WWBG (1470 AM) is an American

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 A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to serve

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 ...

, United States. The station, launched in 1999, is currently owned by Richard Miller's Twin City Broadcasting Co LLC. WWBG broadcasts 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 ...

music

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 ...

to the

Greensboro 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 ...

/ High Point area, simulcast from co-owned WTOB in

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 ...

History of WBIG

The call letters of WWBG are a tribute to the prior occupant of this frequency in Greensboro, WBIG, which broadcast from the city for 60 years. Established in 1925 in Charlotte and moved to Greensboro the next year by founder Wayne M. Nelson, the station became the first broadcasting property of

Jefferson-Pilot Lincoln National Corporation is a ''Fortune'' 200 American holding company, which operates multiple insurance and investment management businesses through subsidiary companies. Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for LNC and its subsi ...

in 1934 and affiliated with

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. It continued as the most popular station in Greensboro in decades, though in later years the move of music audiences to FM and the growth of the radio market outside of Greensboro proper put it at a severe disadvantage. Jefferson-Pilot shut the station down on November 20, 1986; the land was sold five years later for the construction of a

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. (), often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. A ...

home improvement store.

History of WWBG

On December 9, 1994, Walt Cockerham announced that the former WBIG would return to the air with its old frequency, but 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 ...

was no longer available. (

A station , known professionally as , is a Japanese actor, creative director, and writer. He appeared in a number of Japanese TV dramas, including ''Mei-chan no Shitsuji'', ''Hanazakari no Kimitachi e'' and ''Zettai Kareshi''. Additionally, he was well kn ...

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...

would adopt the WBIG call sign in 1991.) During the year after WKEW changed from

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

, Truth Broadcasting bought several stations in the Greensboro area, including the one that would be called WWBG, the call sign that the new station was assigned by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

on August 21,

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

. Truth Broadcasting planned to do what WKEW had done. This meant news, talk, sports and community affairs relating to Greensboro. On November 1, 1999, Dunn and Bray returned to 1470 AM. Dunn said, "It's like being home. We've got the old morning crew back together." The news/talk format only lasted until January 1, 2002, because, program director David Albright said, it was not profitable and a number of Spanish-speaking people wanted a radio station of their own. "La Movidita" was already airing on WTOB in Winston-Salem. In 2003, Truth Broadcasting stopped selling time to La Movidita, which moved to its former home WSGH. Que Pasa moved from WSGH to WWBG and WTOB. WTOB began airing separate programming in 2013. In December 2020, WTOB 980 AM/96.7 FM began simulcasting on the 1470 AM frequency. During simulcast, the station callsign WWBG has been retained, and the transmitter power has been maintained at 10,000 watts daytime and 5,000 watts at night. WTOB currently has an oldies music format and is being simulcast on WWBG.

References

External links

Que Pasa MediaWWBG official website
{{Classic Hits Radio Stations in North Carolina WBG Guilford County, North Carolina Radio stations established in 1999 1999 establishments in North Carolina Classic hits radio stations in the United States