WEGR is a

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prim ...

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 radi ...

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, 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 Uni ...

. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and serves the Memphis metropolitan area, including sections of

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Mis ...

. WEGR broadcasts at 102.7

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one h ...

and on the air it calls itself Rock 103. The station's studios are located in Southeast Memphis, and the

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...

site is in

Bartlett, Tennessee Bartlett is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 57,786 at the 2020 U.S. Census. History Bartlett, originally called "Union Depot", first served as the last major Tennessean depot along the westward stagecoach ro ...

. WEGR broadcasts at 100,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s. WEGR broadcasts in the

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

format.

History

The station first signed on in March 1967 as WREC-FM, sister to

WREC WREC (600 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Memphis, Tennessee. It broadcasts a talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios and offices are on Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Memphis. WREC is West Tennessee's primary en ...

600 AM. Broadcasting Yearbook 1977 In December 1975, the station went to an

automated Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

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 ...

format with the

call letters 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 assign ...

WZXR. On September 25, 1977, the station switched to AOR (

Album Oriented Rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. Album-orient ...

). Except for a brief flirtation with

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 "conte ...

in 1985 and 1986, the station has played some form of rock ever since. Known as "Rock 103," WEGR has been consistently programmed with a classic rock format for more than 40 years. Its mascot is a walru

which has seen numerous incarnations. For a brief period, the station was promoted as "The Eagle," in an attempt to create a brand from the call sign. For many years, WEGR's studio was located at historic 203

Beale Street Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of blues music. Today, t ...

. It was moved in 2003 to a facility shared by other area iHeartMedia broadcast stations. September 5, 2019, nationally syndicated John Clay Wolfe Show joins WEGR on Saturday mornings.

Previous logo

(WEGR's logo under previous "Rock 102.7" branding)

References

External links

Rock 103 Official website
* EGR Classic rock radio stations in the United States IHeartMedia radio stations 1967 establishments in Tennessee Radio stations established in 1967 {{Tennessee-radio-station-stub