WGL (AM)

WGL is an AM radio station located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The station operates on the AM radio frequency of 1250 kHz.

The station was the first to broadcast in the city of Fort Wayne. Chester Keen and Lauer Auto founded what was originally called WCWK when it signed on in 1921. Keen bought the Lauer interests in WCWK in 1925. That same year, WOWO was established by the Main Auto Supply Co., with studios above Main Auto's downtown factory.

In 1928, Keen sold WCWK to WOWO owner Fred Zieg, and the call letters were changed to WGL (What God Loves), taking a callsign previously used by the current WADO in New York City. WOWO and WGL were owned by the Zieg family until WOWO's sale to Westinghouse in 1936. Westinghouse sold WGL to Farnsworth in 1945 and subsequently it was purchased by the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. The call letters of WGL were reinterpreted as Wayne's Great Lady, referring to Helene Foelliger, who had markedly improved circulation of the News-Sentinel since becoming publisher less than a decade earlier, when she became the youngest, as well as one of the first female, publishers of a major newspaper. William Kunkle, publisher of the morning Journal-Gazette, followed by establishing WKJG (William Kunkle Journal-Gazette) in 1947, but while WKJG established a television station in 1953, WGL had no television license.

Programming

WGL is known for being the first station in Fort Wayne to carry a talk format and one of the initial stations to carry The Rush Limbaugh Show, which moved to WOWO in 1996. In February, 1998, WGL changed its format to sports; most of its programming came from "One-On-One Sports" (now "Sporting News Radio.") As a result, they dropped G. Gordon Liddy, Tom Leykis, Art Bell, and local host Rusty Humphries. Between September, 1998 and August, 2000, WGL aired ESPN Radio, claiming it from rival WOWO. By August, 2000, ESPN's affiliation moved to rival WONO, WOWO's sister station. At this point, the format returned to talk, featuring the programs of such hosts as Liddy, Bill O'Reilly, and Jim Rome. Several years later, the format again switched to sports talk under the Fox Sports 1250 banner, with the notable exception of Dave Macy's morning program, which covered news, politics, and culture as well as sports.

WGL was sold (along with the other Kovas Communications stations) to Travis Broadcasting Corp. in December, 2001, for $7.5 million. WGL was purchased, along with its sister stations by Summit City Radio Group in July, 2004. Currently, it broadcasts adult standards, having picked up the format in 2003. WGL aired the syndicated Adult Standards (America's Best Music) format from Dial Global until April 2007, when the station went to a standards/soft AC hybrid with a combination of local DJs and local automation. The station soon returned to airing the Dial Global format with a local morning show.

Weekday programming on The River consisted of Dial Global's America's Best Music format from midnight to noon and then from 6 p.m. to midnight, Dave Ramsey from noon to 3 p.m., and local talk host Pat White from 3 to 6 p.m.

WGL's programming was simulcast full-time on WGL-FM 102.9 until 12:00PM on April 1, 2010, when the FM station broke away to air a Soft AC format as "V102.9". The simulcast will returned June 3, 2013, when both WGL and WGL-FM switched to an oldies format. Former WLYV and WQHK-FM disc jockey Rick Hughes serves as the station's morning host; Pat White's show will be retained on the simulcast (and move to 2 to 5 p.m.), while Dave Ramsey was dropped from the WGL lineup.^[1]

References

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for WGL
• Radio-Locator Information on WGL
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WGL

Coordinates: 41°01′16″N 85°09′46″W / 41.02111°N 85.16278°W / 41.02111; -85.16278