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WGMP (1170 AM broadcasting, 104.9 The Gump) is an alternative rock formatted radio station that serves the Montgomery Metropolitan Area, in Alabama, United States, also broadcasting via a broadcast translator on the FM band at 104.9 MHz.
The station's "104.9 The Gump" branding features the frequency of its broadcast translator, W285AJ, rather than its licensed AM frequency. The station is locally owned and operated by Bluewater Broadcasting Company, LLC. The station's studios are located on Wall St. in Midtown Montgomery. The transmitter for WGMP is north of the city, while the translator's transmitter is in midtown near Greenwood Cemetery.
WGMP participates in Montgomery rating survey by Arbitron (Market #150) and is monitored by Mediabase.
Covington died in 1949, and his family kept the station until selling it to Gay-Bell Corporation in 1964, earning a substantial return on their investment of 25 years earlier. The station changed its call letters to WACV in November 1984, after Gay-Bell sold it. As WACV, it adopted a talk radio format.
In March 2004, Montgomery Broadcast Properties Ltd. (Allan Stroh, CEO) reached an agreement to sell this station to Bluewater Broadcasting LLC. The sale was part of a four-station deal valued at a reported $15.3 million. The deal was approved by the FCC on April 21, 2004, and the transaction was completed on June 21, 2004. At the time of the sale, WACV was broadcasting a news/talk format.
In late March 2009, WACV began simulcasting on WJAM-FM as "News Talk 107.9 FM". On Thursday, April 2, 2009, the FM station changed its calls to WMRK-FM, and WACV became known as "News Talk 107.9, WMRK-FM". The original lineup included news from Bob Jackson, with updates from WAKA. Locally originated programs, such as "Viewpoint", continued on "News Talk 107.9" with Dan Morris and Mark Montiel, and Greg Budell continued "Happy Hour". Nationally syndicated talk programming features Laura Ingraham, Glenn Beck, Rusty Humphries, Jerry Doyle, Roy Masters, and Neal Boortz.
In November 2009, the news/talk programming was re-branded and moved to WMRK-FM as part as of a local marketing agreement with Alexander Communications. WACV changed formats to oldies music and branded itself as "Good Time Oldies WACV". This format was short-lived and on July 30, 2010, WACV changed its format again to alternative rock and re-branded itself as "104.9 The Gump".
On August 13, 2012, the station changed its call sign to WGMP.
This station was reported to be off the air in April 2017; it has been running on a special temporary authority antenna since December 2016 due to lightning damage to their daytime transmitter. As such, if they are on the air at all, they are only operating at 4 watts. On April 12, 2017, the station was granted a Federal Communications Commission construction permit to simplify their transmitter setup significantly, decreasing from 10 kW to 850 watts daytime and from a directional antenna to a non-directional antenna. Nighttime power will increase from 4 watts to 7 watts. Alabama Broadcast Media Page - Updates 20 April 2017 Construction Permit - Federal Communications Commission
There are no disc jockeys, but rather, non-stop music with limited breaks for commercials and station identifications.
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