Technical Profile: WGBL

FM Technical Profile: WGBL

Station Name:: G 96.7
Frequency:: 96.7
Format:: Classic Hip-Hop
Transmitter Location:: [map] [bird's eye] [street view] Off Klein Road, west of Oliver Drive in northern Gulfport. Co-located with WXYK-FM on WROA-AM's big array.
Power (ERP):: 4.3 kW
8.4 kW (CP)
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Antenna HAAT:: 390 feet
407 feet (CP)
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.
60 dBu protected contour map, from FCCdata.org.; :

PS-The New "G" 96.7
Time-Present
Text-The New "G" 96.7 Now Playing (song/artist)
PTY-None
PI-WGBL-FM
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]

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[Image] RDS display from an Insignia portable radio, showing the Radio Text and PI (call sign) fields.

[Aircheck] Audio sample of station, flipping from sports (with robotic countdown voice) to contemporary country. 5'39", 6.51 MB, MP3 format.
Owner:: Telesouth Communications
History:: 96.7 was originally WGUF (GUlF) FM, class A country companion to daytimer 1130 AM with the same calls. This was in the mid 70's. In the 80's, went to black formatting with the name "Foxy" (WQFX), after the black music formatting was abandoned by another local station WTAM. In recent years, when one owner took over much of the Biloxi / Gulfport licenses, the light rock format was moved here and the calls became WLRK (Light RocK). In early September 1999, the station changed formats to jammin' oldies. Its shares as a lite rock station were low, around a 1% share. Following their abandonment of the Lite Rock format, the station changed calls to WUJM for their JaMin' oldies format. In late summer/early fall of 2003 (?), the station moved to 80's and 90's hit music with the unusual moniker "Molly 96.7"--a reference to "The Breakfast Club" actress Molly Ringwald. Later the station switched to "Hank FM" with a country format.; On 29 August 2011 the station began stunting with a non-stop look of Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll, Part 2, which signaled a change to sports talk two days later as "The Champ". This became the Mississippi gulf coast's first local FM sports talk station, simulcasting AMs WXBD and WTMI, also in Biloxi. The simulcast ended in early September, 2014 when this station broke off and began stunting with a robotic countdown clock. The countdown ended at 5 pm on 5 September, with the debut of contemporary country under the "96-7 The Bull" moniker. The calls changed to WGBL (Gulf BuLl) in August 2014. In December of 2015 the station (along with stable-mate WXYK) received a construction permit to relocate to the Alpha Media tower used by WJZD at the studio, but the permit was never built out. On Valentine's Day 2016, the station unexpectedly flipped to a classic hip-hop format, remaking itself as "G 96.7", with poor ratings cited for the end of the country format.

The station was sold, along with most of the rest of the Alpha Media cluster in Biloxi, to Telesouth Communications for $2.5 million in December 2018.

At the end of March 2024 Telesouth applied for a construction permit to boost power from 4.3 kW to 8.4 kW while changing the station from a Class A allotment to a Class C3 allotment. In the station's application, it was noted that this change would be contingent on Educational Media Foundation's successful grant of a permit for their WFFF-FM, licensed to Columbia, Mississippi. That station applied to relocate from Columbia to the McComb area along I-55, while being re-licensed to the community of Bogue Chitto. Both the WFFF-FM and WGBL applications were granted in mid-July 2024.