WPEG (97.9 FM, ''"Power 98"'') is a

mainstream urban Mainstream may refer to: Film * ''Mainstream'' (film), a 2020 American film Literature * ''Mainstream'' (fanzine), a science fiction fanzine * Mainstream Publishing, a Scottish publisher * ''Mainstream'', a 1943 book by Hamilton Basso Mu ...

radio station serving the

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

market. It is owned by

Beasley Broadcast Group Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc., based in Naples, Florida, is an owner/operator of radio stations in the United States. , the company owned 63 stations under the Beasley Media Group name. History The company was founded in 1961 by George G. Beasl ...

. The station's studios are located on South Boulevard in the city's South End, and a transmitter tower is located north of

Dallas, North Carolina Dallas is a town in Gaston County, North Carolina, United States, and a suburb of Charlotte, located north of Gastonia. The population was 4,488 at the 2010 census. It was named for George M. Dallas, Vice President of the United States under Jame ...

. WPEG features "Hip Hop Hits" on its HD 2 channel.

History

The 97.9 frequency came on the air in

Concord, North Carolina Concord is the county seat and largest city in Cabarrus County, in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 105,186, with an estimated population in 2021 of 107,697. In terms of population, the cit ...

in 1961 as WEGO-FM, and simulcast the programming of its sister AM station until 1967. That year, the station became a

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator musi ...

station with the call letters WPEG. The station was owned by the Suburban Radio Group from

Belmont, North Carolina Belmont is a small suburban city in Gaston County, North Carolina, United States, located about west of uptown Charlotte and east of Gastonia. The population was 10,076 at the 2010 census. Once known as Garibaldi Station, it was named for th ...

. The call letters were chosen by then-station manager Jim Keel to honor his wife, Peggy Keel. During these years, the station was the feeder station for the

Tobacco Radio Network Tobacco Radio Network was a radio network owned and operated by Capitol Broadcasting Company of Raleigh, North Carolina. Begun in 1942, the network was dedicated to educating and keeping farmers informed of the latest agricultural news, stories, an ...

(now the

North Carolina News Network The North Carolina News Network (sometimes called NCNN) is a news and information service established in 1942. It provides programming to approximately 75 radio stations, primarily in the state of North Carolina, and can also be heard by Internet st ...

) for the western half of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. The station began broadcasting in

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

in 1973. In 1970, the station's format changed to

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

, and gained a devoted following in

Cabarrus County Cabarrus County ( )
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

Stanly County. Popular announcers during its years as a Country station included Gene Hinson, Charlie Hicks, Ken Kennedy and Jay Driggers. WPEG switched to a gold-based

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, quie ...

format in July 1975, utilizing

Drake-Chenault Drake-Chenault Enterprises (originally American Independent Radio Inc.) was a radio syndication company that specialized in automation on FM radio stations. The company was founded in the late-1960s by radio programmer and deejay Bill Drake (1937� ...

's "Solid Gold" automated format. Popular announcers during its years in this format were Larry Thomas, Terry Setzer and Shane Atwell. Drake-Chenault introduced its "Super Soul" syndicated format in 1978, and WPEG was one of the first stations to switch to the format early that year. The station also experimented with club-style DJ mixes on weekends. A local nightclub DJ, Mitchell Eaves, quickly became popular as "Disco Mitch". His Saturday night broadcast featured live club-style mixing of the latest disco hits, DJ interviews from

discotheques A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

across the country, and wild impromptu contests. Eaves was granted full programming and content discretion and took complete advantage, a move that station management was soon to regret. Eaves and programming assistant Paul Allen launched a shoot-the-moon contest in which listeners were asked to drive past the station and show their assets. Throngs of listeners responded, clogging local traffic for hours. Several auto accidents were reported, law enforcement was dispatched and local businesses complained. Eaves and Allen were quickly dismissed by then station manager Charlie Hicks. The incident made headlines worldwide in The

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

, Jet magazine, the Asian press, and closed an evening broadcast of the

CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature s ...

with a chuckle from Walter Cronkite. The Disco programming was a short-lived experiment, and by late 1979, the format had evolved into a CHR/

Urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

hybrid format (also known as "CHUrban", which is the forerunner of the

rhythmic contemporary Rhythmic contemporary, also known as Rhythmic Top 40, Rhythmic CHR or rhythmic crossover, is a primarily American music-radio format that includes a mix of EDM, upbeat rhythmic pop, hip hop and upbeat R&B hits. Rhythmic contemporary never uses ...

format). WPEG has been considered

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

's heritage urban radio station since 1982, when the Suburban Radio Group purchased 1600 AM (

WGIV WGIV (1370 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Pineville, North Carolina, and serving the Charlotte metropolitan area. It airs an urban contemporary radio format. WGIV is owned by Frank Neely, but the station is operated by Ste ...

