KWAM

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KWAM
CityMemphis, Tennessee
Broadcast areaMemphis metropolitan area
Frequency990 kHz
BrandingThe Mighty 990
Programming
FormatTalk
Ownership
OwnerTodd Starnes
(Starnes Media Group, LLC)
History
First air date
February 9, 1947 (1947-02-09)
Former call signs
KWEM (1947–1959)
Call sign meaning
Rhymes with "wham"[1]
Technical information
Facility ID35873
ClassB
Power10,000 watts day
450 watts night
Transmitter coordinates
35°8′4.00″N 90°5′38.00″W / 35.1344444°N 90.0938889°W / 35.1344444; -90.0938889Coordinates: 35°8′4.00″N 90°5′38.00″W / 35.1344444°N 90.0938889°W / 35.1344444; -90.0938889
Translator(s)107.9 W300DE (Memphis)
Links
WebcastListen live
Websitewww.mighty990.com

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, LLC.[2][3] The studios and offices are on Murray Road in Memphis. The transmitter is located off Bridgeport Road in Marion, Arkansas.[4]

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.[5]

KWAM was founded in 1947 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 late 1940s and 1950s.

Programming[]

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 & Sherrie, The Catholic Cafe, Talk Money, 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[]

The owners of Little Rock-area radio station sought to build a statewide network of stations to carry Arkansas Razorbacks football, and they felt that the Memphis area would provide important coverage and exposure for the football program.[6] On May 24, 1946, the West Memphis Broadcasting Company obtained a construction permit to build a new daytime-only station on 990 kHz in West Memphis, Arkansas.[7] After delays, KWEM (990 AM) began operating on February 9, 1947, utilizing studios in the Merchants and Planters Bank Building.[8][9]: 317  The official opening was two weeks later on February 23.[10]

West Memphis was described as the "Las Vegas of the South" in this era, and its programming drew from musicians playing in clubs.[6] Howlin' Wolf had a show on the station from 1949 to 1952, and Sam Phillips heard him and signed him to a contract with Sun Records;[11] his program aired after music by rockabilly guitarist Paul Burlison;[12] B.B. King was first heard over the station, getting his break on a show helmed by Sonny Boy Williamson II;[13] Stax Records founder Jim Stewart started at KWEM, as did James Cotton and Hubert Sumlin;[14] Johnny Cash's first radio broadcast was on KWEM in 1953.[6][15] The station allowed aspiring performers to pay for 15-minute blocks of air time.[16] Elvis Presley made his first radio appearance on KWEM in 1953, which did not go well because he lacked a band and moved around too much;[11] George Klein worked there as a DJ after its move to Memphis;[17] so did Eddie Bond.[18]

KWEM was purchased by Dee Rivers in 1951.[19] In March 1952, Rivers applied to have the station moved across the Mississippi River to Memphis, Tennessee, which was approved in January 1954; the transmitter site remained in Arkansas.[7] 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.[20] It continued to be an influential hotbed of talent; the transmitter remained on the Arkansas side of the river.[7] This lasted through the end of the decade, when KWEM became KWAM.[7]

On March 31, 1959, Rivers changed the call letters to KWAM[7] as part of a presentation overhaul that did little to change the station's format;[1] the next year, it stopped playing live music.[16] In 1963, 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.[7] The transmitter, however, failed and was destroyed in a fire the next year; competitor WLOK loaned equipment to help KWAM return to the air.[21]

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 serves as a tribute to the KWEM of the late 1940s and 1950s and began broadcasting on FM in 2015 (an earlier version had been established in 2009). The project was led by Dale Franklin, who died in 2017.[22]

Gospel and religion[]

In 1968,[23] 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.[24] In 1981, Dee Rivers Stations acquired FM station 101.1 KLYX, which was renamed KWAM-FM. At first, it also aired a gospel and religious format like its AM counterpart; in 1983, the call letters were changed to KRNB, with the station switching to a rhythmic contemporary and disco format, while 990 KWAM continued its gospel sound.[25]

In 1986, KWAM got nighttime authorization. It was allowed to stay on the air after sunset, but at 450 watts.[26]

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.[27]

Clear Channel sold KWAM to Concord Media for $1 million in 2000.[28] 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, LLC, 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.[29] Upon the close of the purchase on March 31, 2020, Starnes Media Group changed the station's branding to reflect the history of the station, renaming it "The Mighty 990."

References[]

  1. ^ a b Mitchell, Henry (March 31, 1959). "That 'New Sound' Is Wham, But Country Tunes Remain". The Commercial Appeal. p. 22.
  2. ^ "KWAM Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  3. ^ "KWAM Station Information Profile". Arbitron.
  4. ^ Radio-Locator.com/KWAM
  5. ^ Radio-Locator.com/W300DE
  6. ^ a b c Nelson, Rex (April 10, 2013). "Resurrecting a radio legend". Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d e f FCC History Cards for KWAM
  8. ^ "New Station Gathers Audience From Afar: West Memphis KWEM Reported Clear 175 Miles Away". The Commercial Appeal. February 11, 1947. p. 11.
  9. ^ Poindexter, Ray (1974). Arkansas Airwaves (PDF). Retrieved August 10, 2021 – via World Radio History.
  10. ^ "Kay Arrives Today!". The Commercial Appeal. February 23, 1947. p. 4.
  11. ^ a b Randall, Mark (June 5, 2014). "KWEM 'flips the switch' at Mid-South Community College". The Evening Times.
  12. ^ Boehm, Mike (September 19, 1986). "Sun's sons: Rockabilly pioneers". Providence Journal.
  13. ^ Shuster, Fred (October 23, 1991). "Blues king had pauper start". Daily News of Los Angeles. p. L8.
  14. ^ Ellis, Bill (April 29, 2005). "Wolf's guitar man keeps his bite". The Commercial Appeal.
  15. ^ McCracken, Mitch (July 13, 2010). "Back on the Air: Historic KWEM returns to airwaves". Memphis Daily News. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  16. ^ a b Boudreau, Eleanor (May 13, 2013). "You'll Be Mine: Bringing Musical Tourism To West Memphis". WKNO. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  17. ^ "Platter Spinner Patter" (PDF). Cash Box. February 12, 1955. p. 11. Retrieved August 30, 2021 – via World Radio History.
  18. ^ "Country Round Up" (PDF). Cash Box. August 17, 1957. p. 43. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  19. ^ "FCC Actions" (PDF). Broadcasting. December 3, 1951. p. 98. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
  20. ^ "KWEM Turns In TV CP, Unable To Get Site" (PDF). Broadcasting. August 10, 1953. p. 11. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
  21. ^ "Friends". The Nashville Tennessean. Associated Press. April 8, 1964. p. 4.
  22. ^ Randall, Mark (November 21, 2017). "Dale Franklin, KWEM radio revivalist, passes away". The Evening Times. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
  23. ^ Walter, Tom (March 17, 1991). "Churchgoers put Memphis in lead in Black gospel radio". The Commercial Appeal. p. G2.
  24. ^ "D. D. Is Disc Jockey". Spokane Daily Chronicle. United Press. p. 6. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
  25. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1984 page B-239
  26. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1990 page B-289
  27. ^ Campbell, Laurel (May 10, 1996). "Clear Channel agrees to buy Radio Equity". The Commercial Appeal. p. B5.
  28. ^ Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2005 page D-480
  29. ^ "Former Fox News Radio Host Todd Starnes Purchases Memphis AM.- Inside Radio". insideradio.com. 9 January 2020.

External links[]


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