WGGC

WGGC

Bowling Green, Kentucky
Broadcast area	Bowling Green and surrounding areas
Frequency	95.1 MHz
Branding	Goober 95.1
Programming
Format	Country
Affiliations	UK Sports Network [1] Westwood One
Ownership
Owner	Skytower Communications [2] (Heritage Communications, Inc.)
Sister stations	WLCK, WQXE, WULF, WVLE
History
First air date	June 23, 1961;63 years ago (1961-06-23) [3] [4]
Former call signs	WPRX (1989–1993)
Call sign meaning	WGlasgow's Guy Comer [5] or We're the Giant Goober of Country
Technical information [6]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	27007
Class	C0
Power	100,000 watts
HAAT	967 feet (295 m)
Transmitter coordinates	36°54′43″N86°11′21″W / 36.91194°N 86.18917°W / 36.91194; -86.18917
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	wggc.com

WGGC (95.1 FM) is a country music–formatted radio station licensed to and serving Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States. The station is owned by Skytower Communications. ^{[2] [7]} Its transmitter is located in northern Allen County on Kentucky Route 101 near the Warren/Allen County line. Its broadcasting studio is located at 1727 US 31W Bypass in Bowling Green. ^[8]

History

The early years in Glasgow

The station's application history dates back to 1959–60, when the call letters were going to be WKAY-FM to match with parent station WKAY-AM (now WCLU), but the WGGC call letters were assigned by the FCC in July 1960. ^[9] Originally licensed to and located in Glasgow, Kentucky, the station first signed on the air on June 23, 1961, under ownership of Glasgow Broadcasting Company, which also owned WKAY. At the time of its inception, WGGC was the first FM radio station ever to sign on in south central Kentucky as all other FM signals came from either Nashville, Louisville, Central City, or Owensboro. Both WGGC and WKAY shared studios at 510 Happy Valley Road (Kentucky Route 351, now Kentucky Route 90) in Glasgow; that facility was demolished in November 2014 to make room for a new drug store. ^[4] Clovis and Moena Sadler, who were managing WKAY for several years, purchased WGGC and WKAY in 1971. ^{[5] : 141} During the first two decades of WGGC's existence, the station began as an almost-full-time simulcast of WKAY until sometime in the late 1960s, when WGGC became one of the first FM stations in southern Kentucky to broadcast a country music format. ^{[5] : 141}

Formats over the years

Shortly before 1970, the station was broadcasting a religious format, ^[10] and later a gospel music format, and eventually began broadcasting their country music format by 1974, ^[11] thereby becoming one of the first country music stations on the FM dial in southern Kentucky. ^{[5] : 141}

Signal upgrade and new transmitter site

By 1985, WGGC's signal was upgraded to operate with 100,000 watts of effective radiated power. ^{[5] : 141} In 1988, the station's origination was moved to its present transmitting site in Allen County. ^[4] At one point in 1989, the station's callsign was changed to WPRX, ^{[12] [13]} but reverted to the WGGC callsign sometime in 1992, and until 2002, it was known on air as "Country 95."

Changes of ownership

From 1988 through the mid-1990s, both WGGC and WCLU were under ownership of Royse Radio, Inc. While the ownership of both WCLU and WCLU-FM remained in the hands of Royse Radio, WGGC remained under ownership by Moena Sadler. In 1994, the station was leased to Bill Evans of Elizabethtown-based Hot AC station WQXE to operate WGGC, ^{[5] : 142} and was eventually sold to Heritage Communications, Inc., in October 1997. ^[3] In August 2000, WGGC began audio streaming their signal over the internet through its website. ^[14]

Relocation to Bowling Green

In 1996, WGGC moved its broadcasting facilities to its current location in Bowling Green; the station's broadcasting license would also relocate to Bowling Green in 2002. From then until 2010, the station was branded as "95.1 WGGC." It began branding itself as "Dolby Digital 95.1" in late 2010 before using its current "Goober 95.1" branding in 2011.

Community service

WGGC has often been involved in community service; most recently in June 2014, when the station, in conjunction with the southern Kentucky chapter of United Way, hosted a radio-thon to raise money for country music superstar Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. ^[15] It became an annual event beginning in 2015. On February 4, 2020, WGGC was awarded the United Way Media Partner Advocacy Award, for its "United Way Wednesdays" segments in 2019, on Big Rick In The Morning.

