WPGC (AM)

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WPGC
City of license	Morningside, MD/Washington, D.C.
Broadcast area	Washington, D.C.
Branding	"Heaven 1580"
Slogan	Your Urban Inspiration Station
Frequency	1580 (kHz)
First air date	May 1954
Format	Urban Gospel
Power	50,000 watts (Daytime) 270 watts (Nighttime)
Class	B
Facility ID	28638
Callsign meaning	We're Prince George's County
Owner	CBS Radio
Sister stations	WJFK, WLZL, WPGC-FM, WTGB
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	www.heaven1580.com

WPGC, also known as, Heaven 1580, is radio station broadcasting on 1580 kHz in the mediumwave AM band. It is an Urban Gospel radio station that serves the Washington, D.C. area. WPGC is licensed to Morningside, but its studios are located in Lanham alongside with its sister station WPGC-FM.

[edit] History

On November 12, 1953, Former FCC employee, Harry Hayman received a construction permit to build and operate a new Morningside, Maryland broadcasting station. The FCC assigned a 250 watt daytime only operation to the station on 1580 kilohertz. The call letters WPGC, representing Prince Georges County are issued late in the year.

In May 1954, WPGC began as a multi-formatted radio station by then owner and general manager Harry Hayman. Maxwell Evans Richmond, purchased the station from Harry Hayman for $10,000 on November 10, 1954.

On April 14, 1955, WPGC was issued a permit to raise power to 10,000 watts daytime only. It also moved its offices from Morningside to 4421 Southern Ave., SE, DC above the WM&A Bus Line repair facility, in the studios formerly used by WBUZ-FM. In 1956, the station begans having its programming simulcasted on WRNC-FM (now WPGC-FM).

On June 28, 1965, the stations were granted a modification of their licenses to move studios to Bladensburg and is allowed to continue to identify their city of license as being in Morningside. The station played Top-40 programming with a format similar to WABC and WMCA in New York City and CKLW in Detroit and was the most popular Top 40 station in the Washington Metropolitan area, rivaled only by WEAM on 1390 kHz. As the black population of Washington gained in influence, WPGC began to alternate playing "white" rock numbers with Motown and soul music.

After dying in 1971, the estate of Max Richmond received FCC approval on August 7, 1974 to sell the stations for $5.8 million to First Media Corporation. The transaction of the change of ownership of the 2 stations was finalized on October 17, 1974.

On April 9, 1979 the FCC granted the AM a permit to raise power from 10 to 50 kilowatts, still daytime only, directional.

After 15 years in the Parkway Building in Bladensburg, the station moved to new state-of-the-art studios overlooking the Capital Beltway in Greenbelt at 6301 Ivy Lane, Suite 800. They would remain in this location until the relocation to their current offices and studios to 4200 Parliament Place, Suite 300 in Lanham.

WPGC finally was granted the permission to raise its power in 1986 and debuts a business talk format in 1988. However, from October 1987 to 1990, its nighttime power yo-yoed from 270 watts to 500 watts directional in 1989 back to 270 watts but using a directional antenna in 1990.

First Media decided to sell all of its properties for $177 million to a minority interest in early 1987. Cook Inlet, a group of Alaska Natives, purchased the 2 stations in 1987. Infinity Broadcasting acquired the station and sister station WPGC-FM in from Cook Inlet in June 1994 for $60 million. The station for a short time had a business talk format but in 1995, WPGC returned to music programming as "Flava 1580", with an all hip-hop/go-go format. Unsuccessful in that, it ultimately evolved to its present Gospel incarnation in November 1996 as "Heaven 1580".

[edit] External links

• Heaven 1580's website
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WPGC
• Radio Locator Information on WPGC
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WPGC
• WPGC tribute site