WGVU (AM)

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WGVU & WGVS
City of license	WGVU: Kentwood, Michigan WGVS: Muskegon, Michigan
Broadcast area	WGVU: [1] (Daytime) WGVU: [2] (Nighttime) WGVS: [3]
Slogan	West Michigan Public Radio
First air date	WGVU: May 22, 1992 WGVS: 1926
Frequency	WGVU: 1480 kHz WGVS: 850 kHz
Format	Public: News-Talk
Power	WGVU: 2,000 watts (Daytime) WGVU: 5,000 watts (Nighttime) WGVS: 1,000 watts
Class	WGVU: B WGVS: B
Callsign meaning	Grand Valley State University
Former callsigns	WGVU: WGVC (?-7/20/92) WAMX WAFT WMAX WGVS: WKBZ (1926-3/1/99)
Affiliations	NPR
Owner	Grand Valley State University
Website	http://www.wgvu.org/radio/

WGVU is a radio station that serves the Greater Grand Rapids, Michigan area and is simulcasted throughout Western Michigan. The main broadcast frequency is 1480 kHz, which is licensed to Kentwood, Michigan, a Grand Rapids suburb. It is simulcast on WGVS 850 kHz, which is licensed to Muskegon. The format is news/talk.

WGVU began broadcasting on May 22, 1992. The station since its inception has served as a public broadcaster and is NPR affiliate.

AM 1480 was for many years the home of WMAX, which was in the late 1950s and early 1960s the leading Top 40 music station in Grand Rapids. Afterward the station played mostly middle of the road and adult contemporary music (and briefly used the WAFT calls for a time in the late 1960s), although WMAX did briefly return to a Top 40-style presentation from about 1972 to 1975. The station dropped its music format in 1980 for a talk format as WTWN and later went silent until Grand Valley returned the station to the air in 1992. WGVU-AM broadcasts in AM Stereo.

Until Grand Valley State University took control of the station (and 95.3 FM in Whitehall, Michigan) in late 1998, AM 850 was the home of Muskegon's heritage radio station, WKBZ, which dates back to 1926 when it began at 1500 AM in Ludington, Michigan. WKBZ now broadcasts at 1090 AM (formerly WMUS-AM) with a news/talk format.

[edit] Trivia

Victor Lundberg, a newscaster at WMAX 1480, had a Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 with a spoken-word piece titled "An Open Letter To My Teenage Son."

[edit] Sources

• Michiguide.com - WGVU History
• Michiguide.com - WGVS History

[edit] External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for WGVU
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WGVS