December 2021 tornado

In the wee hours of December 11, 2021, WGGC was one of a handful of local radio and television outlets in Bowling Green that were knocked off the air due to an EF3 tornado that impacted portions of the city. WGGC's studio was within the path of the tornado when it struck the corridor along the U.S. 31W Bypass near downtown Bowling Green; the tornado produced substantial damage at and around the studio and offices. The station returned to the air several days later following the efforts to clean the damage at the studio. ^[16]

Programming and format

WGGC broadcasts a country music format, therefore competing with three other country formatted stations in the same market: WBVR-FM (FM 96.7), Cave City-licensed WHHT (FM 103.7), and Glasgow-based WLYE-FM (FM 94.1) for ratings. WGGC also competes with out-of-market country stations like WSM-AM, WSM-FM, WKDF and WSIX-FM in Nashville, along with WBKR in Owensboro for the allegiances of the local listener due to Bowling Green's close proximity to both nearby cities, where listeners can pick up at least Grade B quality signal of the station thanks to WGGC's 100,000 watts of power and its tower height of 967 feet (295 m), thereby covering many areas in west-central Kentucky, northern middle Tennessee, and a small sliver of southwestern Indiana. ^[17]

WGGC hosts include: Krysta; ^[18] and Greg Almond. ^[19] Syndicated shows from Westwood One include The Big Time with Whitney Allen and The Lia Show . ^[20]

In addition to country music, WGGC has also been the area's longtime home for Kentucky Wildcats football and men's basketball games from the UK Sports Network by JMI Sports. ^[1]

Nominations and awards

In 2020, former morning host "Big Rick" Daniels was nominated for the 55th Academy of Country Music Awards for On-Air Personality of the Year – Small Market., ^[21] and for the 54th Country Music Association Awards for Small Market Personality of the Year. ^[22]

References

1. "UK Sports Network". JMI Sports. Kentucky Wildcats . Retrieved March 10, 2023.
2. "Commercial Broadcast Stations Biennial Ownership Report (FCC Form 323)". Skytower Communications. Federal Communications Commission. February 21, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
3. 2010 Broadcasting Yearbook, page D-237
4. Overstreet, Melinda J. (November 21, 2014). "Ely Drugs plans new location, will take over spot where radio stations once were". Glasgow Daily Times . Retrieved April 14, 2015.
5. Nash, Francis M. (1995). Towers Over Kentucky: A History of Radio and TV in the Bluegrass State. Host Communications Incorporated. ISBN   9781879688933.
6. "Facility Technical Data for WGGC". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
7. "WGGC Call Sign History". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
8. "Contactus". Archived from the original on July 21, 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
9. "BC-1960-08-01-OCR-Page-0096" (PDF). worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
10. "B-Radio-All-1974" (PDF). worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
11. Elving, Bruce F. (1976). "FM Atlas, Fourth Edition, page 61" (PDF). worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
12. "BC-1989-06-19-OCR" (PDF). worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
13. "WGGC". fcc.gov. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
14. Overstreet, Melinda J. (March 5, 2000). "Sound Bytes". Park City Daily News. pp. 1A, 2A – via Google Books.
15. "Hometown Hero Goober 951 WGGC 264954941". wbko.com . Retrieved January 26, 2014.
16. "Country radio responds to weekend tornadoes". Inside Radio. December 13, 2021. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
17. "Advertising". wggc.com. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
18. "Krysta with a K - Goober 95.1 WGGC". wggc.com.
19. "Greg Almond - Afternoons on Goober 95.1 WGGC". wggc.com.
20. "WGGC-FM | Goober 95.1 THE Country Station Bowling Green, KY - Local News, Weather, UK Basketball, Country Music". WGGC-FM | Goober 95.1 Bowling Green, KY.
21. "Academy of Country Music | ACM Radio Awards". www.acmcountry.com.
22. "CMA Announces Dean Dillon, Marty Stuart and Hank Williams Jr. As the Country Music Hall of Fame Class of 2020". September 2020.

External links

• Facility details for Facility ID 742064 (WGGC) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• WGGC in Nielsen Audio's FM station database