Technical Profile: WPMO

AM Technical Profile: WPMO

Frequency:: 1580
Format:: Talk, Sports
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] [street view - studio] Approximately 1/2 mile north on Telephone Road (MS-613) from US 90, to the west, just past Criswell Avenue.
Power (ERP):: Day: 1.5 kW; Night: 115 watts
Antenna:: Nondirectional
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files

[FCC]
[FCCdata.org]
[FCCInfo]; [Radio-Locator]

[Facebook]; [Wikipedia]; Owned by Tri City Radio, LLC
History:: A construction permit for a new station licensed to Pascagoula, Mississippi was first issued in November 1946 to Crest Broadcasting Company, Incorporated, for a 250 watt daytime-only station on 800 kHz. Before going on the air, the permit was amended to use 1120 kHz in August 1947, then finally to 1580 kHz in July 1948. The station apparently struggled to get built-out, filing several ongoing requests to delay the permit; they finally filed a license to cover in September 1951. From the beginning, the station transmitted from its current location. The original transmitter was a Western Electric 451 A-1, and the original call sign was WPMP (Pascagoula-Moss Point). The studios were located in front of the transmitter site on what was then US-90 (now 5115 Telephone Road, or MS-613). The format was locally-oriented towards Jackson County, playing Country music at times, and at others Easy Listening. The station filed a request to change to 1540 kHz with a boost to 1 kW, but it was denied by the FCC. At the start of 1956, they were granted a boost to 1 kW, and a license to cover for that change was filed in August of that same year.

The station first attempted to get nighttime service in 1962 when they put in a filing for 1 kW days, non directional and with a 4 or 5 tower directional array for nighttime service, but it was denied by the FCC for unspecified reasons. In 1964, the station spawned an FM companion station, WPMP-FM, on 99.1 MHz.

In May of 1976 the station applied again for more power, this time for 5 kW days with a directional system day and nighttime power of 115 watts. It was granted by the FCC in April 1978. A license to cover for that change was filed in April 1979.

The stations were acquired by Southern Star Broadcasting in 1985. In April 1986 the call sign of both the AM and FM changed to WPMO; later that year the FM would get a big boost in coverage when it moved to a taller tower, with 100 kW. Around that time it appears the FM moved to separate programming with Beautiful Music while the AM flipped to a Black-oriented format. It didn't last, however, as by the end of the decade the station was back to doing Country music. In 1988, the FM became WKNN; this station would also adopt the WKNN call letters, but not until January 1989.

This station would be acquired by the Barkley Evangelistic Association (Kevin Grady) in January 1991; they would quickly flip the format to Religious programming, changing the call letters to WZZJ in March 1991. The station would be acquired by Judah Broadcasting in 1994, with Kevin Grady still as president. By now the Broadcasting Yearbook listed the format as Christian Contemporary.

In March 2005, the station was sold to Flagship Radio Group for $51,390. They changed the call sign back to WPMP in June 2005 and flipped the format to News/Talk, with two shows from the statewide Supertalk Mississippi network added to the lineup. The rest was from the USA Radio Network, who employed the station's owner during this era.

In February 2011 the station was sold to JDL Corporation for $140,000. JDL also owned WVGG and WRBE in Lucedale. They changed the call sign back to WPMO in April 2011, and were noted to be simulcasting daytime only WVGG in Lucedale around this time. In the summer of 2011, the station temporarily picked up some weekend Yahoo! Sports Network programming on a trial basis, but the station remained listed as an affiliate for years afterwards on the Yahoo! Sports website. Tri-City Radio acquired the station in the summer of 2013 for $259,000.

While JDL continued to own WRBE And WVGG in Lucedale, there's a 12 year LMA deal with Tri-City Radio for WVGG; together, the two AMs were marketed as "TalkRadio 1580 & 1440". In 2014, Tri-City Radio acquired WDXZ in Robertsdale and began simulcasting the news-talk on that station as well for a short time before flipping the stations to Sports Talk as "The Game", along with yet another AM in the Fort Walton Beach market. It was reported in January 2016 that WVGG in Lucedale was no longer part of the simulcast group.

In late May 2016, Tri-City Radio acquired translator W279CG in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, with the intention of filing a 250-mile move to pair it with this station. The plan was to re-license it to Pascagoula as W245CR on 96.9 MHz, with 250 watts from the shorter of the two WPMO radio towers, but the FCC appears to have dismissed the license to cover for the move in May 2017. No reason was specified but it was almost certainly due to the fact that there was already a full power station nearby on 96.7 MHz and the rules don't allow for a translator just one channel away.

The station was reported off the air in November 2021.

In March 2023, the station was granted a permit to lower power to 1.5 kW daytime, while increasing nighttime power to 115 watts. The station will drop its directional antenna system and presumably take down one of the two existing towers in the process.

A license to cover for the change to 1.5 kW non-directional was filed in mid-March 2026.