WPVM FM 88.5 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 ...

broadcasting a

Christian radio Christian radio is a Christian media radio format that focus on programming with a Christian message. Many such broadcasters play contemporary Christian music, though many programs include sermons, radio dramas, as well as news and talk progra ...

format. Licensed to

Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin Sturgeon Bay is a city in and the county seat of Door County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 9,646 at the 2020 Census. The city is well-known regionally for being the largest city of the Door Peninsula, after which the county is na ...

, United States, the station serves the Green Bay area. The station is owned by

WRVM WRVM is a Christian radio station licensed to Suring, Wisconsin, broadcasting on 102.7 MHz FM. WRVM serves all of Northeast Wisconsin, including Green Bay and Appleton. The station began broadcasting September 17, 1967, and has always air ...

, Inc. and operates as a simulcast of WRVM 102.7 FM.

History

The station was assigned the call letters WAZM on April 20, 1998, but was never on the air with those calls. On October 9, 1998, the station changed its

broadcast callsign Broadcast call signs are call signs assigned as unique identifiers to radio stations and television stations. While broadcast radio stations will often brand themselves with plain-text names, identities such as " cool FM", " rock 105" or "the ABC ...

to WRGX. WRGX signed on the air with a format of Christian

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

as a complement to sister station

WPFF WPFF FM 90.5 is an American radio station broadcasting a contemporary Christian format. Licensed to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, United States, the station serves the Green Bay area. The station is owned by Educational Media Foundation and feature ...

, which features Christian adult contemporary music. As of September 2001, the station was one of 46 radio stations whose plays were recorded by

Radio & Records ''Radio & Records'' (''R&R'') was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It started as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006 and became a relaunched sister ...

to compile the Christian Rock chart. In April 2006, WRGX dropped its

Christian rock Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus, typically performed by self-proclaimed Christian individuals. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Ch ...

format after fundraising goals to keep the format on the air were not met. The station changed to a

Southern gospel Southern gospel music is a genre of Christian music. Its name comes from its origins in the southeastern United States. Its lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as ...

/Christian

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

format which remained until after the sale in December 2007 from Family Educational Broadcasting Corporation of Door County, WI, to Bethesda Christian Broadcasting. Following the sale, WRGX changed its calls to WNLI and adopted a format of Christian talk, teaching and inspirational music. On October 23, 2013, it was announced that WPFF, WNLI and their associated translators would be sold to 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 ...

, owners of the K-LOVE and

Air 1 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 ...

CCM networks. The sale, at a price of $825,000, was consummated on February 14, 2014. Prior to the station's purchase by Educational Media Foundation, WNLI was relayed by W245AK, 96.9 is Sheboygan. W245AK currently serves as a translator for WNLI's sister station, K-LOVE affiliate WPFF. In 2014, Educational Media Foundation sold WNLI to WRVM, Inc. at a price of $240,000. This sale was consummated on October 30, 2014. The station changed its call sign to WPVM on November 10, 2014.Call Sign History
fcc.gov. Accessed February 2, 2015

References

External links

* {{Religious Radio Stations in Wisconsin

PVM Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) is a software tool for parallel networking of computers. It is designed to allow a network of heterogeneous Unix and/or Windows machines to be used as a single distributed parallel processor. Thus large computatio ...

Radio stations established in 1998 1998 establishments in Wisconsin Door County, Wisconsin