Technical Profile: WGEX

FM Technical Profile: WGEX

Station Name:: Power 97-3
Frequency:: 97.3
Format:: CHR
Transmitter Location:: [map] East of the Bellville community in Miller County, Georgia. About a half-mile east of the intersection of Waycaser Road on Donley Road, just before the county line.
Power (ERP):: 100 kW
Antenna:: Omni
Antenna HAAT:: 997 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]
Owner:: iHeartMedia
History:: This station was put on the air in 1967 by John A. Dowdy, who was part owner of AM WMGR in Bainbridge, Georgia. Originally to be WMGR-FM, the calls at sign-on were WJAD (for John A. Dowdy himself). Originally, the station broadcast from the WMGR studios and transmitter site on US-84, now East Shotwell Street. Trivia tidbits: The WMGR calls were for another Decatur Broadcasting owner, Marvin Griffin (Marvin Griffin Radio). Marvin owned the Bainbridge Searchlight newspaper and was also governor of Georgia in the 50's.

Through the late 70's, the station had an Top 40 format. In 1979 the station was granted a permit to boost power to the current transmitter site with 100,000 watts, giving it quite the good signal all over southwest Georgia, but also becoming a secondary signal in Tallahassee and Dothan. The station was known for a long time as "97 ROCK" through the late 80's. The stations were acquired by the Guardian Corporation in 1986.

The call sign changed to WMGR-FM in March 1994. Peterson Broadcasting bought the stations in 1994; by this time, the Broadcasting Yearbook lists the AM as oldies while the FM is listed as Adult Contemporary.

In February 2001 the call sign changed to WFXF, after Clear Channel bought the station in 2000.

Between March and April 2003, the station went through a quick set of call sign changes: First to WLCL, then WMXV, then WKGL and finally WRAK-FM on 28 April 2003. It's likely the station flipped formats one more times during this period, but data online is scarce. During the WRAK years, the station was known as "Magic 97.3".

In February 2010, the station flipped to a mix of 90's Pop and Rock hits as "GEneration X Radio" and the WGEX call sign. The station began stunting with Christmas Music in December 2011. After the holidays, a new Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) format was unwrapped, as the station became "97-3 Hit Music Now". That lasted until June 2016, when iHeart Radio (the former Clear Channel) changed the slogan to "Power 97.3", while keeping the CHR programming the same.

The station was taken off the air by Hurricane Michael, which hit the area on 10 October 2018, but resumed operated by Sunday 14 October 2018.