMBD-FM duplicated WMBD (AM) during its early years.See, for example, 1959 ''Broadcasting Yearbook'', page B-145 It was sold (with AM and TV) to Fetzer Stations on February 1, 1953. The station signed on as with a beautiful music format and utilized the slogan "Music ''Only'' For a Woman". The station was originally on 92.5 MHz but moved to 93.3 MHz in the early 1960s. For several years, WMBD-FM went by the slogan of Rock 93. Then, in late 1977, the station adopted a Rock-leaning Top 40/CHR format as WKZW, calling itself ''"KZ93"''. The station was successful immediately and rapidly overtook Top 40 AM WIRL in the ratings. In late 1983, WKZW started a transition from being a rock-based CHR format to a mainstream CHR format. The KZ93 KZJs included Tommy Wood, Mark Maloney, Gary Olson, Jeffrey Moore, Cristy Ryan, Keith Edwards, Scott Wheeler, Gene Stern, Derek Johnson, Lee Malcolm, Kenneth "Ken Cook" Hackney, Troy Hamilton, Jefffrey Kingsley, Glen Thomas, Kenny Blum, with Andy Masur, Ray Price, Charlie Quinn, Steve Rodeo and Danny Baker. KZ93 was at or near the top of the ratings in the Peoria radio market throughout its reign as the premiere Top 40/CHR outlet in all of Central Illinois, but by the early 1990s, the ratings began to falter. Then, on April 7, 1994, WKZW flipped to a

hot adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

format as WMXP and the slogan "Mix 93.3". The station ran most of its music off of analog broadcast carts during this era (when many stations were converting to CD and/or computer audio playback). During the "Mix" years, the morning show was hosted by Dave Kallaway and Beck Ryan. Other jocks included Gene Stern, Scott Wheeler (now afternoons on

WCIC WCIC is a Christian adult contemporary music station in Peoria, Illinois. It is licensed to the nearby suburb of Pekin, Illinois, Pekin and owned by the University of Northwestern – St. Paul. Studios are located in northwest Peoria. Repeaters ...

Pekin as Rob Brown), Mary Lynn, Chris McIntyre (now program director and mornings on WKAY-FM in Galesburg, Illinois), Keith Kelly and Joe Crain (now meteorologist at

WICS-TV WICS (channel 20) is a television station licensed to Springfield, Illinois, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and maintains studios on East Cook Street in Springfield's Eastside; its ...

in Springfield). Also, for a portion of its time as "Mix 93.3", the morning radio show was simulcast with the television show on sister station WMBD-TV. This simulcast show was known as "The Morning Mix". The simulcast ended in late 1996. On March 10, 1997, the station flipped to an oldies format as "Big Oldies 93.3" and adopted the current call sign. At that time, "The Morning Mix" continued on WMBD-TV for quite some time. The station used the "Big Oldies 93.3" slogan before the current format of classic hits was adopted in August 2006. The station was recently owned by

Triad Broadcasting Triad Broadcasting Company, LLC was an owner of radio stations in small and medium markets in the United States. It is based in Monterey, California. At the end of November 2012, Triad announced the sale of its 32 radio stations in 5 markets to L ...

. Sister stations include

, WMBD (AM), WDQX (now

WKZF WKZF (102.3 MHz is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Morton, Illinois, and serving the Peoria metropolitan area. It broadcasts a Rhythmic Classic Hits radio format and is owned by Midwest Communications, Inc. The radio studios an ...

), WXCL and WSWT. Effective May 1, 2013, Triad sold WPBG and 29 other stations to L&L Broadcasting for $21 million. L&L would merge with

Alpha Media Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , which ...

in April 2014. On February 4, 2019, Alpha Media announced that it would sell its Peoria cluster to

Midwest Communications Midwest Communications is a Wausau, Wisconsin-based radio broadcasting company. It owns 82 radio stations located primarily within the Midwest United States, in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Illinois and ...

for $21.6 million.

References

External links

* * * * * {{Midwest Communications Classic hits radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1947 PBG 1947 establishments in Illinois Midwest Communications radio stations