WFJA

Coordinates: 35°26′34.00″N 79°18′41.00″W / 35.4427778°N 79.3113889°W

WFJA
City of license Sanford, North Carolina
Branding Classic Hits 105.5
Slogan The Best Mix of the 60's, 70's and 80's
Frequency 105.5 MHz
First air date 1950 (as WWGP-FM)
Format Classic Hits
ERP 2,300 watts
HAAT 148 meters
Class A
Facility ID 74180
Transmitter coordinates 35°26′34.00″N 79°18′41.00″W / 35.4427778°N 79.3113889°W
Callsign meaning We are Frank James Abbott
Former callsigns WWGP-FM (1950-1976)
Affiliations ABC Radio
Owner WWGP Broadcasting Corporation
Sister stations WWGP
Webcast Listen Live
Website classichitsandoldies.com

WFJA (105.5 FM) is a classic hits formatted radio station licensed to Sanford, North Carolina, USA. The station is currently owned by WWGP Broadcasting Corporation.[1][2]

History

In 1950, WWGP-FM signed on the air. The format of the station was the same as WWGP-AM, which was country music. The station stayed the same until the FCC changed its rules in 1976 on AM-FM simulcasting the same formats. So WWGP-FM changed called letters to WFJA-FM. WFJA stood for We are Frank James Abbott. Frank "Bud" Abbott was the owner of WWGP Broadcasting, having bought it from Waldo Gerald Primm, for which WWGP-AM was named. Later Bud Abbott sold WWGP-AM and WFJA-FM to Richard K. Feindel, and he officially took control on January 13, 1994.

As WWGP-FM, besides country music, it concentrated heavily on local news. Bud Abbott did local news, when he retired from that part of the broadcast, he turned the news over to Joan Merritt. When Joan retired, she turned it over to Margaret Murchison, who at this writing is still the news director. Margaret has won numerous awards and has served as President of the North Carolina Radio News Directors organization. Margaret's latest award was in November 2012 for first place honors in Spot News as given by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas. WWGP-FM and later WFJA-FM carried syndicated columnist "Drew Pearson" and later "Jack Anderson". WFJA-FM carried news from the North Carolina News Network (NCNN), originally known as the Tobacco Network (TN) and today the station carries news from ABC Radio News Network.

WWGP-FM had several icons as announcers: Bill Buchanan, who for years did mornings and Bill Cameron who did afternoons. In 1976, WWGP-FM became WFJA-FM and the format shifted to top 40 and oldies. In October 1976, WFJA-FM began to carry Casey Kasem's "American Top 40" and continued to do throughout the 1980s. In 1978, WFJA-FM began to broadcast live announcers, some of which were Frank Parks, Danny Davis, and Bruce Strickland. Johnny Miller handled the Beach Music Show on Sunday nights. Johnny was featured on the TarHeel Traveler segment of WRAL-TV's 5:30 Newscast July 11, 2013 having worked with W F J A since 1976 part time, full time 1978. On November 7, 2014, Johnny was inducted into the Carolina Beach Music Hall of Fame at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Today WFJA-FM is still the only commercial FM licensed in Lee county to serve not only Lee County, but surrounding counties with almost 3000 watts of power. WFJA-FM carries a satellite music format from Citadel Media called "Classic Hits" and the slogan is "Classic Hits and Oldies 105.5 FM".[3]

In January 2010, WFJA-FM relaunched their website at classichitsandoldies.com.

References

  1. ↑ "WFJA Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  2. ↑ "WFJA Station Information Profile". Arbitron.
  3. ↑ Dr. Anthony Harrington, Lead History Instructor at Central Carolina Community College (1999-2013 retired) and 1977 graduate of the CCTI Radio TV Program, now known as CCCC Broadcast Production Technology Curriculum and former Lead Instructor of BPT at Triton High School Erwin, NC with CCCC 1988-1999.

External links