WHBQ (560 kHz) – branded ''Sports 56 WHBQ'' – is a commercial

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can ...

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 st ...

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

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. Owned by Flinn Broadcasting, the station covers the Memphis metropolitan area, and is the local affiliate for

Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an American sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports division and iHeartMedia, parent com ...

, the

Memphis Redbirds The Memphis Redbirds are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. They are located in Memphis, Tennessee, and are named for their Major League Baseball affiliate. The Redbird ...

, and

Ole Miss Rebels football The Ole Miss Rebels football program represents the University of Mississippi, also known as "Ole Miss". The Rebels compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Western Division o ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. The WHBQ studios and transmitter are located in the city of Memphis. Besides a standard

analog transmission Analog transmission is a transmission method of conveying information using a continuous signal which varies in amplitude, phase, or some other property in proportion to that information. It could be the transfer of an analog signal, using an an ...

, WHBQ is available online. The station is also simulcast over translator W253DF at 98.5 FM.

History

On March 25, 1925, WHBQ first signed on the air. It was among the earliest stations in Memphis and had its studios in the historic

Hotel Claridge The Hotel Claridge was a 16-story building on Times Square in Manhattan, New York City, at the southeast corner of Broadway and 44th Street. Originally known as the Hotel Rector, it was built of brick in the Beaux-arts style in 1910–1911. The ...

. During the 1930s, it broadcast at 100 watts on 1370

kilocycle The cycle per second is a once-common English name for the unit of frequency now known as the hertz (Hz). The plural form was typically used, often written cycles per second, cycles/second, c.p.s., c/s, or, ambiguously, just cycles (Cy./Cyc.). The ...

s. After the

North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, es, Convenio Regional Norteamericano de Radiodifusión) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band ( mediumwave) radio stations. These agree ...

(NARBA) went into effect in 1941, WHBQ switched to 1400 kHz, powered at 250 watts. WHBQ moved its studios to Hotel Gayoso. In the 1940s, WHBQ became a network affiliate of the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

. At the end of the 1940s, WHBQ moved to its current spot on the dial, 560 kHz. It got a boost in power to 5,000 watts days and 1,000 watts nights. General Teleradio (later

RKO General RKO General, Inc. (previously General Teleradio, RKO Teleradio Pictures, and RKO Teleradio) was, from 1952 through 1991, the main holding company for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber Company and, after General Tire's reorganiz ...

), the broadcasting arm of the

General Tire and Rubber Company Continental Tire the Americas, LLC, d.b.a. General Tire, is an American manufacturer of tires for motor vehicles. Founded in 1915 in Akron, Ohio by William Francis O'Neil, Winfred E. Fouse, Charles J. Jahant, Robert Iredell, & H.B. Pushee as ...

, purchased the WHBQ stations in March 1954, and later turned it into a leading

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

station. Its reputation was developed by Dewey Phillips, a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

who played

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantl ...

music on his night time show, "Red, Hot and Blue." In 1954, Phillips played a recording of " That's Alright Mama" by

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...

, a young truck driver and budding musician, marking the first time an Elvis recording was broadcast on the radio. For many years, WHBQ was considered a "

farm team In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

" for RKO's larger stations. Young, aspiring DJs, such as

Rick Dees Rigdon Osmond Dees III (born March 14, 1950), best known as Rick Dees, is an American entertainer, radio personality, comedian, actor, and voice artist, best known for his internationally syndicated radio show '' The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Coun ...

and game show host

Wink Martindale Winston Conrad "Wink" Martindale (born December 4, 1933) is an American disc jockey, radio personality, game show host, and television producer. In his six-decade career, he is best known for hosting ''Gambit'' from 1972 to 1976 (and again from ...

worked there with hopes of being moved up to RKO's larger markets, like

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- m ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, or the biggest Top 40 station in the chain, KHJ in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. In the 1960s, under the guidance of programmer

Bill Drake Bill Drake (January 14, 1937 – November 29, 2008), born Philip Yarbrough, was an American radio programmer who co-developed the Boss Radio format with Gene Chenault via their company Drake-Chenault.Douglas, Susan, "Listening In: Radio and the A ...

, WHBQ became Boss Radio, known for playing the hottest hits with the most popular DJs. Disc jockey George Klein was indicted and convicted of

mail fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to defraud another, and are federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activit ...

in 1977. Klein, a former Program Director for WHBQ, went to trial after being indicted on four counts of conspiring with a former postal employee to steal

Arbitron Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...

diaries. Klein admitted to filling out diaries in order to inflate WHBQ's ratings. Klein was found guilty of conspiracy and sentenced to 60 days in federal prison. By the early 1980s, the once-mighty Top 40 station could no longer compete with the increasing popularity of FM-band contemporary music stations. WHBQ tried playing

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...

from 1981 to 1983 before switching to a full service

talk radio 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 featu ...

format. It used local talk hosts as well as syndicated programming from NBC Talknet and ABC TalkRadio. In 1988, RKO sold WHBQ to Flinn Broadcasting, a local media company. Flinn tried oldies again, then

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, o ...

and even heavy metal late at night. In 1992, WHBQ switched to all sports. For a time it was affiliated with

CBS Sports Radio CBS Sports Radio is a sports radio network that debuted with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013. CBS Sports Radio is owned by Paramount Global and distributed by Westwood One. Programm ...

, then

NBC Sports Radio NBC Sports Radio was a sports radio network that debuted on September 4, 2012. The network content was produced by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and distributed by Westwood One, which is the corporate successor to the remains of t ...

. When NBC discontinued full-time sports programming at the end of 2018, WHBQ switched to

. In October 2020, WHBQ began simulcasting on FM translator W253DF (98.5 FM) in Memphis; its previous FM simulcast, WPGF-LP (87.7), dropped its simulcast with WHBQ and began stunting with

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of Christmas carol, carols or songs, may employ lyr ...

as "Santa @ 87.7". The arrangement lasted until the end of December 2020; in January 2021, it began running a rock format known as "Drake Hall Memphis Radio." WPGF-LP had until July 2021 to convert to digital and end its radio operations.Santa Comes To Memphis As WHBQ Moves FM Signal
Radioinsight - October 21, 2020

Programming

WHBQ serves as the Memphis area home for the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

and men's basketball, and is also the main outlet for the

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

Triple-A East The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ( ...

. The station's hosts include: Peter Edmiston, Anthony Sain, Dave Woloshin, Greg Gaston, Eli Savoie, Gabe Kuhn, Brett Norsworthy, and John Hardin. Nights and weekends, WHBQ carries programming from

. Weekly programming includes: - Mornings with Greg & Eli - Hosts: Greg Gaston and Eli Savoie - 7am - 10am - Wolo & Friends - Host: Dave Woloshin - 10 am - 11am - Happy Hour with Johnny Radio - Host: John Hardin - 11am - 1pm - Sportstime with Gabe and Stats - Hosts: Gabe Kuhn and Brett Norsworthy - 3pm - 6pm

Previous logo

(WHBQ's logo under previous simulcast with WPGF-LP)

References

Radio Show Hosts

External links

Official website
–

E-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

by John Long * *
FCC Information for WPGF-LP
George Klein Radio Ratings Fraud (2008) {{Sports Radio Stations in Tennessee Radio stations in Memphis, Tennessee, HBQ RKO General Sports radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1925 1925 establishments in Tennessee