WKGC (1480 AM) was 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 ...

licensed to

Southport, Florida Southport is an unincorporated community in Bay County, Florida, United States. It is located along the north side of North Bay and west of Deer Point Lake. The main roads through the community are State Road 77, Edwards Rd, County Road 388, ...

, United States. The station served the

Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It is the more populated city of the Panama City–Lynn Ha ...

area. The station was last owned by Ron Hale, through licensee Ommni Broadcasting LLC.

History

WKGC began broadcasting in 1957 as WTHR, a popular music and weather station, and operated until 1962, when it went

dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lum ...

. This lasted for three years, until Don McCoy (later founder of

Magic Broadcasting Magic Broadcasting, LLC is a company which owned and operated five radio stations in Alabama and two in California. History Magic Broadcasting, LLC, formerly Styles Media Group, LLC, was founded in 1989. The name was changed to Magic Broadcasting ...

) helped launch WGNE (branded as ''Genie Radio'') once again as a popular music station, starting on 25 June 1965. Due to newfound success, in 1971,

WGNE-FM WGNE-FM (99.9 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Middleburg, Florida, and serving the Jacksonville metropolitan area. It is owned by Renda Broadcasting and airs a country music radio format as "99.9 Gator Country", and primarily ...

went on the air, which proved more successful for the station than the AM signal previously had. Both stations were soon sold to Janus Broadcasting in the 1970s, but still aired the same pop music format. In early 1982, Janus Broadcasting donated the radio station to

Gulf Coast State College Gulf Coast State College is a public college in Panama City, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System and offers the Associate of Arts degree, Associate of Science degree, certificates, and as of 2011, bachelor's degrees. History The ...

to supplement

WKGC-FM WKGC-FM (90.7 FM) is a radio station licensed to Panama City, Florida, United States. The station is currently owned by Gulf Coast State College. WKGC-FM was the brainchild of two Gulf Coast students, Charles Wooten and Ron Johnson, who concoct ...

, and its callsigns were changed accordingly. This sale led to the WKGC cluster being the first college radio station available in both AM and FM. Due to the extensive damage of

Hurricane Michael Hurricane Michael was a very powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that became the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992. It was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to ma ...

, the station had been silent since October 10, 2018. In March 2019, Ommni Broadcasting (based out of

Destin, Florida Destin is a city located in Okaloosa County, Florida. It is a principal city of the Crestview–Fort Walton Beach–Destin, Florida, metropolitan area. Located on Florida's Emerald Coast, Destin is known for its white beaches and emerald green ...

) filed a $5,000 deal to buy the station. Ommni currently owns

WTKP WTKP (93.5 FM) is a commercial radio station located in Port St. Joe, Florida broadcasting in the Panama City area on 93.5 FM. History WTKP was formerly licensed to Mexico Beach, Florida at 99.3 FM. On May 3, 2007, the station started a simulcast ...

, another station in the Panama City market. The purchase was consummated on September 27, 2019. The station's license was cancelled 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 April 1, 2021, due to WKGC having been silent for more than a year.

References

External links

WKGC official website
KGC Jazz radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1957 1957 establishments in Florida Radio stations disestablished in 2021 NPR member stations Defunct radio stations in the United States KGC 2021 disestablishments in Florida {{Florida-radio-station-stub