Branding 94.9 HOM | Frequency 94.9 MHz | |
City Mount Washington, New Hampshire Broadcast area Portland, Maine/Northern New England/Estrie, Canada Slogan The Best Variety of the 80s, 90s and Today First air date July 9, 1958 (as WMTW-FM) | ||
WHOM (94.9 FM, "94.9 WHOM") is an American radio station which airs an adult contemporary radio format. WHOM is owned by Townsquare Media and transmits from atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire, which is its community of license. Mount Washington is the tallest peak in the Northeast. WHOM's signal can be heard in five states and part of Canada (New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York and Quebec). While the station can be heard all over Northern New England, WHOM broadcasts from and considers itself part of the Portland, Maine radio market. WHOM had for a long time claimed on its website and on the air that it has the largest coverage area of any FM station in the USA. The station also streams its programming over the internet from its official web page.
Contents
- Experimental Years
- Easy Listening WMTW FM
- Soft and Easy Favorites WHOM
- Sale to Townsquare Media
- References
WHOM promotes its programming as "safe for the whole family." In addition to local DJs, the station also airs the syndicated John Tesh radio show. From late November to December 25th, WHOM switches to an all-Christmas music format.
Experimental Years
WHOM traces its history to the 1930s as 500-watt weather station W1XOY, sending temperature and climate readings from atop Mount Washington to meteorologists in Boston. As an experimental FM station for the general public, the weather station became W1XER and later W39B, linked to two other experimental FM stations, one in the Boston area and one near Hartford, Connecticut, together known as "The Yankee Network." But by the mid-1940s, World War II hurt the effort to demonstrate FM radio to the public. While the Yankee Network continued on AM radio, the FM outlets, including the one on Mount Washington, were shut down.
Easy Listening WMTW-FM
The station that is today WHOM signed on the air July 9, 1958, as WMTW-FM. Along with Channel 8 WMTW-TV, which had signed on in 1954, WMTW-FM was owned by Mount Washington Television, an ownership group that included former Maine governor Horace Hildreth. The WMTW stations were sold to Jack Paar of Tonight Show fame in 1963. For most of its early years, WMTW-FM broadcast instrumental beautiful music. Jack Paar, in turn, sold WMTW-FM-TV to Mid New York Broadcasting in 1967.
In 1971, WMTW-FM was sold to Alpine Broadcasting with Mid New York retaining WMTW-TV. As a result the radio station changed its call letters first to WWMT, then to WMTQ in 1973, and then finally to the current WHOM in 1976. That call sign previously was used by New York City radio stations 1480 AM (now WZRC) and 92.3 FM (now WBMP). The station offered an easy listening format consisting of instrumental versions of pop songs from artists like Henry Mancini, Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Chet Atkins, and Herb Alpert, as well as several soft vocals per hour like The Carpenters, Dionne Warwick, Johnny Mathis, and Perry Como. This format continued through the 1980s.
Soft and Easy Favorites WHOM
In January 1990, WHOM abruptly dropped the easy listening music for a soft adult contemporary format, dubbed "soft and easy favorites" by the station. It continued to market itself as an easy listening station and retained its air staff. In the mid 1990s, the station began adding softer songs by contemporary hit artists and began playing current product. By 2000, WHOM was more of a mainstream adult contemporary station.
The station was sold to Fuller-Jeffrey Broadcasting by Barnstable Broadcasting in 1996. Fuller-Jeffrey then sold most of its stations, including WHOM, to Citadel Broadcasting in 1999. Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.
Sale to Townsquare Media
On August 30, 2013, a deal was announced in which Townsquare Media would acquire 53 Cumulus stations, including WHOM, for $238 million. The deal was part of Cumulus' acquisition of Dial Global; Townsquare and Dial Global are both controlled by Oaktree Capital Management. The sale to Townsquare was completed on November 14, 2013.