Technical Profile: WMGY

AM Technical Profile: WMGY

Frequency:: 800
Format:: Gospel
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] About 8/10 of a mile south of the Lower Wetumpka Road exit off Northern Boulevard. Behind a neighborhood, just west off Cedar Street.
Power (ERP):: Day: 1 kW; Night: 143 watts
Antenna:: Day & night: 1 tower, omnidirectional
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files
[FCC]
[FCCdata.org]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]
[Facebook] For Praise 96.5
[Street View] View of the station's studios on Upper Wetumpka Road.
// W243CS Montgomery
:
PS-WMGY-FM
Time-[?]
Text-[blank]
PTY-Religious Music
PI-[?]
Owned by Terry L. Barber (as Little Engine Broadcasting)
History:: WMGY (MontGomerY) goes back to at 1944; in the 50's it was owned by the (appropriately-named) Dixie Broadcasting Company, but they sold it to Radio Montgomery (Linton D. Hargreaves) in 1958. The station was country for most of its early years, and was a daytimer with just 1,000 watts. In the early 70's, the owners acquired 103.3 FM WAJM from the Montgomery Advertiser-Journal. They began simulcasting the country music on the FM, but may have been a bit too ahead of the curve for listeners; they gave up and tried Montgomery's first Top 40 format on FM, but that too was unsuccessful. By 1976 Radio Montgomery was out and ownership was McClure. Under the new ownership, the AM went to religious programming by 1977; the FM was sold to cross-town competitors at AM 950, then WRMA.; As of the summer of 2016, this station has kept the same southern gospel format for almost 40 years, despite negligible showings in the ratings. ("It's amazing this station survives because I've maybe 3 times in 25 years seen it with a point rating or higher" — local contributor StrayKats) Their biggest audiences are on Friday nights with the city private school football and basketball games. The station went through at least two more ownership changes since the late 70's. Once from McClure to GHB Broadcasting and later to WMGY, Inc.; After 56 years as a daytimer in a growing urban market, the station received a small night time authorization and commenced using it in June, 2000.; The longtime owners of the station, WMGY, Inc., sold the station to Terry L. Barber in March of 2015. Barber, who has a small stake in Bluewater Broadcasting, added translator W243CS a few weeks after the purchase was announced. During the great AM Revitalization Plan of 2016, Barber acquired another translator, which moved in from Grenada, Mississippi. It will replace the one on 96.5, which has been changed to be fed from WMRK-FM's HD-3 feed. That new translator signed on in mid-August 2016 on 99.3 MHz with 115 watts. In July 2019, the station received a construction permit to boost power to 250 watts, and a license to cover for that was filed that same month.

In the summer of 2020, the station moved to an online-only presence with programming from Singing News Radio, while WMGY and its translator began relaying "Praise 96.5" via WMRK-HD3. The contract with Alexander Broadcasting to rebroadcast the station on an FM translator was set to expire at the end of August.

The online-only gospel format became locally-produced as "Glory Bound Radio" in early 2021, although it was eliminated in the spring of that same year.