), and gradually moved their format to the FM station. Popular announcers of its days in this format have included Fred Wellington Graham, Thomas "Skip" Murphy, Michael Saunders, Les Norman, B.J. Murphy
George "Apollo" Fetherbay
Helen Little, Barbara Taylor, Todd Haygood, Nate Quick, Michael "Captain Mike" Rossi, Darryl McClinton, Shirley Girl, Sheila Stewart, Janine Davis, Anthony "Tone X." Belser, Eddie Owens, with Consuella Williams, and Bobby Harris. The station was branded "WPEG fm98" until 1988 when they rebranded as "Power 98". Sky Broadcasting would buy WPEG and WGIV in November 1986 after Suburban Radio Group's owners died. Sky would be bought out by Broadcast Partners, Inc. (BPI) in 1992. When BPI bought out

Rhythmic Rhythmic may refer to: * Related to rhythm * Rhythmic contemporary, a radio format * Rhythmic adult contemporary, a radio format * Rhythmic gymnastics, a form of gymnastics * Rhythmic (chart) The Rhythmic chart (also called Rhythmic Airplay, and ...

-formatted

WCKZ WLAB (88.3 MHz) is a non-commercial, listener-supported FM radio station in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It is owned by the Star Educational Media Network and broadcasts a Contemporary Christian radio format. It holds periodic on-air fundraisers to su ...

from

Beasley Broadcasting Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc., based in Naples, Florida, is an owner/operator of radio stations in the United States. , the company owned 63 stations under the Beasley Media Group name. History The company was founded in 1961 by George G. Beasl ...

, they ended that format by moving

's then-

Urban AC Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...

programming from the AM dial to the 101.9 FM position and merging WCKZ's programming with WPEG, thus tilting WPEG's Urban format towards a Mainstream direction (with an emphasis on hip-hop) at the same time. The station continues to thrive in the market. BPI would merge with Evergreen Media in May 1995. In December 1996, WPEG (as well as Evergreen's 4 other Charlotte stations) was traded to

EZ Communications EZ Communications, Inc. was a corporation with its headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. In the 1970s, the small company was one of the pioneers of the easy listening on the FM broadcasting radio spectrum with 2 stations in Manassas and Richmond. W ...

(owners of

WSOC-FM WSOC-FM (103.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is owned by Beasley Broadcast Group and airs a country music radio format, calling itself "Country 103.7." Its primary country competitor is iHeartMedia's WKKT. ...

and WSSS;

WRFX WRFX (99.7 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Kannapolis, North Carolina and serving the Charlotte metropolitan area. Owned by iHeartMedia, it airs a classic rock radio format, and calls itself "99.7 The Fox." The radio studios and ...

would then go to SFX Broadcasting), with Evergreen receiving EZ Communications' Philadelphia stations

WIOQ WIOQ (102.1 FM) is a commercial radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station broadcasts a Top 40 (CHR) radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia. The studios and offices are on Presidential Boulevard in Bala Cynwyd. The station c ...

and

WUSL WUSL (98.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It carries a mainstream urban radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The radio studio, ...

in return (EZ would then be bought by

American Radio Systems American Radio Systems Corporation was a radio company that existed from 1993 until 1998. Its predecessor, Atlantic Ventures, was founded by Steven B. Dodge, Eric Schultz, Joseph Winn, and Michael Milsom. American Radio Systems was formed from ...

in July 1997).http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1996/R&R-1996-12-06.pdf ARS would be bought out by

Infinity Broadcasting Infinity Broadcasting Corporation was a radio company that existed from 1972 until 2005. It was founded by Michael A. Wiener and Gerald Carrus. It became associated with popular radio personalities like Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, Don Imus an ...

on September 19, 1997, with Infinity changing its name to

CBS Radio CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...

in December 2005 as part of the spin-off of CBS' motion picture and cable television assets under a relaunched

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

. On October 2, 2014, CBS Radio announced that it would trade all of their

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

and Charlotte stations (including WPEG), as well as WIP in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

to the

in exchange for 5 stations located in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

and Philadelphia.CBS And Beasley Swap Philadelphia/Miami For Charlotte/Tampa
from Radio Insight (October 2, 2014) The swap was completed on December 1, 2014.

References

External links

WPEG website
* {{coord, 35.362, N, 81.155, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title Mainstream urban radio stations in the United States PEG Radio stations established in 1961 PEG