WGMS (FM)

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This article chronicles WGMS' history in general. For the history of the frequency please see WWZZ (Z104).

WGMS, known on air as "Classical 104.1", is a Bonneville International-owned radio station with a classical music format in Washington, D.C.. It broadcasts on 103.9 MHz and 104.1 MHz (the former signal operating from Braddock Heights, Maryland with the legal call sign of WGYS). WGMS' transmitter is located in Waldorf, Maryland.

The station went on air as WQQW on September 18, 1948. It changed its call letters in 1951 to WGMS, for "Washington's Good Music Station". According to the station's website, WGMS "was the first FM signal in the marketplace and holds the record for the longest consecutive broadcast in the same format."

WGMS operated on 570 kHz as well as 103.5 MHz,and at one time was owned by RKO Radio,who had many big name Top 40 stations in Boston, Los Angeles, Memphis, and Detroit. In the 1970s,to comply with new FCC regulations limiting simulcasting, RKO prepared to change the format of WGMS-AM to Top-40. Due to public outcry in support of the classical format, this was forestalled when Congress authorized the stations to simulcast their programming full-time. ( ( In the '80s WGMS's AM station was sold. The 570 frequency is now home to Clear Channel talk station WTNT.)

The 104.1 frequency had previously been Oldies for many years as WXTR, X-tra 104, and also did a brief 70s format under the same logo. In the early 90's , to expand WXTR's coverage in Washington, then-owners Liberty Broadcasting purchased nearby Frederick, Maryland based WZYQ, at 103.9, then a Top 40 station, and began a simulcast with WXTR. Bonneville later purchased the combo and switched it to CHR as Z104 ( which was ironically, what WZYQ had called itself in it's previous life as a Top 40 station ) The stations later modified thier format to Modern Adult Comtemporary.

On January 4, 2006, Bonneville and the Washington Post announced that the frequencies currently used by WTOP, 1500 kHz and 107.7 MHz, would be reassigned to a new station, "Washington Post Radio". WTOP would move to 103.5 MHz, the frequencies currently used by classical music station WGMS, which in turn would move to 104.1 and 103.9 MHz, the frequencies used by comtemporary music station Z104, which would be closed. At noon that day, WGMS and WTOP shifted frequencies.

On December 8, 2006, it was announced Redskins owner Dan Snyder was to buy WGMS and change its format to a sports station, enlarging the Triple X ESPN Radio network.

In addition to the regular FM signal, WGMS broadcasts digitally using subchannels of 104.1 and 103.9 to carry "Viva La Voce", an all-vocal classical music station, and a high-definition version of WGMS. WGMS also broadcasts "long form" classical music on a digital subchannel of 103.5.