KWAM (990 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Memphis, Tennessee. The station airs a talk radio format and is owned by Todd Starnes’ Starnes Media Group.[1][2] The studios and offices are on Murray Road in Memphis. The transmitter is located off Bridgeport Road in Marion, Arkansas.[3]
| Broadcast area | Memphis metropolitan area |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 990 kHz |
| Branding | The Mighty 990 |
| Programmierung | |
| Format | Talk |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | |
| History | |
First air date | February 23, 1947 |
Former call signs | KWEM (1947–1959) |
| Technical information | |
| Facility ID | 35873 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 10,000 watts day 450 watts night |
Transmitter coordinates | 35°8′4.00″N 90°5′38.00″W / 35.1344444°N 90.0938889°W |
| Translator(s) | 107.9 W300DE (Memphis) |
| Links | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | www |
By day, KWAM broadcasts with 10,000 watts. But because AM 990 is a Canadian clear-channel frequency, the station must reduce power at night to 450 watts. To allow listeners in Memphis to hear the station on FM, KWAM is simulcast on translator station W300DE at 107.9 MHz.[4]
KWAM was founded in 1946 in West Memphis, Arkansas, as KWEM, helping "break" artists such as Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Ike Turner and Howlin' Wolf in the 1950s and 60s.
Programmierung
KWAM has a schedule of both local and nationally syndicated talk shows. Syndicated shows and hosts include Red Eye Radio, Armstrong and Getty, Bill O'Reilly, Todd Starnes, Sebastian Gorka, Lars Larson, Larry Elder, and Tom Sullivan. Weekday mornings are hosted by Tim Van Horn on Wake Up Memphis. Local weekend shows include Midsouth Gardening, Chett & Sherri, The Catholic Cafe, Talk Money, The Labor Agenda Show and All Things Fulfilled. Some hours are paid brokered programming. Most hours begin with national news from Salem Radio Network's TownHall.com.
History
Early years
On February 23, 1947,[5]: 317 the station first signed on as KWEM in West Memphis, Arkansas,[6] utilizing studios in the Merchants and Planters Bank Building. The construction permit had been awarded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on May 24, 1946,[6] but construction delays kept it from making its debut that year. KWEM was a daytimer, owned by West Memphis Broadcasting Corporation, powered at 1,000 watts and required to sign-off at sunset each day. The West Memphis Broadcasting Corporation was owned by the KXLR-Razorback Network.[5]: 317
The Memphis Sound
In 1951, the station was bought by E. D. Rivers, Jr., through KWEM, Incorporated.[7] In March 1952, Rivers applied to have the station moved across the river to Memphis, which was approved in January 1954, to allow KWEM to move across the river into Memphis; the transmitter site remained in Arkansas.[6] He started the "Dee" Rivers Stations Group, which later owned WEAS-FM in Springfield/Savannah, Georgia, and WGOV (now WGUN) in Valdosta, Georgia, as well as other stations in Georgia and Florida. KWEM held a construction permit to build a channel 48 television station in Memphis, KWEM-TV, but abandoned it in August 1953 because it could not find an adequate site that could house both AM and TV studios and the TV station's transmitter site and did not want this situation to hinder improvements to the radio station.[8]
On March 31, 1959, Rivers changed the call letters of AM 990 to KWAM.[6] In 1963,[6] the station got FCC permission to boost its power to 10,000 watts, using a directional antenna, but it still could not broadcast after sunset. In the 1950s and 60s, the "Mighty 990" gained fame for playing "The Memphis Sound," including locally recorded soul music, R&B, country music and rockabilly. Its website history page says "KWAM helped launch the careers of B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf,[9] Ike Turner and many Sun Studios stars such as Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash."[10]
The KWEM call letters were later revived for KWEM-LP, a low-power FM station in West Memphis owned by Arkansas State University Mid-South, which began broadcasting in 2015. The project was led by Dale Franklin, who died in 2017.[11]
Gospel and religion
In 1968,[12] KWAM began airing religion shows, selling blocks of time to preachers and playing black gospel music. The station already had a history of religious radio programming; in 1952, a Doctor of Divinity, William Riley, hosted a religious music program on KWEM.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
In 1986, KWAM got nighttime authorization. It was allowed to stay on the air after sunset, but at 450 watts.[13]
Changes in ownership
In February 1996, U.S. Radio announced it would purchase KWAM and the FM station, KJMS, from Rivers. This united the two stations with their principal competitors, WDIA (1070 AM) and WHRK (97.1 FM). One month later, U.S. Radio was purchased by Clear Channel Communications for $140 million.[14]
Clear Channel sold KWAM to Concord Media for $1 million in 2000.[15] Concord switched KWAM to a talk radio format, which competes with iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel) talk station AM 600 WREC. Several years later, KWAM changed hands again, this time bought by Legacy Media, which also owns WEKS, an FM country music station in Zebulon, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. In 2017, Legacy Media added a 250 watt FM translator station to simulcast KWAM, 107.9 W300DE. The next year, Legacy Media would change the station's branding to "KWAM The Voice - Talk Radio for the Midsouth."
Legacy Media sold KWAM as well as its translator for $685,000 to the upstart Starnes Media Group, which is owned by Todd Starnes, a long-time journalist who served stints at Baptist Press and later Fox News before starting his own radio station in his native Memphis.[16] Upon the close of the purchase, Starnes Media Group changed the station's branding to reflect the history of the station, renaming it "The Mighty 990."
References
- ^ "KWAM Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
- ^ "KWAM Station Information Profile". Arbitron.
- ^ Radio-Locator.com/KWAM
- ^ Radio-Locator.com/W300DE
- ^ a b Poindexter, Ray (1974). Arkansas Airwaves (PDF). Retrieved August 10, 2021 – via World Radio History.
- ^ a b c d e FCC History Cards for KWAM
- ^ "FCC Actions" (PDF). Broadcasting. December 3, 1951. p. 98. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
- ^ "KWEM Turns In TV CP, Unable To Get Site" (PDF). Broadcasting. August 10, 1953. p. 11. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
- ^ "Blues, soul greats make Rock and Roll Hall of Fame". The Commercial Appeal. Associated Press. October 30, 1990. p. C1.
- ^ KWAMtheVoice.com/archive
- ^ Randall, Mark (November 21, 2017). "Dale Franklin, KWEM radio revivalist, passes away". The Evening Times. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
- ^ Walter, Tom. "Churchgoers put Memphis in lead in Black gospel radio". The Commercial Appeal. p. G2.
- ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1990 page B-289
- ^ Campbell, Laurel (May 10, 1996). "Clear Channel agrees to buy Radio Equity". The Commercial Appeal. p. B5.
- ^ Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2005 page D-480
- ^ "Former Fox News Radio Host Todd Starnes Purchases Memphis AM.- Inside Radio". insideradio.com. 9 January 2020.
External links
- Facility details for Facility ID KWAM ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
- {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's AM station database