WWEG

WWEG
City of license Myersville, Maryland
Broadcast area The "Four-State Region"
Branding 106.9 The Eagle
Slogan The Classic Hits Station
Frequency 106.9 MHz (also on HD Radio)
Translator(s) 102.1 W271BV (Hagerstown, relays HD2)
First air date 1954 (as WARK-FM)
Format Classic Hits
HD2: Adult Contemporary "102.1 More FM"
ERP 15,500 watts
HAAT 260 meters
Class B
Facility ID 39806
Transmitter coordinates 39°29′57.00″N 77°36′42.00″W / 39.4991667°N 77.6116667°W
Callsign meaning W W EaGle
Former callsigns WARK-FM (1954-1970s)
WWCS (1970s-1982)
WXCS (1982–1985)
WARX (1985–2005)
Owner Manning Broadcasting, Inc.
Sister stations WAFY, WARK
Webcast WWEG Webstream
Website WWEG Online
WWEG-HD2 Online

WWEG is a classic hits formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Myersville, Maryland.

The station can be heard throughout the "Four-State Region" of western Maryland, south central Pennsylvania, eastern West Virginia and northern Virginia. WWEG's distance grade signal can be heard in Washington, D.C., though it is prone to interference from WJFK-FM.

WWEG is owned and operated by Manning Broadcasting, Inc.

History

WWEG was launched in 1954 as WARK-FM. In the mid 1970s, the calls were changed to WWCS, standing for "Country Sunshine", an automated country format it ran at the time. In a market dominated with country stations (WYII & WAYZ) WWCS struggled in the ratings even though it had the most powerful broadcast signal.

On October 6, 1982, WWCS became WARX, dropping its country format for Album Oriented Rock using the tagline "107 X Marks The Rock". 107X was a hit immediately, although its popularity waned as the "AOR" format struggled in the 80's. On March 1, 1985, the AOR format gave way to a soft adult contemporary format known as "Magic 106.9", yet the call letters stayed the same. In early 1991, the station adopted an oldies format (again with no call letter change) and became known as "Oldies 106.9", which eventually became its most popular incarnation.

Although the station was identified as "Hagerstown/Frederick" after the call letters on the station, it never had a dual-id. It was licensed only to Hagerstown for the station's entire existence in that city. In 2008, the city of license was changed to Myersville, Maryland.

On March 10, 2005, owner Manning Broadcasting sold WARX to Nassau Broadcasting for an unknown sum. Nassau immediately instituted a change to the current calls and format.

Nine days earlier, on March 1, 2005, nearby Waynesboro, Pennsylvania-based WWMD (now WBHB-FM) had flipped from Contemporary Hit Radio to classic rock under the callsign WEEG, with their new branding being "Eagle 101.5". On March 9, 2005, Nassau sued WEEG owner Verstandig Broadcasting for the use of the "Eagle" moniker, even though Verstandig had been using the name prior to Nassau's purchase of WARX. This is not true. Nassau had been operating WARX under an LMA since January 1, 2005. WARX was changed to the Eagle at 11 am Sunday, February 27, before 101.5 switched. 101.5 swithed to the Eagle later that same afternoon.

On March 9, Verstandig dropped the "Eagle" branding and changed WEEG's calls to WFYN. On March 10, Nassau officially changed WARX's calls to WWEG.

Because of the lawsuit against Verstandig, ratings for WWEG were weak at the beginning but have picked up. WFYN, which now airs an active rock format as WBHB-FM, consistently ranks higher than WWEG, except during the ratings cycle in Summer of 2009.

The WARX calls are now on a Lewiston, Maine station.

After Nassau went into chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, WWEG and WARK, along with WAFY in Frederick, were purchased by Manning Broadcasting in May 2012,[1] with the sale being completed on November 1, 2012 at a price of $6.4 million.[2] Manning's repurchase of WWEG and WARK followed a lawsuit against Nassau over missed payments.[3]

WWEG-HD2

WWEG airs an adult contemporary format on its HD2 subchannel, branded as "102.1 More FM" (relayed on translator W271BV 102.1 FM Hagerstown, Maryland).

References

  1. ↑ Aines, Don (May 9, 2012). "Two area radio stations return to local owners". The Herald-Mail. Retrieved November 10, 2012.
  2. ↑ "EMF Buys Dallas-Fort Worth FM From Liberman". All Access. November 5, 2012. Retrieved November 10, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Manning Broadcasting Sues Nassau Principal Over Unpaid Note, Contract Amounts". All Access. January 23, 2012. Retrieved November 10, 2012.

External links