WGEA

WGEA
City	Geneva, Alabama
Frequency	1150 kHz
Programming
Format	Defunct, was Talk
Ownership
Owner	Shelley Broadcasting Company, Inc.
History
First air date	March 17, 1953
Last air date	April 11, 2017; (date of license cancellation)
Call sign meaning	GEneva, Alabama
Technical information
Facility ID	60100
Class	D
Power	1000 watts (day); 35 watts (night)
Transmitter coordinates	31°01′21″N 85°52′16″W

WGEA (1150 AM) was a radio station licensed to serve Geneva, Alabama. Established in 1953, the station was owned by Shelley Broadcasting Company, Inc. It aired a talk radio format.[1]

The station was assigned the WGEA call letters by the Federal Communications Commission.[2]

Notable programming included a morning show with local host Clayton Flick plus local high school sporting events and national shows from syndicated hosts Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved and Mark Levin.

History

WGEA was put on the air on March 17, 1953 by three brothers - Howard, Clarence and Alton Scott, who owned The Geneva County Reaper. Senator John Sparkman and Governor Gordon Persons attended the formal opening ceremony on April 2, 1953. The station was called, "Voice of the Geneva County Reaper". In the late 1950s, WGEA was purchased by Radio South, owned by Miles and Celeste Ferguson.

In 1962 a group of local businessmen formed Geneva County Broadcasting Company and bought the station. WGEA-FM (now WPHH in Hope Hull) was launched on June 27, 1969. The FM station was largely programmed separately but did simulcast some popular local news programs in the morning hours. James C. Helms was the General Manager from 1962 until his death in 1980 at which time his wife Joan assumed his position and became one of the first female General Managers in Alabama radio.

In 1987, WGEA and WGEA-FM were sold to Shelley Broadcasting Company, owned by H. Jack Mizell of Ozark, Alabama. He changed the call letters of the FM station to WRJM-FM and moved its studios to Ozark. Doc Parker became General Manager of the AM station and also hosted "The Breakfast Club", a popular local morning program, until he retired in 2015. WRJM-FM was sold in a bank foreclosure in 2008, but Mizell continued to own and operate WGEA until April 11, 2017, when the Federal Communications Commission canceled the station's license for failure to pay debts that it owed to the commission.[3]

gollark: Is anyone else having issues getting the thing to actually work?

gollark: I mean, the cloud providers are all horribly expensive for hobbyist use.

gollark: Colab? Various cloud providers?

gollark: That's what they want you to think, of course.

gollark: Yes, but only since last Thursday.

References

"Station Information Profile". Arbitron.
"Call Sign History". FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database.
Bradshaw, James D. (April 11, 2017). "Re: WGEA(AM), Geneva, AL" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved April 13, 2017.

External links

WGEA in the FCC's AM station database
WGEA on Radio-Locator
WGEA in Nielsen Audio's AM station database

FCC History Cards for WGEA

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] "Station Information Profile". Arbitron.

[fcc1-2] "Call Sign History". FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database.

[fcc-wgeadeleted-3] Bradshaw, James D. (April 11, 2017). "Re: WGEA(AM), Geneva, AL" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved April 13, 2017.