WPKC (1540

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...

) is a commercial AM

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

Exeter, New Hampshire Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,049 at the 2020 census, up from 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood. ...

, and covering the New Hampshire Seacoast region and Southern

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

. The station's

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 ...

contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music, also known as CCM, Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith and s ...

, supplied from the K-Love network. The station's license is held by the

Educational Media Foundation Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's largest ...

. The station

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

s its

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

, 92.1

WPKC-FM WPKC-FM (92.1 FM) is a radio station licensed to Sanford, Maine, United States. The station serves the Southern Maine Coast and the Seacoast Region of New Hampshire with a contemporary Christian music format, supplied by the K-Love network. ...

in Sanford, Maine. In addition, WPKC operates two FM translators: W246BP (97.1

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

) in Exeter, and W298CU (101.5) in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

. AM 1540 is a clear-channel frequency reserved for Class A stations KXEL in

Waterloo, Iowa Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census the population was 67,314, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. The city is part of the Waterloo – Cedar Falls ...

, and ZNS-1 in

Nassau, Bahamas Nassau ( ) is the capital and largest city of the Bahamas. With a population of 274,400 as of 2016, or just over 70% of the entire population of the Bahamas, Nassau is commonly defined as a primate city, dwarfing all other towns in the country. ...

. WPKC broadcasts at 5,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s during the daytime hours only.

History

The AM 1540 frequency in Exeter went on the air on June 4, 1966, as WKXR. It was owned by Frank Estes, who also owned WKXL in

Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua. The village of ...

. Estes sold the station in 1978, and on March 10, 1982, the station was renamed WMYF. The

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 ...

stood for " Music of Your Life", a syndicated adult standards format. In 1998, Capstar acquired WMYF from

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 ...

. (CBS had obtained the station after its purchase of American Radio Systems.) The station began to simulcast the news/talk format of WGIR, a sister station in Manchester, New Hampshire; a call sign change to WGIP followed on October 2. The WMYF call sign would later be moved down the AM dial to

1380 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1380 kHz: 1380 AM is a Regional broadcast frequency, on which Class B and Class D stations broadcast. Argentina * LRI231 in Necochea, Buenos Aires Canada * CKPC in Brantford, Ontario - ...

, which would retain it until that station's closure in 2015. Capstar and Chancellor Media announced in August 1998 that they would merge ( Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst was a major shareholder in both companies); upon the merger's completion in July 1999, the combined company was named AMFM Inc. AMFM was in turn acquired by Clear Channel Communications in a deal announced on October 4, 1999, and completed in August 2000. WXEX-AM & WXEX-FM logo

After WGIP was placed into the

Aloha Station Trust Aloha Station Trust, LLC was a privately owned trust company that owned radio and television stations previously owned by Clear Channel Communications, forerunner of the modern iHeartMedia. After Clear Channel was acquired by private equity inte ...

in 2008 as a result of the privatization of Clear Channel (now iHeartMedia, Inc.), the station was sold to Aruba Capital Holdings, LLC in 2009. After Aruba closed on the sale on March 9, 2009, the call sign was changed to WXEX and the WGIR simulcast was discontinued. WXEX relaunched with an oldies format on March 16, 2009. On August 11, 2011, the station began simulcasting with 92.1 WXEX-FM in Sanford, Maine, which Aruba had acquired earlier in the year. On April 14, 2015, WXEX owner Aruba Capital Holdings LLC entered into 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 ...

(LMA) with

WNBP WNBP (1450 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Newburyport, Massachusetts, United States, and serving the Greater Boston radio market. The station is owned by Bloomberg L.P. and serves as a simulcast of Bloomberg-programmed WRCA ...

WWSF WWSF (1220 AM; "104.3 The Legends") is a radio station airing an oldies format. Established in 1957 as WSME, the station is licensed to serve Sanford, Maine, United States. WWSF is owned by Port Broadcasting. History WWSF signed on as WSME on N ...

owner Port Broadcasting LLC whereby the latter assumed operational control of WXEX and WXEX-FM. On August 20, 2015, WXEX and its FM sister station shifted their format from

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 ...

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

, branded as "Classic Rock 92.1"; the move was made to distinguish WXEX from WWSF's oldies format. Effective January 31, 2017, Aruba Capital sold WXEX, WXEX-FM, and W246BP to LMA partner Port Broadcasting. In return, Aruba Capital received a 26.9 percent stake in Port Broadcasting, giving Aruba Capital principal Andrew Hartmann a controlling interest in the new licensee. During

Labor Day Weekend Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...

in 2018, WXEX and WXEX-FM

stunted Stunted growth is a reduced growth rate in human development. It is a primary manifestation of malnutrition (or more precisely undernutrition) and recurrent infections, such as diarrhea and helminthiasis, in early childhood and even before birth, ...

with a broadcast of the Drake-Chenault documentary ''

The History of Rock and Roll ''The History of Rock & Roll'' is an American radio documentary on rock and roll music, first syndicated in 1969. Originally one of the lengthiest documentaries of any medium (48 hours in the 1969 version, 52 hours each for the 1978 and 1981 vers ...

''. On September 3, 2018, the stations changed to an oldies format, branded as ''Seacoast Oldies'', in effect reversing the 2015 format change.WXEX Flips to Seacoast Oldies
Radioinsight - September 4, 2018 Port Broadcasting agreed to sell WXEX, WXEX-FM, and translators W246BP and W298CU to the

(EMF) for $690,000 in April 2023. EMF already operated

Air1 Air1 is an American Christian radio network. Owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), it primarily broadcasts contemporary worship music, and is a sister to the EMF's K-Love network. History In 1986, KLRD began broadcasting Christia ...

station

WNHI WNHI (106.5 FM) is a Christian Worship formatted radio station. Licensed to Farmington, New Hampshire, the station's transmitter is located in New Durham, and studios are located in Rochester. The station serves the Portsmouth, New Hampshire ar ...

Farmington Farmington may refer to: Places Canada *Farmington, British Columbia *Farmington, Nova Scotia (disambiguation) United States * Farmington, Arkansas *Farmington, California * Farmington, Connecticut *Farmington, Delaware * Farmington, Georgia ...

, with its K-Love network only available via stations in surrounding markets. Following the sale's completion on July 24, 2023, the "Seacoast Oldies" programming moved to WWSF on July 24, 2023, and WXEX joined K-Love; the station's call sign was changed to WPKC on August 1, 2023.

Translators

References

External links

* * * * * * {{K-LOVE PKC (AM) Radio stations established in 1966 1966 establishments in New Hampshire PKC (AM) Contemporary Christian radio stations in the United States Exeter, New Hampshire K-Love radio stations Educational Media Foundation radio stations