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WQMG (97.1 FM) is an
urban adult contemporary 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 ...
station licensed to
Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...
and serves the
Piedmont Triad The Piedmont Triad (or simply the Triad) is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of North Carolina anchored by three cities: Greensboro, North Carolina, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Winston-Salem, and H ...
region, which also includes High Point and
Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...
. The
Audacy, Inc. Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...
outlet broadcasts with an ERP of 100 kW. The station's studios are located near the
Piedmont Triad International Airport Piedmont Triad International Airport (commonly referred to locally as "PTI") is an airport located in unincorporated Guilford County, North Carolina, west of Greensboro, serving the Piedmont Triad region of Greensboro, High Point and Winston- ...
, and a transmitter site is in unincorporated south
Guilford County Guilford County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population is 541,299, making it the third-most populous county in North Carolina. The county seat, and largest municipality, is Greensboro. Si ...
. As of December 2021, WQMG is the highest-rated station in the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point radio market.


History

The earliest roots of this station date to 1948 and a station with the call letters
WFMY WFMY-TV (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Greensboro, North Carolina, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Piedmont Triad region. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Phillips Avenue in Greensboro, an ...
on 97.3 MHz, owned by the Greensboro News Company, publishers of the ''Greensboro Daily News'' and ''Daily Record'' (now merged as the ''
Greensboro News & Record The ''News & Record'' is an American, English language newspaper with the largest circulation serving Guilford County, North Carolina, and the surrounding region. It is based in Greensboro, North Carolina, and produces local sections for Greensbo ...
''). One year after its founding as an
FM station FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...
, its owners constructed
WFMY-TV WFMY-TV (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Greensboro, North Carolina, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Piedmont Triad region. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Phillips Avenue in Greensboro, an ...
, the first television station in Greensboro and the second in North Carolina. The FM station was taken off the air in 1953 as the company devoted more of its resources to
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
. A new station signed on under new ownership in 1962 on 97.1 MHz with the call letters WQMG, which stood for "Where Quality Music lives in Greensboro." With its new 20,000 watt facility the station was the first in the southeast to broadcast in stereo. In the early 1970s, WQMG aired an
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 known as "Stereo Island." WQMG was very successful in the 1970s and 1980s as an
Urban Contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...
format under the name "Power 97 FM". By 1996, they would move to their current format under the "Classic Soul...Smooth R&B" slogan, after becoming the sister station to
WJMH WJMH (102.1 FM ''"102 JAMZ"'') is an urban contemporary radio station serving the Piedmont Triad region. It broadcasts with 99,000 watts of power and is licensed to Reidsville, North Carolina. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station's studios are lo ...
and beating that station in the ratings, as well as
WTQR WTQR (104.1 FM, "Q104.1") is a country music station licensed to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and serves the Piedmont Triad region, including Greensboro and High Point. Owned and operated by iHeartMedia, the station broadcasts at 104.1 MH ...
with the 18-54 audience. Following the format change of competitor
WMKS WMKS (100.3 FM, "Hits 100.3"), is a Top 40 radio station licensed to High Point, North Carolina, that serves the Piedmont Triad region, including Greensboro and Winston-Salem. The iHeartMedia, Inc. outlet broadcasts with an ERP of 100 kW. I ...
, WQMG is now the sole Adult R&B station in the market. From March 1997 to 2015, WQMG was the Triad's home of the syndicated
Tom Joyner Thomas Joyner (born November 23, 1949) is an American retired radio host, former host of the nationally syndicated '' The Tom Joyner Morning Show'', and also founder of Reach Media Inc., the Tom Joyner Foundation, and BlackAmericaWeb.com. Early ...
Morning Show. Shilynne Cole and Busta Brown now host a local morning show, and Renee Vaughn, who was a local host during Joyner's show, moved to middays. The
Steve Harvey Broderick Stephen Harvey Sr. Also aired August 16, 2015. (born January 17, 1957) is an American television host, producer, actor, and comedian. He hosts ''The Steve Harvey Morning Show'', ''Family Feud'', '' Celebrity Family Feud,'' the Miss U ...
Morning Show replaced Tom Joyner on November 9, 2015. In November–December 2021, WQMG achieved a rating of 13.0, the largest share in the history of the station.


References


External links

* * {{Entercom QMG Urban adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Audacy, Inc. radio stations